Half of remaining draw in to round of 16

- Get Your Own

Though it was no surprise to some of us, Sybille Bammer upset her way into the round of 16 by defeating Elena Dementieva, 6-1, 6-2. Bammer has really raised her game this summer, and though I was a bit surprised by the scoreline, I wasn't surprised by the result. Most of the matches were two-setters, though it took Jelena Jankovic three sets to ward off Alize Cornet, and it took Marion Bartoli her usual three sets to defeat always-tough Lucie Safarova.

Tomorrow's third round is the round of phenoms: Nadia Petrova faces Agnes Szavay, Martina Hingis plays Victoria Azarenka, Patty Schnyder has to contend with Tamira Paszek, and Maria Sharapova gets Agnieska Radwanska. How many phenoms will make it to the round of 16?

Top doubles seeds out at U.S. Open

Maria Elena Camerin of Italy, who used her inside-out forehand to give Serena Williams a spirited second round match earlier this week, joined Gisela Dulko in taking out the number one seeds in doubles today

Cara Black and Liezel Huber went out in the second round today, defeated by Maria Elena Camerin and Gisela Dulko, 1-6, 7-6, 6-2. The unseeded team will probably face Corina Morariu and Meghann Shaughnessy, unless there is another upset. Morariu played doubles with Patty Schnyder for some time after she lost her long-time doubles partner, Lindsay Davenport, but Schnyder has been playing with doubles specialist Janette Husarova lately. Dulko was playing with Flavia Pennetta, but has been playing with Camerin lately.

Friday cat blogging--tennis fan edition

Velma keeps up with the U.S. Open scores

Service coach needed--badly

Watching Martina Hingis serve is making me cringe. The rest of her game is as sharp as ever, but even if her back and hip do completely heal (which is questionable at this point), that second serve is going to get eaten by any number of players. The odd thing is that I have seen Hingis serve really well since she came back onto the tour. She will serve very well for a few games, then go back to executing mediocre first serves and poor second serves. Her coach says that in practice she serves really well. So she has the ability to deliver serves that are good enough to win matches, but she does not deliver them consistently. If this is a head problem, I hope she gets someone to help her. And if it is just a service problem, surely there is a specialist who can help her.

Note to Jelena Jankovic: Though you are not in need of this specialist as much as Hingis is, it wouldn't hurt you to sign up, too.

Bethanie Mattek watch

Mattek, though expected to go out in the first round of the U.S. Open to her pal Madison Brengle, won their match, 6-4, 6-1. You'll recall that the witty, shock-dressing Mattek has completely retooled her game, and says it will be a while before she sees the results pay off. Despite her great serve, she probably won't see those results in the second round: She plays Shahar Peer.

The only photo I could find of Mattek in her first round is one shot at such an angle that I refuse to give the photographer publicity by linking to it. For the record, though, she is wearing a gold metallic dress and matching headband.

August 30 update: I just saw Mattek's latest outfit--metallic silver and black--and I am now rather forgiving of the photographer.

No one admires Federer more than I do...

But until last night, he didn't know who Althea Gibson was.

Hantuchova says goodbye

Julia Vakulenko of Ukraine defeated 9th-seeded Daniela Hantuchova today in the first round of the U.S. Open

I knew that an in-form Julia Vakulenko could take out Daniela Hantuchova, but since her excellent performance at Wimbledon (almost taking out Svetlana Kuznetsova), Vakulenko--perhaps hampered by a pre-Wimbledon ankle injury--has been off her game. But, as I wrote a few days ago, if she were to get back into form, she could escort Hantuchova out of the U.S. Open, and she did: 6-4, 3-6, 6-1.