Miscellany

Vera Zvonareva says she cannot get all of her course materials online, so she has to take twenty books with her when she travels to tournaments. "It helps me to not get bored with tennis."

Zvonareva and Svetlana Kuznetsova are playing doubles together in San Diego this week.

Melanie Oudin vacationed on the beach on the Isle of Palms, just outside Charleston, for a week last month.

The West Side Tennis Club is considering selling the Forest Hills stadium. 

Raquel Kops-Jones and Sarah Borwell had to retire after one game in the Stanford doubles semifinals because Borwell became dizzy after the match began. Borwell sustained a concussion when she was hit in the head by a tennis ball during the doubles quarterfinals. After the retirement, she saw a doctor, who asked her to count backwards by 7s from 100. Reports Borwell, "I am unable to do that without a concussion, so you can imagine I failed!"

You can get to know Anastasia Pivovarova here.

Raymond and Stubbs upset in Stanford

The top-seeded doubles team in Stanford, Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs, were upset yesterday in the first round by Raquel Kops-Jones and Sarah Borwell. Kops-Jones and Borwell defeated the 1st seeds 6-0, 4-6, 12-10.

5th seed Maria Sharapova won a close (6-4, 7-5) match against Zheng Jie, and Melanie Oudin defeated 2008 Stanford champion Aleksandria Wozniak 6-7, 7-5, 6-3. Oudin was down 1-5 in the second set, and saved a match point, and she was also down 1-3 in the third.

Brits get through first round of doubles

In Australian Open first round doubles competition, it was a good day for the British. Three British women--Laura Robson, Elena Baltacha and Sarah Borwell--won their doubles matches. Robson, playing partner Sally Peers, defeated Jill Craybas and Abigail Spears. Baltacha and Liga Dekmeijere defeated Lucie Safarova and Aleksandra Wozniak, and Borwell and Raquel Kops-Jones (Spears' former partner) defeated Polona Hercoq and Petra Martic.