Miscellany

Sam Stosur has withdrawn from the Rogers Cup. She had already withdrawn from Cincinnati because of pain in her right arm.

The tour has published a brief profile of the great team of Paola Suarez and Virginia Ruano Pascual. 

Sabine Lisicki and Kim Clijsters have been practicing together in Cincinnati.

Jelena Dokic won the $75k ITF tournament in Vancouver. She defeated Virginie Razzano 6-1, 6-4 in the final.

As of next week, Coco Vandewegh's ranking will rise from 205 to somewhere in the mid-160s.

Ruano Pascual ends outstanding career

Virginia Ruano Pascual, one of the greatest doubles players of the Open era, is retiring. Ruano Pascual, who is 36 years old, holds 42 doubles titles and three singles titles on the tour. Ten of the Spanish player's women's doubles titles are majors, and eight of those were won in partnership with the great Argentine player, Paola Suarez.

Ruano Pascual won the French Open six times. The last two victories, in 2008 and 2009, she shared with countrywoman Anabel Medina Garrigues. Ruano Pascual also has a mixed doubles major title; she and Thomas Carbonell won the French Open in 2000.

Ruano Pascual played on the Spanish Fed Cup team a total of 14 years, and was on the Spanish Olympic team three times. "Vivi," as she is known to fans and friends, always made playing championship doubles look so easy. She and Suarez were known as much for their humor and enthusiasm as they were for their crack doubles skills.

Suarez weds

Recently retired Paola Suarez, former world number 1 in doubles, has married. You can see some lovely wedding photos here.

Nice touch

When a major Sony Ericsson WTA Tour player retires, the tour website invites fans to send messages to the retiring player, and then a few selected messages are published. Today, some of the messages to Paola Suarez are posted on the site, and nestled among them is one from fan Nathalie Dechy.

More on Suarez's retirement

Here is a feature story on Paola Suarez's retirement from professional tennis, as well as photos of her U.S. Open retirement ceremony.

Paola Suarez to retire after U.S. Open

The word is out that Argentine player Paola Suarez, who reached a career high of number 9 in the world in singles, and who was half of the world number one doubles team of Suarez/Ruano Pascual for many years, will retire after the U.S. Open. I have been expecting this for some time, and in fact, I'm surprised she has lasted this long. I remember reading a couple of years ago that she wanted to retire, and Virginia Ruano Pascual had talked her out of it. Suarez has been wrecked by injuries the last couple of years, and Ruano Pascual now plays doubles with Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Suarez retires with 4 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles and 44 doubles titles, including 7 women's doubles Grand Slam titles. She is a 5-time member of the Argentine Fed Cup team, and a 3-time member of the Argentine Olympic team.

Sadly, Suarez lost her first qualifying round at the U.S. Open this week. She will play doubles with Roberta Vinci.