3rd time a charm for Radwanska

For three consecutive tournaments, Urszula Radwanska and Bojana Jovanovski have faced each other. Jovanovski won the first two, but today in Indian Wells, Radwanska was the winner. It wasn't easy, though. She served for the match twice, then Jovanovski served for, and finally--after almost two hours and 50 minutes--Radwanska won 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (6).

Wild cards Sloane Stephens and Christina McHale won their first round matches, as did qualifiers Laura Pous-Tio, Zhang Shuai and Lucie Hradecka. Elena Baltacha saved four match points and beat Roberta Vinci, and 4th seeds Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova defeated the wild card team of Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva.

Yesterday, wild cards Sania Mirza and Coco Vandeweghe won their matches, and qualifiers Alize Cornet and Monica Niculescu also won (Mirza won by retirement). Both Melanie Oudin and Bethanie Mattek-Sands advanced to the second round, as did the wild card team of Jelena Jankovic and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

Urszula Radwanksa out for a while with back injury

Urszula Radwanska began having back pain again this week, and has been diagnosed with a spinal injury that will keep her off the courts for five or six weeks. Her exercise regimen will be limited so that her back can heal.

Sharapova through to Los Angeles semifinals, but it wasn't pretty

In her first set against Urszula Radwanska in their LA Women's Tennis Championships quarterfinal match, Maria Sharapova served well and won the set 6-4. In the second set, her serve went to pieces, and she double-faulted 11 times (as opposed to twice in the first set). The ESPN commentators had a field day analyzing the psychological, physiological and sociological aspects of Sharapova's condition. She would probably have been amused if she had heard them.

Sharapova didn't have to worry, though. Radwanska, who--unfortunately--emulates her sister's second serve--went to pieces in the latter part of the second set, squandering almost every good opportunity she had. She muttered and stumbled and generally made it easy for Sharapova to dig herself out of a hole. After she won the match 6-4, 7-5, Sharapova looked and sounded subdued. In an interview with Pam Shriver, she said that during the period when her shoulder was bothering her a lot, she developed many bad habits while compensating. It will take her a while, she explained, to unlearn those bad habits.

In the semifinals, she will face either 2nd seed Vera Zvonareva or 10th seed Flavia Pennetta, either of whom will return her serve better than it was returned last night. Stay tuned...

2 upsets in Birmingham today

There were two upsets in Birmingham today, both expected--at least by me. Urszula Radwanska defeated 10th seed Maria Kirilenko, 6-3, 6-3, and Alexa Glatch defeated 9th seed Bethanie Mattek-Sands, 7-6, 6-3.

Grass experts Maria Sharapova and Tammy Tanasugarn both won their first round matches. Michaella Krajicek, however, did not get out of qualifying.

Craybas goes to 4th round of BNP Paribas Open

Jill Craybas, the American veteran who is ranked number 102 in the world, defeated Nicole Vaidisova today in Indian Wells. Granted, Vaidisova is ranked number 79, but there is more to her story than her current ranking. But even that wouldn't be such a big deal in itself; it is the bigger picture that is impressive. Before taking out Vaidisova, Craybas dismissed both Jelena Dokic and 16th seeded Anabel Medina Garrigues. Craybas gets top seed Dinara Safina next, and it is likely that her most impressive run will end, but it even if it does, it will be a memorable story from this year's BNP Paribas Open.

Craybas's victory was n0t the only upset. Shahar Peer upset number 19 seed (how crazy is that?) Anna Chakvetadze, and Li Na upset number 17 seed Amelie Mauresmo.

I was quite interested in the match between Caroline Wozniacki and Kaia Kanepi; it appears that Kanepi couldn't handle the pressure, and we can only hope that she does something about this problem soon, or she is going to lose a lot of matches she shouldn't lose. The other match of interest to me was the one between wild cards Alexa Glatch and Urszula Radwanska. It appeared that Glatch put up quite a fight, but the match went to her opponent.

Dokic and Larcher de Brito both out of Indian Wells

Jelena Dokic told us, after the Australian Open, that she thought she would have a letdown. Somehow, I don't think most of us thought it would occur in the first round of the BNP Paribas Open, but it did. Jill Craybas defeated wild card Dokic 6-4, 6-2. Dokic double-faulted eight times, which didn't help.

Michelle Larcher de Brito saved two match points in her contest with Urszula Radwanska, only to have Radwanska win the match on de Brito's serve. Once again, de Brito got herself through qualifying, only to lose in the first round.

Another losing wild card was Michaella Krajicek, who was defeated by Nicole Vaidisova. Vaidisova will face Alona Bondarenko in the second round.

Miscellany

Lindsay Davenport, along with her oh, so misunderstood friend, Justin Gimelstob, will be two of the commentators for Fox Sports Network's coverage of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells next month. The Fox Network channel in my area rarely shows tennis, and I can't say that fact is making me especially unhappy in this case.

According to the ARGWUS blog, Robert Radwanski--father and manager of the Radwanska sisters--has declared that his daughters will not play in Dubai next year. A protest against the treatment of Shahar Peer? No--a protest against the treatment of Aga and Urszula: "It's not politics. We just won't play where we are not welcomed. For the organizers of this tournament, if you're not Williams or Sharapova, you're no one. They have let us all emphatically feel it." That's not politics?

Kristie Ahn, a junior who impressed me at the U.S. Open, lost the final today at the SMASH Junior Cup in South Carolina. She was defeated in straight sets by Alison Riske, whose reward is a wild card into qualifying at the Family Circle Cup.

Anne Keothavong has finally made it to the world's top 50, coming in at number 48. So far, two-thirds of those voting in the Eurosport poll have said that Keothavong will not win a tournament this year. Keothavong complains that a lack of professionalism in the LTA has held her back, or--as the always-candid Brit told the BBC: "If I knew what I know now I could've been in the top 50 years ago." I don't have any trouble believing Keothavong. The last time I checked, the LTA was very busy trying to convince girls they could be athletes and still be "feminine."

Speaking of rankings, Kaia Kanepi is now in the top 20 (number 20).

Patty Schnyder's official website has disappeared, though the English version (never as good as the European version) is still online. I hope this is a temporary status. The website for The White Mile is still online, too. The last time Schndyer was interviewed about the book, which was to have been released in Europe July of last year, she said that she and husband/coach Reiner Hoffman became very busy and had not yet figured out how to tie all of the parts of the book together. There are still no excerpts on the website.

All kinds of sister news

The big sister news is that Urszula Radwanska (Radwanska the younger) defeated her sister, the 9th seeded Agnieszka, in straight sets today in the first round in Dubai.

But there was other sister news. The wildly inconsistent Bondarenko sisters, Alona and Kateryna, defeated 6th seeds Yan Zi and Zheng Jie, 6-3, 4-6, 11-9. Alona also won her first round singles match against Olga Govortsova, but Kateryna lost hers to Virginie Razzano.