Sweeping the court

Elena Baltacha's funeral was held on Monday. The event was a private ceremony at St. John's Church in Ipswich.

In an announcement yesterday that was no surprise, Victoria Azarenka withdrew from the French Open because of her left foot injury. The world number 5 has not played since round of of Indian Wells, where she lost to Lauren Davis.

In another announcement that was no surprise (well, I hope it wasn't), Rory McIlroy announced that his engagement to Caroline Wozniacki is off. You'll recall this is the man who was very publicly praising the support of his long-time girlfriend Molly Sweeney while he was starting a relationship with Wozniacki. McIlroy had "proposed to" (I still don't get the woman sitting around waiting to be asked by a man to marry her "tradition") the former world number 1 by giving her a huge diamond ring. There was a great deal of public carrying on. McIlroy says he is not ready for marriage.

The UCLA women's team won the NCAA title yesterday by beating North Carolina.

John Inverdale now says he made a horrible sexist remark about Marion Bartoli because he had hay fever. Of course--why didn't I think of that? I have hay fever right now, so watch out.

The three top seeds in Strasbourg have gone out in the first round. Julia Goerges defeated top seed Sloane Stephens in straight sets; Camila Giorgi upset second seed Alize Cornet, and Zarina Diyas upset 3rd seed Kirsten Flipkens.