New Haven seeds advance to quarterfinals

It's raining again in New Haven, but it was clear for most of the day, and the seeded players advanced. Elena Dementieva, the wild card who is seeded 4th, had to work extra hard to get her victory: It took her three hours to defeat Kateryna Bondarenko 7-6, 6-7, 6-4. Dementieva didn't help her cause by double-faulting twelve times.

Wild card Dinara Safina had a close call, too, but defeated Daniela Hantuchova 7-6, 7-6. Maria Kirilenko defeated Timea Bacsinszky, and Carolilne Wozniacki (1), Marion Bartoli (6), Flavia Pennetta (7), and wild card Nadia Petrova (8) all advanced to the quarterfinals.

Wickmayer defeats Bondarenko in U.S. Open quarterfinal

Kateryna Bondarenko had a winning record over Yanina Wickmayer coming into the U.S. Open, but today, it was the Belgian who prevailed, 7-5, 6-4, in what turned out to be an entertaining, and sometimes tense, match. Bondarenko, probably the victim of nerves (or perhaps just being a Bondarenko), seemed a pale figure throughout much of the first set, letting Wickmayer dictate almost every rally with her inventive service game and tough groundstrokes. When she was about the lose the first set at 3-5, though, Bondarenko suddenly came to life, broke Wickmayer, and saved a set point. She then held for 4-5. Wickmayer held, then broke Bondarenko. At that point, the set became very exciting. Bondarenko wound up saving five set points, but her effort wasn't good enough.

Bondarenko--with her sister, Alona, and her chihuahua, Princess, looking on--broke early in the second set, and Wickmayer smacked her racquet on the court (or so I heard). Wickmayer remained tense for a while, smacking balls around and coming close to getting hereslf in trouble. But then she calmed down, and went back to dominating the match. She broke Bondarenko at 4-all, and then held to become a semifinalist at the U.S. Open.

Wickmayer could be more consistent, for sure, but on the big points, she came through. Surprisingly, she served only one ace. She hit twice as many winners as her opponent, and they were almost even on unforced errors. Bondarenko was never dominant enough, and getting off to a rather flat start didn't help.

Given Wickmayer's fighting spirit and the Bondarenkos' tendency to be inconsistent, I can't say I'm that surprised that this match went the way it went. Recognition goes to Todd Spiker for naming Wickmayer a semifinalist several days ago.

Two Belgians in the semifinals...feels like old times.

Dear ESPN: Can you say "priority"?

I know that Yanina Wickmayer and Kateryna Bondarenko don't matter to you, but how many times do we need to see the interview about the tournament's security slip last night, or hear about men's matches that have already taken place? It was a women's quarterfinal at the U.S. Open, and a good one, at that. There was no excuse for breaking away after the first set.

ESPN did return to the match, but after four games had been played in the first set, one of the players had been broken, and Wickmayer's racquet had been smacked down on the court. Then we had to put up with hearing from three commentators how surprising that was. Rennae Stubbs (of all people) had to send a text message to them to inform them of Wickmayer's temper.

Bondarenko and Wickmayer to meet in U.S. Open quarterfinals

I thought the round of 16 match between Kateryna Bondarenko and Gisela Dulko might be interesting. It was, but not in the way I expected. I wasn't able to watch the match, but the stats indicate that Dulko served badly--really badly--and Bondarenko played a very clean match, which she won 6-0, 6-0. Apparently, Dulko was overcome by the occasion and just could not get into the match. She's a very good player, and this is a very surprising result.

I was also unable to watch the match between Yanina Wickmayer and Petra Kvitova, and I really wanted to. Not surprisingly, Kvitova made a lot of unforced errors. And Wickmayer, up 5-2 in the third set, was almost broken at 5-all, but wound up winning the match 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.

There was a significant upset in doubles today: 11th seeds Yan Zi and Zheng Jie took an important step in their comeback by defeating 5th seeds Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4.

Ivanovic out in first round of U.S. Open

Last year, when Ana Ivanovic was the top seed at the U.S. Open, she was defeated in the second round. This year, the 11th-seeded Ivanovic lost in the first round to Kateryna Bondarenko, in a third set tiebreak. Ivanovic held a match point in the tiebreak, but could not convert it. Bondarenko double-faulted her first match point, but was able to win the next two points, for a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 victory.

Also making an exit was 16th seed Virginie Razzano, who was defeated 6-4, 6-3 by the not-to-be-underestimated Yanina Wickmayer.

These were not the only upsets. 27th seed Alisa Kleybanova, who made such a splash in Toronto, was defeated by another big hitter, Petra Kvitova. And 32nd seed Agnes Szavay went out after a defeat by Shahar Peer.

The rest of the day was pretty much business as usual, though some of that business was dramatic. Top seed Dinara Safina staged another heart-stopper, and Sabine Lisicki double-faulted and fooled around enough to stretch her match against Aravane Rezai to three sets. Lisicki has to either stop getting injured (the better option) or learn how to regain her mental strength sooner if she has an injury layoff. Having one of the best serves on the tour is not that much of an advantage if you double-fault 16 times. I hope that Lisicki can play her way into this tournament because right now, she is all over the place.

Melanie Oudin impressed by easily knocking off Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who also had trouble with her serve. Gisela Dulko enjoyed a hard-fought win over the other young Russian, Ekaterina Makarova. Maria Sharapova (her 2009 U.S. Open night dress is, in my opinion, one of her greatest), easily defeated Tsvetana Pironkova, and Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Dementieva all had straight-set wins.

Williams and Kuznetsova both out of Rogers Cup in 2nd round

Only two second round matches were played today in Toronto, and both resulted in major upsets. Sam Stosur defeated 6th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-3, and qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko defeated 3rd seed Venus Williams 1-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Kaia Kanepi had another "good" loss, this time going out 6-4, 7-6 to Lucie Safarova. Kanepi is having a poor season, but her last few matches have been rather competitive. Yaroslava Shvedova slipped past Daniela Hantuchova, 7-6, 7-6, and Shahar Peer played a typically long Peer match, lasting three hours. She defeated Monica Niculescu, 6-4, 4-6, 7-6.

In doubles, 7th seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Patty Schnyder served for the match twice in the second set in their first round competition with Vera Dushevina and Anastasia Rodionova--and twice they were broken. Dushevina and Rodionova won the match 3-6, 7-6, 10-7. Yan Zi and Zheng Jie were defeated by Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki, and 8th-seeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Nadia Petrova were upset by Alisa Kleybanova and Ekaterina Makarova.

Bammer, Bondarenkos win in Prague

2nd seed Sybille Bammer defeated top seed Francesca Schiavone today, 7-6, 6-2, to take the 2009 ECM Prague Open title. Because of rain, both the semifinals and finals in singles had to be played today. In the semifinals, Schiavone stopped the run of Timea Bacsinszky, and Bammer defeated Iveta Benesova. This is Bammer's second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title.

The 2nd seeds also defeated the top seeds in doubles. Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko defeated Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-1, 6-2 to take the Prague title.

I really like black and white photography, but this is ridiculous

There are already three black and white photos on my French Open favorites panel on the French Open website. Amelie Mauresmo, of course, went out in the first round yesterday, and today, Patty Schnyder and Flavia Pennetta were defeated.

Schnyder played another player I like, Kateryna Bondarenko. I enjoyed this match because of the shot-making, which was often superb. And while it seemed as though Schnyder was making more unforced errors than her opponent, she actually wasn't--she was just failing to hit enough winners. She also failed to be as aggressive as she needed to be. Bondarenko, for her part, was impressive from the baseline, demonstrating some very deft movement when she needed it.

For her part, Pennetta must have visited the same planet she inhabited when she played Venus Williams in the Acapulco final, because she just wasn't there. Her opponent, Alexa Glatch, wasted no time in exploiting Pennetta's error-prone play. I should add that Pennetta had her left thigh taped, and perhaps it was bothering her. One way or the other, Glatch played the way she did in her Fed Cup matches, and was completely dominating.

My disappointments didn't end there, though. Because of her recent health issues, I didn't expect Sabine Lisicki to be able to do much of anything at Roland Garros, but I was nevertheless sad to see her have as much trouble as she did when she lost today to Lucie Safarova. With little match play behind her, Lisicki had a lot of trouble with her serve, which is one of her strongest assests.

Of course, it could have just been Lisicki's evil twin I saw on the court: The commentator referred to her as "Liszinsky" the entire match.

Family Circle Cup, day 1--in and around the grounds

We expected rain on this first day of the tournament, and we got some, but not enough to delay or interrupt any matches. There is a tornado watch right now in the Charleston area, and it just wouldn't be Family Circle Cup without a tornado, or at least a few watches or warnings.

There was a Venus sighting this morning, but not by me. I saw a lot of players, but not Venus. We did get to see Elena Dementieva do some practice hitting, and she signed a tennis ball for us.

When we got to the tournament site, we decided to watch the match between Tamira Paszek and Julia Schruff. We stood waiting for entry, and I looked next to me: There was Dominika Cibulkova, who had come to check out Paszek, her probable second round opponent. She and her coach were there, but Cibulkova did not stay too long. Paszek was not exactly impressive, so Cibulkova probably felt she had other things to do.

I spoke with Kateryna Bondarenko, who was in the stands, watching her sister, Alona. She said her wrist injury wasn't too bad, and the doctor told her she could begin practicing again in a week. Both Bondarenko sisters signed some photos for us. It is very disappointing for us that we will not get to see them play doubles together. Instead, Alona will be playing doubles with Anastasia Rodionova. One of the "fighting Bondarenkos," as I call them, once said that the best possible situation is for them to have a third person along, "so we can fight with that person!" Given her history, Rodionova is a pretty good pick.

Tennis outfit of the day: Marta Domachowska, in a bright yellow tank and a khaki/olive split-pleat skirt. Today was the only day to see it, though--the ever under-achieving Domachowska is already out of the tournament, knocked out by qualifier Anastasija Sevastova.

One Bondarenko out of Ponte Vedra Beach

The Bondarenko sisters, Alona and Kateryna, had to play each other today in Ponte Vedra Beach. The match went to three sets, with one second set game containing thirteen deuces, and with Alona emerging the winner. The winning Bondarenko said "We have different styles....I have to play the long points and she doesn't." They are now 3 and 3 against each other.

Edina Gallovits and Olga Govortsova lost their doubles match to Peng Shuai and Yan Zi, but the good news is that they are playing together again! I hope they will play in Charleston, where they were last year's finalists.

Nadia Petrova said that Madison Keys "took me by surprise." Petrova, the top seed, said she was trying to blow Keys off the court, and that wasn't working, so she adjusted her game. Keys was pleased with the quality of the match, though Petrova beat her, 6-3, 6-2.

All kinds of sister news

The big sister news is that Urszula Radwanska (Radwanska the younger) defeated her sister, the 9th seeded Agnieszka, in straight sets today in the first round in Dubai.

But there was other sister news. The wildly inconsistent Bondarenko sisters, Alona and Kateryna, defeated 6th seeds Yan Zi and Zheng Jie, 6-3, 4-6, 11-9. Alona also won her first round singles match against Olga Govortsova, but Kateryna lost hers to Virginie Razzano.

Defending champions out in first round in Melbourne

Defending champions and 4th seeds Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko did not make it through the first round in this year's Australian Open. Gisela Dulko and Roberta Vinci defeated them 6-2, 7-5. There won't be any hilarious interviews this year.

Radwanska out, Garbin in

The official shock match of the Australian Open, so far, is the defeat of world number 9 Agnieszka Radwanska in the first round. Knowing the wild inconsistency of both Bondarenko sisters, it did cross my mind that Kateryna could have one her very good days. She did, defeating Radwanska 7-6, 4-6, 6-1. It took Bondarenko four set points to take the first set, but she kept going, eventually cruising through the third.

Just as surprising, however, is the defeat of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova by Tathiana Garbin, 6-4, 2-6, 7-5. I do not intend to demean Garbin at all by saying this; it's just that Pavlyuchenkova is one of the tour's most promising young players, and many of us assumed she would go to the second round. But Garbin has something Pavlyuchenkova does not have--experience. Garbin was down 0-4 in the third, then 3-5, and Pavlyuchenkova held a match point.

It is often very difficult for young players to handle the pressure of playing in a major, and it may take Pavlyuchenkova a while to become comfortable with this pressure.

Czech Republic shines in Hobart

The final in Hobart will feature countrywomen Iveta Benesova and Petra Kvitova, who defeated Magdalena Rybarikova and Virginie Razzano, respectively, in the semifinals. Both won their semifinals matches in straight sets. Benesova has been around for a while, and has looked good in Hobart, taking out both Tamarine Tanasugarn and Gisela Dulko. Kvitova is a young player some of us have been keeping an eye on, and it is no surprise that she is a finalist. In addition to defeating Razzano, Kvitova also defeated the impressive Anastasia Pavlyuhenkova.

The doubles final in Hobart will feature Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko--whose fortunes go up and down rather quickly--and the reunited team of Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta.

Bondarenko sisters upset--again

This time it was Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Vania King who upset the 2nd-seeded Bondarenko sisters, and this time it was in the Brisbane quarterfinals. The 6-1, 6-3 score compels me to ask: Is is still Alona's ankle, or do the Bondarenkos just not have it together?

Also losing were reunited Daniela Hantuchova and Ai Sugiyama, who were defeated in the semifinals, 6-3, 6-4, by Klaudia Jans and Alicja Rosolska.

Bondarenko sisters upset yet again

What is going on with the Bondarenko sisters? Sure, they have been upset by some very strong teams, but they should have won at least a few of those matches. On the other hand, Alona's injury problem was rather significant, so it may just be taking her a long time to get match-tough again. One of those aforementioned good teams--Maria Kirilenko and Flavia Pennetta--defeated the sisters in the first round in Moscow today, 6-4, 6-4.

I don't know if Pennetta and Kirilenko will continue to play together--Pennetta has had so many doubles partners. She played well with Elena Dementieva and well with Gisela Dulko, and she has paired with other players, too.

Bondarenko wins Birmingham

Photo courtesy of After Atalanta

Kateryna Bondarenko, the number 12 seed at the DFS Classic, won the title today by defeating Yanina Wickmayer, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6. This is Bondarenko's first tour title.

Top seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber won the doubles title by defeating Severine Bremond and Virginia Ruano Pascual, 6-2, 6-1.

Meanwhile, in Barcelona, Maria Kirilenko defeated Maria Martinez Sanchez, 6-0, 6-2. The doubles title was won by Lourdes Dominguez Lino and Arantxa Parra Santonja, who defeated top seeds Nuria Llagostera Vives and Maria Martinez Sanchez.

Bondarenko and Wickmayer to play in Birmingham final

Yanina Wickmayer, who made such a splash at Fed Cup this year, has reached her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour final. She defeated Bethanie Mattek in a close match, 7-5, 7-6, to reach the DFS Classic final in Birmingham. Her opponent will be Kateryna Bondarenko, the lower seed of the two Bondarenko sisters. Bondarenko defeated up-and-coming New Zealander, Marina Erakovic. It is also her first tour final.

Wickmayer defeated both Bondarenko sisters during the first round of the 2008 Fed Cup competition.

Raymond and Stosur out in first round in Birmingham

Sam Stosur, trying to get match-tough again after a very long illness layoff, went out (with partner Lisa Raymond) in the first round of doubles competition in Birmingham today. They were defeated by the impromptu team of Chuang Chia-Jung and Rika Fujiwara, 7-5, 6-3. Chuang's usual partner, Chan Yung-Jan, is out with a back injury.

Also upset were Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko, who were defeated 6-4, 6-4, by Severine Bremond and Virginia Ruano Pascual.

Bondarenkos send phenoms out of Berlin

The Bondarenko sisters, Alona and Kateryna, sent two of the tour's hottest young stars out of Berlin today. Alona Bondarenko defeated clay specialist Dominika Cibulkova, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6, and Kateryna Bondarenko defeated Tamira Paszek, 6-4, 6-3.

The other hot young clay star, Alize Cornet, fared no better when she was beaten by clay veteran Francesca Schiavone, in a close, 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 contest.

Two other good young players did better. Agnieszka Radwanska won her match against Angelique Kerber when Kerber retired at 6-0, 5-3, and Caroline Wozniacki upset a vulnerable Tatiana Golovin, 7-5, 6-1.

Not surprisingly, the struggling Shahar Peer was also upset--wild card Sabine Lisicki defeated her, 7-6, 6-1.

Alona Bondarenko will face either Tathiana Garbin or Anabel Medina Garrigues in the second round. Kateryna Bondarenko will play Elena Dementieva.