Italians sweep Marbella

Flavia Pennetta won her ninth Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title today in Marbella, defeating Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2, 4-6, 6-3. Pennetta was seeded 2nd at the event.

The team of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci won the doubles championship. The 3rd-seeded Italians defeated Yaroslava Shvedova and Maria Kondratieva 6-4, 6-2.

Pennetta and Suarez Navarro to compete for Marbella championship

1st seed Flavia Pennetta defeated Sara Errani 6-1, 6-1 today in the semifinals in Marbella, and will play 8th seed Carla Suarez Navarro in the final. Suarez Navarro defeated 5th seed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 in the semifinals.

In doubles, top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci will play Maria Kondratieva and Yaroslava Shvedova for the championship.

Suarez Navarro upset by qualifier in Bogota

Kristina Antoniychuk of Ukraine, a qualifier at the Copa BBVA Colsanitas in Bogota, upset 2nd seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-4 today in the first round. She will play Mariana Marino Duque in the second round.

Top seed Gisela Dulko advanced to the second round with a straight sets win over Mathilde Johansson. Dulko was the finalist last year.

Suarez Navarro upset in Bad Gastein

Carla Suarez Navarro, seeded 5th at the Gastain Ladies, was upset in the first round today by Tatjana Malek, who defeated her 2-6, 6-2, 6-4.

Marta Domachowska made another first round exit. She was defeated 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 by Iona Raluca Olaru.

Some worthwhile reads

Thanks to After Atalanta for pointing out this New York Times feature on Carla Suarez Navarro. (I think what affected me most about it was being reminded that Francesca Schiavone is no longer in the top 40.)

Kamakshi Tandon takes Serena Williams to task for her constant complaining that the tour forces to play in tournaments, even though she is injured.

Todd Spiker previews the French Open.

Dementieva rolls into semifinals

Carla Suarez Navarro is pleasant to watch and has a lovely backhand, but none of her skills was very useful in her Australian Open quarterfinal match against Elena Dementieva, who defeated her 6-2, 6-2. Suarez Navarro had chances--ten break chances, to be exact--but failed to capitalize on any of them. Dementieva had a first serve percentage of 79, but she also double-faulted ten times.

Suarez Navarro and Dementieva move to the quarterfinals

In the round of 16 battle of the Spaniards, Carla Suarez Navarro, the woman who took Venus Williams out of the Australian Open, has prevailed. Suarez Navarro defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-2. Suarez Navarro hit three times as many winners as her countrywoman, and prevailed in four of five break opportunities.

After that match was the fourth round match between Elena Dementieva and Dominika Cibulkova, which Dementieva won, 6-2, 6-2. Cibulkova is always a tough opponent, but Dementieva was absolutely on her game, and managed to do everything a bit better than her opponent. She hit four times as many winners as Cibulkova, and was as savvy at the net as she was at the baseline.

Venus falls in second round of Australian Open

According to many experts, Venus Williams was primed to win her first Australian Open title. She did some serious training for it in the off-season, and she has been playing extremely well. I also considered her a major contender.

But in the second round, Williams faced one of those players who is very, very talented, but also very streaky. On a good day, Carla Suarez Navarro can do just about anything, and yesterday, she had a good day, coming back from 1-4 in the third set, and saving a match point. She defeated Williams 2-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Venus's sister had her work cut out for her, too, playing a determined and aggressive Gisela Dulko, and dealing with a hurt ankle. She got through, thanks to Dulko's nerves and her own champion's attitude, but now there are questions: How is the ankle? Can she lift the level of her game? Her next opponent is Peng Shuai, and that should be a win for her, but after that, she faces either Vicotoria Azarenka or Amelie Mauresmo.

Chakvetadze out in Hobart, Petrova out in Sydney

Third seed Anna Chakvetadze went out in her first round in Hobart yesterday, falling to Carla Suarez Navarro, who defeated her 7-6, 1-6, 7-5. Chakvetadze joins Wozniak and Szavay, other seeds who went out in the first round. Also out are 8th seed Tamarine Tanasugarn, who lost to Iveta Benesova, and Patty Schnyder, who lost to Tsvetana Pironkova.

In Sydney, number 7 seed Nadia Petrova lost to Alize Cornet, 6-2, 6-4.

Russia one match away from winning Fed Cup

Anabel Medina Garrigues had more than one chance to put away the second set in her Fed Cup final against Vera Zvonareva, but instead, she produced a series of unforced errors at crucial moments, allowing Zvonareva to win in straight sets. Svetlana Kuznetsova then easily dominated Carla Suarez Navarro, to win her match in straight sets, also.

The pressure is really on Medina Garrigues now. If she does not defeat Kuznetsova in the third rubber, to be played tomorrow, Russia defends its Fed Cup title. She did not play well under pressure today, but anything can happen. Should Medina Garrigues win the third rubber, I expect the Spanish team to substitute Nuria Llagostera Vives as Zvonareva's next opponent (well, that's what I would do).

Vera Zvonareva def. Anabel Medina Garrigues, 6-3, 6-4
Svetlana Kuznetsova def. Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-1, 6-3

Bottom half of quarterfinals set

Patty Schynder played outstanding tennis to get to the quarterfinals of the French Open

A talented Spaniard got a chance to show people how good she is; a sniffling, aching contender did it the hard way; a clay master showed her absolute best stuff; and a top contender skipped the croissants and served bagels for brunch.

Carla Suarez Navarro, a player most people have never heard of, is very at home on clay, and today, she took another clay specialist--Flavia Pennetta--out of the French Open. This is a match I really wanted to see, but alas, I was not prepared to rise at 4 a.m., so I missed it. The stats indicate that Suarez Navarro's serve was very much on, and that she was quite successful at the net.

Jelena Jankovic has had trouble with her right arm throughout this tournament. It was better, but now she says it's hurting a lot, and she has a wrap on it. She also had shoulder problems, which, I think, would account for her poor serving. Jankovic's serving has improved significantly of late, which is why I suspect the shoulder and arm--and not technique--caused the problem. Her opponent Agnieszka Radwanska, had a lot of difficulty with her serve also. And Jankovic, as usual, has some type of cold or allergy irritation, which is hampering her success. I saw only the last quarter of this match, but apparently, Jankovic had a good first set and opportunities to close out the second, but things went wrong, and she had to wait for a tiebreak to finally end the thing. It could have been worse--it could have gone to a third set.

Patty Schnyder, for her part, could not have played better in her first clay court meeting with Katarina Srebotnik. She used her swinging forehand to throw a lot of heavy topspin at Srebotnik, and her backhand was working very well, too. Schnyder was at her clay court best--changing the pace, hitting drop volleys and lobs, keeping topspin on the ball. Schnyder fans (and I'm one of them) know, however, that with Schnyder, such brilliance does not often occur two matches in a row. Patty has been in so many Tier I and Tier II finals, and has won so few of them. The talent is there; the head is not. Schnyder fans--hold on to the sides of your chairs: She plays Ivanovic in the quarterfinals.

That would be Ana Ivanovic, who beat Petra Cetkovska 6-0, 6-0 today. Cetkovska, ranked number 77 in the world, has some more positive memories to take from this French Open, however: She upset 23rd seed (and good clay court player) Alona Bondarenko in the first round, and defeated Galina Voskoboeva in the second round.

Suarez Navarro def. Flavia Pennetta, 6-3, 6-2
Jelena Jankovic def. Agnieszka Radwanska, 6-3, 7-6
Patty Schnyder def. Katarina Srebotnik, 6-2, 6-4