Vesnina beats Peng twice in one day and advances to both Charleston finals

Elena Vesnina won both of her matches again

Elena Vesnina has been a very busy woman in Charleston this week. Yesterday, she won both her singles and doubles matches, and today, in the semifinals, she repeated that accomplishment. In doing so, however, she had to defeat Peng Shuai twice.

In her singles semifinal, Vesnina defeated 11th seed Peng 7-6, 6-3. Unlike the earlier semifinal between Wozniacki and Jankovic, this match featured no break opportunities until Peng had a break point when Vesnina served at 4-5 in the first set. Vesnina held, then the players exchanged breaks. After Peng was broken, however, she began to walk with a slight limp. Her knee, which was taped, was bothering her, and she was tired, she would later reveal. After breaking her opponent, Peng held a set point, but did not convert it. The set went to a tiebreak, which Vesinina won.

Peng looked as though she might fade, but she immediately broke Vesnina in the second set, and then opened her own service game with an ace. Despite getting to 40-15, however, Peng was broken back. She remained competitive in the second set, but the momentum was with Vesnina, who used her serve--as she has all week--to get herself out of trouble. The Russian saved two break points at 3-all, then converted a second break point when Peng served at 3-4. Vesnina held to win the match.

Peng Shuai

Both Vesnina and Peng handled the wind well, and both displayed primarily error-free net play. This match had a bit of everything, including sharp volleys and well-executed drop shots. It was, in every way, the better ssemifinal match of the day, and quite entertaining.

After getting some rest, Vesnina and partner Sania Mirza played a semifinal doubles match against Peng and her partner, Zheng Jie. Mirza and Vesnina took the first set 6-2, and then endured a more competitive second set, which they won 7-5.

 "...today is a Chinese day for me," Vesnina told the press.

Shaughnessy and Mattek-Sands consult

Earlier in the day, 4th seeds Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy defeated top seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik 6-2, 6-4.

Mirza & Vesnina win Indian Wells

Sania Mirza and Elena Vesnina, seeded 8th at the BNP Paribas Open, won the doubles title today by defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy 6-0, 7-5. To arrive at the final, Mirza and Vesnina defeated the teams of Hlavackova/Hradecka, Benesova/Zahlavova Strycova (7), Jans/Rosolska, and Hantuchova/Radwanska.

According to Matt Cronin, the winning team almost didn't play because of Vesnina's wrist injury, but Mirza, who knows a lot about wrist injuries, reportedly helped her new partner to cope. Vesnina became available to play on a new team when her regular partner, Vera Zvonareva, decided to concentrate on singles only.

Kvitova defeats Clijsters to win Paris championship

In both the second round and the quarterfinals at the Open GDF SUEZ, Petra Kvitova came from behind to win. Her match against friend and countrywoman Barbora Zahlavova Strycova lasted three and a quarter hours, and she followed that with another three-set match. She had an easy win in the semifinals, but one had to wonder how much--physically and mentally--she had left to give in the final.

Enough, as it turns out. The fourth seed defeated new world number 1 Kim Clijsters 6-4, 6-3, hit ten aces along the way, and once again displayed a steady and thoughtful demeanor that is in contrast to the up-and-comer we saw just a year and a half ago. Australian Open champion Clijsters was the favorite to win in Paris, but Kvitova outshone her in both serving and returning. Kvitova won the match on the Belgian's serve, though Clijsters saved one match point by hitting her only ace.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy won the doubles championship. The 3rd seeds defeated Vera Dushevina and Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 6-2.

Top seeds falter, but advance to U.S. Open quarterfinals

It's probably a good thing that Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta are close friends. Dulko showed the expected (but perhaps hard to come by) restraint and support today when Penenetta hit volley after volley into the net, and then hit a few volleys long. The Italian's volley nightmare occurred in a U.S.Open round third round match the top seeds played against 13th seeds Monica Niculescu and Shahar Peer. I lost count of the number of volleys Pennetta missed in that set, and I have no idea what happened to her.

It was no surprise, given the net issues, that Dulko and Pennetta failed to convert several set points (five or six--I lost count of that, too), and lost the first set in a tiebreak. Pennetta arrived on court for the next set a different player, and she and Dulko won it 6-1. They won the final set 6-2. The stand-out player in this match was Dulko, whose returns were often inspired, and who moved fluently around the court, operating with keen doubles instinct.

The other stand-out doubles player I saw today was Bethanie Mattek-Sands, who--backed up by Meghann Shaughnessy's big serving--helped take her team to a 6-4, 6-1 upset of 4th seeds Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik. Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy are seeded 15th.

Dulgheru defends Warsaw title

A year ago, Alesandra Dulgheru came out of nowhere as a qualifier and won the Warsaw Open, her first Sony Ericsson WTA tour tournament. This was an unusual feat, and was followed by months of near-obscurity for the Romanian. But all she needed was for clay season to come around again. In Barcelona, Dulgheru reached the semifinals, and she defeated both Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva, in Rome and Madrid, respectively.

Yesterday, the unseeded Dulgheru upset 3rd seed Li Na in the semifinals of the Polsat Warsaw Open, and today she upset 5th seed Zheng Jie, 6-3, 6-4, to win her second consecutive Warsaw title. Along the way, Dulgheru defeated Kateryna Bondarenko, Timea Bacsinszky and Tsvetana Pironkova.

The unseeded team of Virginia Ruano Pascual and Meghann Shaughnessy won the doubles title. They defeated top seeds Cara Black and Yan Zi 6-3, 6-4. This is Ruano Pascual's 43rd doubles title, and Shuaghnessy's 16th.

Shaughnessy loses in singles, wins in doubles

Meghann Shaugnessy, once again hampered by her bad knee, lost yesterday's Hopman Cup match against Casey Dellacqua (6-3, 6-4). The knee seems to be fine for several games, and then you can visibly see it buckle.

Shaughnessy and her partner, James Blake, did go on to defeat Dellacqua and Lleyton Hewitt in a very entertaining doubles match.

In other Hopman Cup results, Dominika Cibulkova defeated Sabine Lisicki, Flavia Pennetta defeated Hsieh Su-Wei, and Dinara Safina defeated Alize Cornet. Safina and her partner, Marat Safin, also won their doubles match against the the French team. Both the Italian team and the Slovak Republic teams won their doubles matches through walkovers.

Lisicki posts another Hopman Cup win

An obviously hurting Meghann Shaughnessy gave up a whole set to Sabine Lisicki in today's Hopman Cup competition. Having won the first set 6-4, Shaughnessy then proceeded to stumble, sweat and wince as her opponent took the second set 6-0. There was little doubt that Shaughnessy's knee--the one that kept her out most of last year--was not cooperating. She managed to pick her game up in the third set, but lost it, 4-6.

I do not know the extent of Shaughnessy's pain, but all the 2008 rehab and training apparently did not do the trick for her. It was sad to watch her play the second set, and one wonders what the rest of the season has in store for her.

Shaughnessy to replace Williams on Hopman Cup team

Meghann Shaughnessy, out for almost the entire 2008 season with a knee injury, has been named to replace Serena Williams in Hopman Cup competition. Williams withdrew because of a hamstring injury. Shaughnessy, playing for the United States, will be paired with James Blake.

More French Open withdrawals

Meilen Tu and Meghann Shaughnessy have withdrawn from the French Open because of injuries. I did not include these before because I did not know about Tu and I forgot about Shaughnessy.

Shaughnessy may be seriously injured

The word is that Mehann Shaughnessy may need surgery for that knee injury, and may be out as long as six months. Ouch.

Injured Shaughnessy retires in first round at Gold Coast

Poor Meghann Shaughnessy. She arrived at the Mondial Women's Hardcourts tournament at the last minute because she had played (and won) in Serena Williams' place at the Hopman Cup. But in the middle of leading Francesca Schiavone (6-0, 1-0), she injured her left knee and had to retire.

What a way to begin the season: defeating Mirza, then taking a solid lead against Schiavone, then getting hurt. Here's hoping she's okay for the Australian Open.

Serena Williams arrives in Perth in style...

Defeats Hopman Cup opponent Lucie Safarova, 6-0, 2-6, 7-5. Williams' late arrival was covered by Meghann Shaughnessy.

Shaughnessy steps in for Williams

The U.S. Hopman Cup female entrant, Serena Williams, will not be in Australia for the opening round this Saturday, which she was scheduled to play with partner Mardy Fish against India's Sania Mirza and Rohan Bopanna. Williams is ill, but says she plans to get to Perth some time over the weekend. In the meantime, Meghann Shaughnessy will play on Saturday.

If all goes well for Williams, she will play Lucie Safarova on Monday.

Azarenka wins U.S. Open mixed doubles title with Mirnyi

Talk about momentum shift. When I left my house this afternoon, Meghann Shaughnessy and Leander Paes were up 4-0 in the second set tiebreak (I later learned they were up 6-1), and I thought they looked good to win the super tiebreak, too. Only there was no super tiebreak: Victoria Azarenka and Max Mirnyi won the second set, 7-6, and are the 2007 champions.

Meanwhile, the women's doubles finalists are 6th-seeded Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung and 7th-seeded Nathalie Dechy and Dinara Safina. Dechy is half of the defending champion team of Dechy/Zvonareva. Vera Zvonareva is just coming back from a long injury time-out, and presumably, did not want to overdo it by playing doubles.