Keothavong defeats Groth in Linz

Anne Keothavong hasn't had an easy time of it lately, and her lagging confidence must surely have gotten a boost when she defeated Jarmila Groth today in Linz. Keothavong advanced to the 2nd round with a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6 victory.

Also winning were 8th seed Klara Zakopalova, who defeated Elena Vesnina 7-5, 7-5, and 6th seed Andrea Petkovic, who defeated Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-4.

In doubles, 3rd seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci defeated Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko 6-3, 6-1.

In Osaka, Coco Vandeweghe upset 5th seed Alla Kudryavtseva 6-1, 6-2.

Miscellany

Svetlana Kuznetsova is recovering from illness and will be out for the remainder of the season.

Jill Craybas defeated Jelena Dokic 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the $100k ITF tournament in Tokyo. Dokic, who double-faulted 13 times, was the second seed.

The tour site continues its history of the original nine activists and organizers with a feature on Judy Dalton.

Three men have been arrested for hurling a barrage of racial insults at Anne Keothavong outside a hotel in Barnstaple, England. The men were also charged with a shoplifting offense.

The Australian Open is increasing its prize money.

Heather Watson won her first round at the Commonwealth Games. She defeated Tara Lambert 6-0, 6-0. Watson is seeded 5th at the Games.

Miscellany

Mary Joe Fernandez has signed a contract with the USTA that will extend her role as captain of the USA Fed Cup team for two more years.

It isn't your imagination that players ignore the 20-second service rule.

Caroline Wozniacki hit with Novak Djokovic today.

"I'm not the player I was two years ago," Anne Keothavong recently told the BBC. Keothavong says that various injuries have kept her from being as fit as she should be. "Who knows what's going to happen?" she said. "I'm going to need time to reassess and decide what I want to do."

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova will enter the top 20 next week.

Birthday girl!

Miscellany

Anna Chakvetadze's Tennis Channel "Bag Check" is hilarious.

I especially like Jelena Jankovic's Wimbledon dress.

Queen Elizabeth II visited Wimbledon today and chatted with Anne Keothavong about her injuries.

This blog is about women's tennis, but I don't think anyone will object if I step outside that realm for a moment and express total awe over what John Isner and Nicolas Mahut have given us at this Wimbledon. Congratulations to John! (And maybe some day, U.S. and British commentators and announcers will really "respect" Nicolas and stop mangling his name.)

You can learn a little about Alison Riske here. She decided against attending Vanderbilt University (and playing for its tennis team) two weeks before classes began.

Check out the second from the top link. (But with Tatiana Golovin not there, does anyone really care?)

Miscellany

Sania Mirza says she will retire in two years so that she can concentrate on family life. Stay tuned because--you know--it's Sania Mirza.

Anne Keothavong has had to give up rock climbing and bouldering because of her knee injuries.

I became so involved in blogging about the French Open that I didn't get around to blogging about the University of Southern California's Center for Feminist Research report on media coverage of women's sports. The news is even worse than it was five years ago, except that there has been a decline in blatantly sexist remarks made by the sports media. The study also confrims somthing we already knew--that women athletes tend to get decent coverage when something "controversial" occurs in an athletic event (the controversial behavior or action, of course, is often something that would get no attention at all if men did it).

As of this week, Francesca Schiavone, the 2010 French Open champion, is ranked number 6 in the world. This is the highest ranking ever achieved by an Italian woman. Flavia Pennetta, the first Italian woman to ever rank in the top 10, has returned to that list, with a current ranking of 10. There is now only one Russian, Elena Dementieva, in the top 10.

Elena Baltacha is blogging from Birmingham.

Peng Shuai withdrew from the French Open because of illness; she has now withdrawn from Wimbledon.

Miscellany

Christina McHale has withdrawn from French Open junior competition, but may play in the U.S. Open junior tournament. McHale, who has a wild card into the main draw at Roland Garros, has not yet given up her amateur status.

You can see and hear the Women's Tennis Blog interview with Chris Evert here.

The Queen (not Evert--the other queen) will attend Wimbledon on June 23, for the first time in 33 years.

The last time an unseeded woman won the French Open was 1933.

Heather Watson turned 18 yesterday.

Here is Anne Keothavong's new Wilson Apparel photo.

Miscellany

Laura Robson and Jamie Murray have asked for a wild card into the Wimbledon mixed doubles competition.

Ai Sugiyama will represent the sport of tennis as an Athlete Role Model at the inaugural Youth Olympic Games, which will be held in Singapore in August.

Li Na will donate her Madrid prize money to the China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation. The organization is helping earthquake victims in Yushu.

Anne Keothavong has been moved to the main draw of the French Open.

Since today is Mother's Day in the U.S., Women Who Serve gives you an update on Tzipi Obziler, who was repeatedly left off of the list of mothers on the tour until the day she retired. I suppose the tour authorities (who still don't list Obziler's motherhood in her official tour bio) and the media thought they couldn't sidestep the "issue" anymore. Obziler is now a council member in the municipality of her home city, Givatayim, in Israel.

Miscellany

Dinara Safina says that she has no back pain when she plays, but in her conditioning regimen, she is no longer permitted to do anything that puts pressure on her spine.

Venus and Serena were referenced in last night's episode of Brothers & Sisters, which included a lot of tennis. Go Kevrah!

Rome matches are being streamed all this week on both Tennis TV.

Sania Mirza is hitting again and reports that she has no wrist pain.

Anne Keothavong says that she and Rome doubles partner Andrea Petkovic kept themselves amused during the rain delays yesterday by doing impersonations. Unfortunately, she doesn't say whom they were impersonating.

Victoria Azarenka has redesignd her website.

Miscellany

Justine Henin has entered the rankings as number 33 in the world.

Kim Clijsters is the newest brand ambassador for the Citizen Signature timepiece collection.

Anne Keothavong is at the Evert Academy for her pre-Miami training.
 
James Martin says it's time for Caroline Wozniacki to make some changes. (He doesn't cite any WTA examples of players who changed their games, but Chris Evert certainly comes to mind; she didn't so much change it as add to it.)

On the other hand, James LaRosa suggests we stop calling clever, conservative players "pushers."

Sharapova to play Arvidsson in Memphis final

There were seventeen breaks of serve in the Memphis semifinal played by qualifier Sofia Arvidsson and Anne Keothavong, and after almost two hours and twenty minutes, Arvidsson won the right to go to the final. She defeated Keothavong 6-4, 4-6, 6-4. Arvidsson's opponent will be top seed Maria Sharapova, who defeated 5th seed Petra Kvitova 6-4, 6-3 (there were eight breaks of serve in that one).

Miscellany

What is going on with the online scoreboards? They get stuck constantly, and re-loading them does not help, unless you wait a long time.

Anne Keothavong, who just recently returned to the tour, made a good start in Memphis today by upsetting 6th seed Kristina Barrois.

Serena Williams has been nominated for the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year award, and Kim Clijsters has been nominated for the Laureus World Comeback of the Year award.

"It hurts when I stretch out for a forehand. It hurts when I try to hit a hard backhand crosscourt," Sania Mirza says about her wrist. Mirza had wrist surgery in 2008, but continues to have problems.

Cara Black says she is feeling much better and will be participating in doubles in Dubai.

Australian Open miscellany

Defending champion Serena Williams has never lost in the first round of a major. She won her 41st major tournament first round today.

Barbora Zahlavova Strycova and Regina Kulikova have broken an Australian Open record. Their first round match lasted 4 hours and 18 minutes, making it the longest women's match in tournament history. It should be noted, however, that the match was played in pieces because of rain delays.

I think JJ's Australian Open dress is fabulous.

The threat to move the Australian Open out of Melbourne is gone. Tournament officials have signed a $363 million contract to re-develop the tournament complex. The contract guarantees that the tournament will stay in Melbourne at least until 2036.

Anne Keothavong, who has to sit this Australian Open out, picks Serena Williams to win, and her second pick is Kim Clijsters.

Miscellany

Zheng Jie has parted ways with the China Tennis Association. Like countrywomen Li Na, Peng Shuai and Yan Zi, Zheng will manager her own career.

Oracle is considering buying both the BNP Paribas Open and the Indian Wells complex in which it is played.

Dubai, facing debts, may have to scale back its commitment to major sports events.

Anne Keothavong, determined to save her countrywomen from showing up in the usual Euro-trash attire, is working with Paul Costelloe to design Great Britain's Fed Cup off-court outfits for 2010. (Thanks to On the Baseline for this story.)

Justine Henin has been given a wild card to the Medibank International Sydney in January.

Miscellany

The new Tampax ad featuring Serena Williams is one of the worst commercials I have ever seen. "Mother Nature" is a kind of 1960s club lady, and the entire thing is inane. Serena is actually kind of funny, but, really--what were they thinking?

IMG has signed Li Na as a client.

For those who enjoy irony: The latest issue of Tennis--which is devoted to issues involving older readers and tennis players--manages to insult older citizens by referring to an older chair umpire as "senile." Having already insulted women and the LGBT community, the magazine's slur toward people over 50 comes as no surprise, and I suppose the editors' lack of insight isn't exactly shocking, either.

Melanie Oudin and John Isner will represent the USA in the 2010 Hopman Cup competition.

For the first time in 18 years, there are three British women in the world's top 100--Anne Keothavong, Elena Baltacha and Katie O'Brien.

Tom Perrotta says Kim Clijsters may dominate Justine Henin next season. Steve Flink says Henin will dominate Clijsters, but that Clijsters will make it harder for her to do so.

Keothavong out for the rest of the season

When it comes to Anne Keothavong's knee, our worst fears turned out to be true. Keothavong reports that she has both a torn anterior cruciate ligament and a torn meniscus. She is out for the rest of the 2009 season.

This is not the first time Keothavong has had a serious knee injury. Poor Anne...

More injuries

Svetlana Kuznetsova has withdrawn from the LA Women's Tennis Championships in Los Angeles next week because of a foot injury. Kuznetsova did not play in Los Angeles last year, either.

And Anne Keothavong hurt her knee after she ran into a fence while playing doubles in Stanford. She was quite a bit of pain after then incident and is getting a scan done; it is possible that the injury is serious.

Miscellany

Serena Williams' memoir, On the Line, is due to be released once the U.S. Open begins.

Anne Keothavong says she does not wish to train at the National Tennis Centre and that she does not wish to wear the LTA's AEGON sponsor's patch. She is in conflict with the LTA over her desire for her father to help coach her.

A thigh injury is keeping Dominika Cibulkova out of the Palermo tournament.

For those who live in the U.S.: Every Monday night from today on, Tennis Channel will show a classic U.S. Open match in the evening. Times vary, so check the schedule. On July 20, the 1995 Seles-Graf match will be shown. On August 3, it's the 1991 Navratilova-Seles match, and on August 17, the 1979 Austin-Evert match will be featured.

The New York Buzz, the WTT Albany team, consists only of players who are 18 and younger. Both Sloane Stephens and Lauren Embree play for the Buzz.

Wozniacki runs over Keothavong

Anne Keothavong won one game in her quarterfinal match against top seed Caroline Wozniacki in Memphis today. The victory sets up a final between Wozniacki and 2nd seed Victoria Azarenka, who defeated Sabine Lisicki, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6. Azarenka and Wozniacki are doubles partners in Memphis. They have made it through to the semifinals, but have not yet played their semifinal match.

Meanwhile, the unseeded team of Yuliana Fedak and Michaella Krajicek have knocked out the top-seeded team of Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva and have reached the final.

Semifinals set in Memphis

Sabine Lisicki upset Lucie Safarova in Memphis today, and a slight upset was performed by Anne Keothavong, who defeated Marina Erakovic. The top two seeds--Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka--defeated Michaella Krajicek and Pauline Parmentier, respectively. Wozniacki and Keothavong will meet in the semifinals, as will Lisicki and Azarenka.

Great Britain finally loses, but Keothavong's score is still impressive

Great Britain has been rolling along nicely in the Fed Cup Europe/Africa Group. The British team defeated Luxembourg 3-0, The Netherlands 3-0, and Hungary, also 3-0.

Poland was too much for the British team, however, beating them 2-1. Notable, however, is the score of the match between Agnieszka Radwanska and Anne Keothavong: Radwanska defeated Keothavong 7-6, 7-6. In earlier rounds, Keothavong had wins over Arantxa Rus and Agnes Szavay.