Passing shots

The WTA site has a feature story on Patty Schnyder's emotional farewell in Charleston.

Francesca Schiavone has withdrawn from Stuttgart because of exhaustion. Yanina Wickmayer has also withdrawn, in order to give her knee some rest.

"I’m a younger player with not as much experience and I played some stupid things," Bojana Jovanovski said of her Fed Cup loss to Dominika Cibulkova.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands reports that competitive shooting is her latest interest.

You know about her skills with a soccer ball, but here, you can learn even more about Sara Errani.

3rd time a charm for Radwanska

For three consecutive tournaments, Urszula Radwanska and Bojana Jovanovski have faced each other. Jovanovski won the first two, but today in Indian Wells, Radwanska was the winner. It wasn't easy, though. She served for the match twice, then Jovanovski served for, and finally--after almost two hours and 50 minutes--Radwanska won 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6).

Wild cards Sloane Stephens and Christina McHale won their first round matches, as did qualifiers Laura Pous-Tio, Zhang Shuai and Lucie Hradecka. Elena Baltacha saved four match points and beat Roberta Vinci, and 4th seeds Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova defeated the wild card team of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva.

Yesterday, wild cards Sania Mirza and Coco Vandeweghe won their matches, and qualifiers Alize Cornet and Monica Niculescu also won (Mirza won by retirement). Both Melanie Oudin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands advanced to the second round, as did the wild card team of Jelena Jankovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Jankovic beaten in straight sets

The way that seeds are dropping at the Australian Open, one wouldn't be surprised to find a garden blooming--perhaps a garden featuring Golden Flowers. In the 2nd round, the Peng Shuai pulled off the biggest upset yet: She defeated 7th seed Jelena Jankovic 7-6, 6-3. Jankovic was up 5-2 in the first set, and served for the set at 5-4. Formerly the picture of consistency, she looked sluggish and off-rhythm throughout most of the match. Peng not only played well, but remained steady, and readily took advantage of Jankovic's lack of strategy. I'm a bit tired of asking "What has happened to JJ?" so I'll skip that question for now.

18th seed Maria Kirilenko fell in straight sets to Iveta Benesova, who had one of her brilliant streaks. Why can't Benesova do this in singles matches more often? She served (and she does have a really good serve) at 78 and 53%, and hit 24 winners. Her forehand was more than Kirilenko could handle. Benesova defeated Kirilenko 6-3, 6-1.

The increasingly dangerous Simona Halep took out 24th seed Alisa Kleybanova 6-4, 7-6. Kleybanova hit a lot more winners than Halep, but she also made 46 unforced errors. Halep put on quite a show, running down balls and hitting with confidence and precision.

Alize Cornet upset 26th seed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, a player who has an unusually good serve--except when she doesn't. Martinez Sanchez sometimes just loses the feel of her serve and goes for too much; in the 2nd round, she double-faulted eight times and lost the point on most of her second serves. She did lead 5-3 in the first, but was broken when she served for the set. Still, she had several opportunities to get the set back, but she wasn't up to the task. Cornet then ran away with the second set, and defeated the 26th seed 7-6, 6-1.

3rd seed Kim Clijsters, 5th seed Sam Stosur, 10th seed Shahar Peer, 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska, and 16th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova all advanced in straight sets, as did 13th seed Nadia Petrova and 22nd seed Flavia Pennetta. Brisbane champion and 25th seed Petra Kivitova quietly moved into the third round with a straight-sets defeat of Anna Chakvetadze.

2nd seed Vera Zvonareva had to really work for her 2nd round victory. Bojana Jovanovski, the young Serbian player whose down-the-line shots on both sides are already her signature, dictated play against Zvonareva, and took the first set 6-2. Zvonareva, whose movement and speed were on lengthy display, remained patient, and forced Jovanovski to hit more balls than she might have wanted to. Jovanovski is a superb hitter, but she doesn't do much of anything else, so the unforced errors eventually came, and then more of them came. One hopes that the just-turned-19 Jovanovski will learn some variety and give herself some breathing room because she is one fine hitter. The experienced 2nd seed defeated her 2-6, 6-3, 6-1, and they were both fun to watch.

Veterans--2, Upstarts--0

The Sydney semifinals were interesting to watch because they featured two talented veterans--one often hampered by nerves, the other finding success in her "second" career--who faced two younger talents. Li Na had to contend with a young talent in 19-year-old Bojana Jovanovski, who is an impressive hitter with a weak serve. There were some memorable rallies, Jovanovski had a couple of chances to take the first set, and Li did have moments when she seemed to doubt herself--but she prevailed 7-6, 6-3. The Chinese star with the great forehand has not had much luck with big semifinal contests in the past, so a ticket to the Sydney final is a breakthrough for her. It was Jovanovski who was beset by nerves, and also defeated by experience.

The other semifinal was so irresistable, I stayed up way too late to watch it. Alisa Kleybanova--with an aching back, blisters on her feet, and sweat dripping off of her cap in abundance--looked as though she couldn't go on, but Kleybanova has reserves of energy that can keep her on the court for hours. She and Kim Clijsters broke each other over and over, and the Russian--when she looked to be in the most trouble--repeatedly brought out serves that flustered her opponent. She won the first set, Clijsters won the second, and a commentator predicted the third would conclude in a tiebreak. It did, and Clijsters ran away with it, 7-1. The whole thing lasted over two hours and 38 minutes, and between them, Clijsters and Kleybanova hit 83 winners.

Kleybanova lunged for near-impossible winners, while Clijsters hit repeated precision angled forehand winners. It wasn't the Belgian's best performance, but it was a good one, nevertheless. All in all, the match's entertainment value was high.

Clijsters is 4-1 against Li. They played in the Sydney semifinals in 2007, and Clisters defeated Li 6-1, 1-6, 7-5.

MIscellany

Francesca Schiavone and Sam Stosur have qualified to play in the WTA Championships in Doha, which means there are only two spots left. Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva, Serena Williams, and Kim Clijsters are already in.

Here's a well-deserved shout-out for Schiavone.

And, in case you  missed it, here is the non-diva, great sportswomen, too-cool photo of the season.

Maria Sharapova is out for the rest of the season.

You can now get to know Bojana Jovanovski.

Venus Williams has a new computer game, and you can win a copy of it.

Jankovic and Radwanska out of Beijing

3rd seed Jelena Jankovic was defeated today in the second round of the China Open by countrywoman Bojana Jovanovski. Jovanovski defeated Jankovic 4-6, 6-2, 6-2.

6th seed Agnieszka Radwanska didn't make it to the second round; she was defeated 5-7, 7-6, 7-5 in the opening round by Angelique Kerber. 11th seed Marion Bartoli also went out in the first round; she was defeated by Ana Ivanovic.

13th seed Nadia Petrova advanced to the third round with a 6-3, 7-5 defeat of Alona Bondarenko.

Jovanovski upsets Rezai in Cincinnati

Bojana Jovanovski, the young Serbian player who got herself noticed during the Fed Cup World Group playoffs, had the biggest win of her career today. In the first round in Cincinnati, Jovanovski defeated 14th seed Aravane Rezai 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. Jovanovski is ranked number 98 in the world.

The other upset today was Ana Ivanovic's 2-6, 7-6, 6-2 defeat of 9th seed Victoria Azarenka. Azarenka won the Stanford title earlier this month. In the next round, Ivanovic will play either Yaroslava Shvedova or Alla Kudryavtseva.

Also defeated were Sabine Lisicki, who is returning from a long injury layoff, and Dominika Cibulkova. Lisicki was defeated by qualifier Monica Niculescu, and Cibulkova lost to Alona Bondarenko.

In first round doubles play, wild cards Carly and Chelsey Gullickson upset 6th seeds Alisa Kleybanova and Ekaterina Makarova 3-6, 6-1, 10-8.