Passing shots

Recently retired Tathiana Garbin plans to work with the Italian Tennis Federation, and she will also do some television work.

I learned a lot about Rebecca Marino by reading her Memphis blog this week. The rising Canadian player was born in Toronto, raised in Vancouver, and trains in Montreal. She is a big hockey fan, as one would expect, and she likes reading, going to movies, and hanging out in coffee shops. She doesn't go in for tanning (smart Rebecca!), and she is big into shoelaces. I learned more from reading Bobby Chintapalli's interview with her: As a child, Marino was a Jennifer Capriati fan, her coach thinks she is an inch taller than she actually is, and she really likes Alison Riske.

Serena Williams, who loves all things Green Day, recemtly got to tour the Broadway set of American Idiot.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands attributes a lot of the injuries on the tour to over-practicing.

Jarmila Groth is the top qualifying seed in Doha, and she has made it to the second round of qualifying. Also into the second round is Viktoriya Kutuzova, whom we haven't seen in a long time.

Garbin should be remembered for stylish play

Tathiana Garbin has ended her singles career. When she announced that the Australian Open would be her last tournament, she also indicated that she would play a short list of doubles tournaments in the future, so we probably should not expect to see much of her. This is undoubtedly bad news for Timea Bacsinszky, who has won three doubles titles with Garbin, and who--in a recent interview--made a plea to Garbin to stay active with her in doubles competition. Garbin and Bacsinszky have not been together that long, yet they have also have another accomplishment worth mentioning: They are 3-0 against the formidable Czech team of Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova.

Garbin, who is 33 years old, won eleven doubles titles and one singles title, and she advanced to the finals of multiple tournaments. None of her wins was in a premier tournament, but Garbin was a consistently good doubles player throughout her career. The affable Italian player, know as "Tax" to  friends, was ranked as high as number 22 (2007) in the world  in singles, and number 25 (2001) in doubles. In 2007, she made it to the fourth round of the French Open in singles, but was defeated by Nicole Vaidisova. Garbin's most dramatic singles win was her defeat of  defending champion Justine Henin in the second round of the 2004 French Open. (It must also be noted that Henin was suffering with the cytomegalovirus at the time, and was soon off the tour for several months.)

Garbin played in eleven Fed Cup ties. Throughout her singles career, she also posted wins against Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Elena Dementieva, and Chanda Rubin, and she had one other win over Henin, in Miami, 2001.

I have always enjoyed watching Garbin play, and especially on clay, her favorite surface. Her 2009 French Open third round match against Virginie Razzano stands out as one of my favorite Garbin matches. The wind was swirling around the court, making it hard for both players to make shots, and Garbin threw ever kind of shot imaginable at Razzano, who eventually prevailed, 7-5, 7-5. For me, that was probably the most entertaining match of the entire tournament, and it was a thrilling show for people watching in the stands and at home. (To my delight, one of the many dazzling shots in that match made it to Tennis Channel's top 10 "Hot Shots" list for 2009.)

In addition to being a stylish shot-maker, Garbin could also be quite humorous on the court, and almost always gave the crowd a good laugh--or at least a smile. Here's hoping we see her at least now and then on the doubles court.

Rain delays completion of semifinals in Bad Gastein

2nd seed Timea Bacsinszky won her semifinal match, 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, against Yvonne Meusburger today in Bad Gastein, but the second singles match, between Alize Cornet and Julia Goerges, could not be played because of rain.

One doubles semifinal was played: Bacsinszky and Tathiana Garbin, the 4th seeds, defeated top seeds Iveta Benesova and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-5, 2-6, 10-8. The other semifinal match will feature 2nd seeds Lucie Hradecka and Anabel Medina Garrigues against the 3rd seeds, Julia Goerges and Anna-Lena Groenefeld.

Kanepi wins Palermo, Szavay wins Prague

Kaia Kanepi, seeded 5th at the Internazionali Femminili di Tennis di Palermo, won the championship today. Kanepi defeated top seed and defending champion (and wild card) Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-3. Kanepi is now 3-3 against Pennetta. This is Kanepi's first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title.

Agnes Szavay, who won the Budapest title last week, won the Prague title today, defeating Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. Szavay and Zahlavova Strycova were seeded 7th and 8th, respectively. This was Zahlavova Strycova's first tour final.

Also repeating were the unseeded Timea Bacsinszy and Tathiana Garbin. They won the Budapest doubles title last week, and today, they won the Prague title, defeating Monica Niculescu and Szavay 7-5, 7-6.

Szavay defends Budapest title

Agnes Szavay defended her title in Budapest today by defeating Patty Schnyder 6-2, 6-4 in the final. Szavay was the 7th seed. Szavay defeated Schnyder in last year's final, also.

Timea Bacsinszky and Tathiana Garbin won the doubles title, defeating top seeds Sorana Cirstea and Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3. Bacsinszky and Garbin were seeded 2nd.

Wickmayer out in Paris 1st round

3rd seed Yanina Wickmayer made an early exit in Paris today when she was defeated 6-4, 3-6, 7-5 in the first round of the Open GDF SUEZ by Petra Martic. Wickmayer, it should be noted, did hit twelve aces, but that wasn't enough to stop Martic.

In second round play, 8th seed Elena Vesnina was upset by Tathiana Garbin, and top seeds Elena Dementieva and Flavia Pennetta advanced, with wins over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Alisa Kleybanova, respectively.

Upsets in Palermo

There were a couple of doubles upsets today in Palermo. The unseeded team of Parra Santonja and Uhlirova upset 4th seeds Senoglu and Shvedova, and the unseeded team of Jans and Rosolska upset 3rd seeds Makarova and Voskoboeva.

In singles, top seed Flavia Pennetta defeated countrywoman and clay specialist Roberta Vinci, and Tathiana Garbin defeated Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. Also, unseeded Olga Govortsova upset 6th seed Ekaterina Makarova.

Szavay gets past Garbin

I like to watch Tathiana Garbin play, and I wish I could have seen her three-hour match against Agnes Szavay in Budapest today. Szavay won, 7-6, 5-7, 7-5. Szavay double-faulted thirteen times; there's a lot of that going around.

Dementieva and Wozniacki upset in Paris

Elena Dementieva was down a set when she played Jelena Dokic in the third round of the French Open, but Dokic had to retire. We'll never know how that match would have otherwise ended, but for Dementieva, the relief was short-lived. The 4th seed lost today in the round of 16 to Samantha Stosur, who defeated her 6-3, 4-6, 6-1. Dementieva, known for her fitness, said in her press conference that she did not feel fit enough to play in Paris, and that she had problems with all the spin that Stosur put on the balls.

Caroline Wozniacki was done in by a shoulder injury, a back injury, and her best friend. The 9th seed entered the tournament with a vulnerable shoulder, and--not surprisingly--she hurt her back during her round of 16 match against her best friend, Sorana Cirstea. Cirstea prevailed, 7-6, 7-5, and those who saw the match said her forehand was impressive.

Winning one of the best match points I think I've ever seen, Virginie Razzano defeated Tathiana Garbin 7-5, 7-5 in a match that was every bit as entertaining as I expected it to be. Both players are to be commended for giving the crowd some big tennis. Razzano was up 5-0 in the first set, in fact, but Garbin made things a lot more interesting at 0-5. Razzano said she thought part of the problem was that she was rattled by a tour employee's asking her to remove her shirt.

Serena Williams, who seems to have some kind of curse on her at major tournaments, had to deal today with an incident which may go down as "the arm," a companion disaster to "the hand" of 2003. Williams hit a backhand very hard to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who was at the net at the time. The ball bounced off of Martinez Sanchez's racquet, but it also appeared to have bounced off of her arm. It is entirely possible that Martinez Sanchez had her racquet raised in protection as much as anything else, but it doesn't matter: If a ball touches your body, you lose the point.

Replay showed that the ball did indeed hit Martinez Sanchez's arm. However, the umpire awarded the point to her, and an angry Williams later accused her opponent of cheating, which the Spanish player called "stupid." Martinez Sanchez maintains she doesn't know if the ball hit her arm, and Williams says she hit the ball so hard that "She knew that ball hit her."

Williams went on to win the match, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

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.

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.

Italian Fed Cup team still looking good

Francesca Schiavone will lead the Italian team in its Fed Cup match against Spain

When Italy won the Fed Cup title in 2006, it was largely through the marvelous efforts of Francesca Schiavone, whose fighting spirit overcame serious opposition from the Spanish team. Last year, Italy was in the finals, but lost to Russia. The 2008 Italian team has lost Robera Vinci and doubles specialist Mara Santangelo, but it still looks like a team to beat:

Francesca Schiavone is still the Italian player to watch at Fed Cup. Schiavone shines at this event, and can be counted on to perform well--and sometimes, brilliantly.

Flavia Pennetta, who was out with an injury for a long time, is now back and in form, having won the 2007 Bangkok Open, and beating both Shahar Peer and Venus Williams on the way to the final. Pennetta is also a successful doubles competitor.

Tathiana Garbin has had more success with doubles than with singles, but is one of those players whom higher-ranked players are not probably not keen on seeing on the other side of the net. Garbin and Schiavone, by the way, both have one-handed backhands.

Sara Errani made her first top 100 finish last season. People noticed her at this year's Australian Open because she took Lindsay Davenport to three sets (she had a 4-2 lead in the third set) in the first round.

Italy will play Spain in the upcoming Fed Cup round. The Spanish team consists of Anabel Medina Garrigues, Lourdes Dominguez-Lino, Virginia Ruano Pascual, and Nuria Llagostera Vives. Medina Garrigues is a talented but inconsistent player, who can be as tenacious as Schiavone. Ruano Pascual is a former doubles world number 1, and she and Medina Garrigues are currently ranked 22 and 21, respectively, in doubles.

Italy has a 3-2 head-to-head lead against Spain in Fed Cup.

Petrova goes out in first round at Gold Coast

Tathiana Garbin, putting up what appeared--from my view of the electronic scoreboard--a hell of a fight, defeated second seed Nadia Petrova, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 in the first round of the Mondial Women's Hardcourts in Gold Coast. I didn't follow the first set, but the second was interesting, with Garbin breaking Petrova at 4-3, then serving for the set and getting broken back. It went to 5-all, and Petrova had a break point on Garbin's second serve, yet Garbin not only held, but then broke Petrova again. I missed much of the third set, but it appeared to go Garbin's way from the outset, when she got an early break.

Next up for Garbin is the winner of the Razzano-Cibulkova match.