Kuznetsova sqeaks into Eastbourne quarterfinals

Wild card Svetlana Kuznetsova had to save a match point in her 2 and a 1/2-hour contest against Sorana Cirstea today in Eastbourne. She emerged victorious, with a 4-6, 7-6, 7-6 score.

Not so lucky was Aravane Rezai, who had to retire against Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez; Rezai sustained an injury to her right wrist.

Qualifier Ekaterina Makarova, who upset Flavia Pennetta in the first round, took out Nadia Petrova, 6-2, 6-0, today. And wild card Elena Baltacha defeated Zheng Jie 6-2, 1-6, 6-3.

The draw in Eastburne is an especially tough one. Daniela Hantuchova went out today in the second round, defeated by Sam Stosur, and Lucie Safarova won one game against Kim Clijsters. Also, Heather Watson's run came to and end; she won only two games against Victoria Azarenka.

Sevastova wins first tour title in Estroril

Anastasija Sevastova won her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title today, defeating Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2, 7-5. Sevasova is currently ranked number 74 in the world, and will be ranked higher when the new numbers are published next week. She is having a breakthrough season this year.

The top-seeded doubles team, Sorana Cirstea and Anabel Medina Garrigues, won the doubles title. In the final, they defeated Vitalia Diatchenko and Aurelie Vedy 6-1, 7-5.

Bondarenko out in Ponte Vedra Beach

2nd seed Alona Bondarenko made a first round exit in Ponte Vedra Beach today. Bondarenko was defeated 6-3, 4-6, 6-0 by Olga Govortsova. Top seed Caroline Wozniacki advanced with a 6-0, 6-4 win over Patty Schnyder.

In Marbella, 6th seed Maria Kirilenko was upset 4-6, 7-6, 6-4 by Sorana Cirstea.

Spain runs over USA in Hopman Cup competition

The Spanish team of Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Tommy Robredo handily defeated the USA 3-0 in Hopman Cup play today. Sanchez defeated Melania Oudin 6-4, 6-4, Robredo defeated John Isner, and the Australian team defeated the USA team in mixed doubles.

The USA's team wasn't the only top team to make an early exist. Number 1 seed Australia was defeated 2-1 by Romania. Sorana Cirstea defeated Samantha Stosur 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, and Cirstea and partner Victor Hanescu defeated Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt in mixed doubles.

One of tomorrow's highlights will be the Russia-Germany competition between Elena Dementieva and Sabine Lisicki.

Date Krumm out of HP Open

Wild card Kimiko Date Krumm was knocked out of the first round of the HP Open in Osaka today by Jill Craybas, 6-2, 2-6, 6-4.

Meanwhile, in Linz, 6th seed Sorana Cirstea was upset 6-3, 6-3 by qualifier Julia Goerges. Yesterday, 4th seed Carla Suarez Navarro defeated Katarina Srebotnik in straight sets. Srebotnik is not having an easy time of it, making a return from two serious injuries.

Miscellany

Sorana Cirstea, with Victor Hanescu, will represent Romania in 2010 Hopman Cup competiton.

Mallory Cecil has signed a multi-year representation agreement with Lagardere. Cecil won the NCAA singles championship as a freshman, and was the first ACC player to ever win the NCAA Division 1 singles and the NCAA Division 1 team championships in the same year. She finished 2009 as the top-ranked collegiate player in the U.S., and won both the Honda Sports Award and the ITA Player of the Year award. Cecil was named Duke University Most Valuable Player, and ACC Rookie of the Year. This summer, she decided to leave school and play professional tennis.

The website, MarionBartoli.net, has been discontinued.

Serena Williams and her legal team have not yet decided whether Williams will personally make her case to the ITF regarding the incident which occurred during the U.S. Open.

One more time...Maleness is not synonymous with courage and positive aggression. It was bad enough last year when Serena Williams said she had to "man up." In Tokyo this week, Lindsay Davenport said that Maria Sharapova played "balls-out tennis." (For all the etymology experts out that--yes, it's possible that the term originally had a non-sexual meaning, but its meaning for a long, long time has been related to male anatomy and hormones.) To equate courage and positive aggression with only the male gender is inappropriate in any case, but to do so while talking about a women's sporting event is sexism of the most ridiculous nature.

Dominika Cibulkova has begun playing tennis again.

You can learn some things about Melinda Czink here.

Stosur and Pennetta to play for Los Angeles championship

Though Sorana Cirstea was hardly hobbling around the court today in her Los Angeles semifinal against Samantha Stosur, she looked kind of flat, and it is logical to conclude that yesterday's foot injury played a role in today's performance. It didn't help that Stosur was putting on a serving clinic. The Australian was crisp and efficient, and in just over an hour, she won the match, 6-3, 6-2.

Not so crisp and efficient was the semifinal played between Flavia Pennetta and Maria Sharapova. The first set was as fine a display of tennis as we have seen Pennetta demonstrate. She served extremely well and defended cleverly, which led to a 6-2 win.

Sharapova became more aggressive in the second set, and Pennetta's level dropped off. At 4-all, there was a turning point for the Russian: Serving at 0-40 after double-faulting twice, she found a way to win the game. She then brilliantly broke Pennetta, showing off all the old Sharapova moves and Sharapova spirit, and taking the set.

The final set was a jumble of double-faulting (Sharapova), unsteady nerves, shifting momentum, unforced errors, shaky service games, and tough rallies. Sharapova went up a break early in the set, but Pennetta caught up. By this time, Pennetta's service game had eroded. We often see this decline in service from Pennetta, who is capable of serving extremely well (as she did in the first set). Pennetta did well to tolerate her own third set shortcomings and continue to take advantage of Sharapova's double faults (16 for the match) and unforced errors. Her 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory puts her in the final for the second year in a row.

Pennetta and Stosur have never played one another, which should make this Los Angeles final especially interesting. This is one of those championships in which I hate to see either of them lose.

Cirstea goes to Los Angeles semifinals, but not without drama

There was a medical time-out. There was foot wrapping and unwrapping. There were tears. There was conflict with the chair umpire. And there was a brief, but impressive, tantrum.

Sorana Cirstea, who does not have a good record against Agnieszka Radwanska, entered the court today in Los Angeles with a good game plan, and was even able to carry most of it out in the first set, which she won in a tiebreak, after losing a chance to serve for it. Some time during that set, she hurt her right heel, and she had to have treatment for it. She looked to be quite troubled by it, and later, she told her coach she could not push off on it. "Then you have to change your tactics," he said.

Cirstea crumbled in the second set, which she lost, 1-6. Even a more than casual observer would have expected her to either retire or just slog through the last set and leave the court "a winner," as Sven Groenefeld advised her. She was hurting. She was frustrated. She was angry. And it did wonders for her. She steadied herself in a way that did not seem possible, and which appeared to unglue her opponent.

Cirstea did what any smart opponent of Radwanska's should do--she took advantage of Radwanska's throwaway second serve. Her first set confidence returned, but Radwanska fought back. Then, when Radwanska served for the match at 5-4, Cirstea broke her. Cirstea then held, and on her third match point on Radwanska's serve (which included a double fault), she won the match--probably as much to her surprise as to anyone's. It is unknown whether Cirstea's foot will permit her to perform well (or to perform at all) in the next round, but she has to be pleased with her effort today, and she has to be pleased with Groenefeld, who obviously helped her believe in herself.

Top seeds upset in first round of Ordina Open

Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Monica Niculescu were upset in the first round of the Ordina Open today by Sorana Cirstea and Dinara Safina. Cirstea and Safina won the match 6-2, 6-2.

Who would have thought it? Sam Stosur in the semifinals

Samantha Stosur has always had a variety of really useful tennis skills, like a great first serve, great second serve, strong forehand, heavy topspin, and a wonderful sense of touch at the net. Her fans yell "Smash 'em, Sam!" when she plays. But Stosur has also always had--in singles, that is--a big deficit: She has tended to come apart mentally at big moments.

Stosur had to stay away from the tour for several months because of a really bad case of Lyme Disease, which led to a case of viral meningitis. She returned in the spring of 2008, and began trying to put her career back together. She was supposed to play doubles with Rennae Stubbs during the Australian season only, and then concentrate on singles. The pairing with Stubbs has continued, however, and Stosur's French Open results indicate that her singles game has gone to another level.

In her semifinal match against Sorana Cirstea, the player who took out Jelena Jankovic, Stosur hit twice as many winners as her opponent, did a great job at the net, and had a lot of success with her first serve. Her next task, however, will be much tougher--she plays Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals.

Oh, my aching confidence

She had an abdominal strain going into the round of 16, and once she got there, she had a sore toe. But according to 5th seed Jelena Jankovic, it wasn't her abs or her foot that hampered her in her match against the unseeded Sorana Cirstea: It was her lack of confidence. By her own account, the beginning of Jankovic's season was "a catastrophe." Since then, she said, she has not had enough belief that her shots will go in, and consequently--in big moments--she hesitates.

There were plenty of big moments in the third set of that match. Jankovic was 6-5, 30-0, and just when it looked like she was going to win--albeit the hard way--the visibly exhausted Cirstea came to life and brought the set to 6-all. She would go on to win the match, 3-6, 6-0, 9-7. Cirstea wound up with eight more unforced errors than her opponent, but she also hit almost twice as many winners. She had just about everything going for her, including the ability to stay calm when the atmosphere was tense.

This match was memorable, especially the third set, in which two tired women--both good movers and good tacticians--gave it all they had. And once again, Jankovic's failure to win easy points on her serve helped to do her in.

2 more Frenchwomen say au revoir

Marion Bartoli--seeded 13th at the French Open--and Alize Cornet, seeded 21st, went out today in the second round. Bartoli was defeated by the unseeded Tathiana Garbin, 6-3, 7-5. Bearing in mind that some of the text is undoubtedly tainted by translation, it is nevertheless worth reading the transcript of Bartoli's press conference.

Cornet fell to the unseeded Sorana Cirstea, 6-3, 6-2. Cornet summed up her loss as a combination of feeling too much stress and not having adequate physical conditioning. That sounds accurate to me.

That leaves two Frenchwomen in the draw--Aravane Rezai and Virginie Razzano. Today, Razzano upset 18th seed and clay court specialist Anabel Medina Garrigues.

Hantuchova upset in Luxembourg

Number 3 seed Daniela Hantuchova made a quarterfinal exit today in the FORTIS Championships. She was defeated by Sorana Cirstea, 7-6, 6-2.

Other seeds who won in Luxembourg are number 1 Elena Dementieva, number 4 Caroline Wozniacki and number 6 Li Na. They took out Amelie Mauresmo, number 7 Anabel Medina Garrigues and Iveta Benesova.

Cirstea wins her first title

Sorana Cirstea came from a third-set break down and even a match point down to win her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title today, defeating Sabine Lisicki, 2-6, 6-4, 7-6. Tashkend is Cirstea's first tour singles title.

Lisicki and Cirstea to play in Tashkent final

Magdelena Rybarikova did not get the birthday present she would have liked today. She had to retire in her semifinal match in Tashkent against Sorana Cirstea. Rybarikova has been ill all week, and I assume her retirement occurred because of her illness. And on her twentieth birthday--too bad. Cirstea will play Sabine Lisicki in the final. Lisicki defeated Peng Shuai, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4.

Pennetta upset in New Haven

Number 6 seed Flavia Pennetta was upset today in the second round of Pilot Pen Tennis by Sorana Cirstea, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. Cirstea's win sets her up for a third round match against top seed Anna Chakvetadze, who defeated Casey Dellacqua in straight sets. Cirstea defeated Chakvetadze the only other time they have played, on green clay in Charleston this year. Cirstea had some tough times a few months ago, but appears to have bounced back.

What's wrong with Cirstea?

Last week in Istambul, Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Sorana Cirstea, 6-0, 6-0. Today in Paris, Victoria Azarenka defeated her 6-0, 6-0. Cirstea is a decent player with some good wins to her credit. In April, she removed Anna Chakvetadze from the Family Circle Cup and played a good match against Alize Cornet. She has done rather well in lower-tiered events.

Is there an injury? An illness? A personal trauma? A propensity to fall apart mentally? Something is going on. Here's hoping it gets resolved soon.

Shock score of the week

Istambul: Agnieszka Radwanska def. Sorana Cirstea, 6-0, 6-0

I have no idea what that was about. Cirstea is a gifted player. In fact, the only other time she and Radwanska played, Cirstea won. It isn't the surface--Cirstea does fairly well on clay. Wow.

Charleston: Cirstea serves the match--with Russian dressing

I didn't make it to the Cirstea-Chakvetadze match until the first set had ended. Having lost that set, 3rd seed Anna Chakvetadze rather handily took the second. It appeared she had found her footing and was going to cruise, but this is Chakvetadze we're talking about, and consistency just isn't one of her strengths.

Chakvetadze's first serve--when she got it in--looked pretty good. However, as the final set moved on, she became more and more error-prone, following beautiful down-the-line backhand shots with nervous errors. Cirstea, for her part, hung in, stayed very cool-headed, and kept the ball in the court.

Chakvetadze took advantage of all six break points she had against her opponent. Cirstea had thirteen break chances, and was successful with eight of them. That is a lot of service breaks: Welcome to clay season.

Cirstea def. Chakvetadze, 6-2, 1-6, 6-2

Kanepi overcomes Cirstea

If I were in Acapulco, this is definitely the match I would have watched today--a close contest between two talented young players. Kaia Kanepi prevailed in the first set, Sorana Cirstea took the second, and Kanepi won a close tiebreak in the third. Next, Kanepi will meet top seed Flavia Pennetta in the semifinals.

Kanepi def. Cirstea, 6-2, 4-6, 7-6