German Open first round features some interesting matches

Talented young clay star Alize Cornet is playing in Berlin next week

Waiting for her in the opening round is tough clay veteran Francesca Schiavone

We don't know who the qualifiers are yet, so there could be even more interesting matches, but check out what we know so far:

Schiavone v. Cornet: No one, no matter how talented she is, wants to meet Francesca Schiavone in the first round (or any round) of a red clay tournament. The very talented Cornet could have problems dealing with the Italian's lobs, spins and beautiful one-handed backhand.

Cibulkova v. A. Bondarenko: Dominika Cibulkova appears to be a clay specialist, at least at this point in her career, but Alona Bondarenko is pretty good on the surface, too. This could be quite a contest.

Vaidisova v. Dulko: Vaidisova is trying to get her career back on track, and clay expert Dulko's game has improved a lot of late. If Dulko can keep her newly improved serve working reasonably well throughout the match--something she failed to do against Serena Williams in Charleston--she can move to the second round.

Wozniacki v. Golovin: Golovin is trying to come back from an injury and surgery layoff, and Wozniacki has had a problem with her left ankle for the last few weeks. Neither will be in especially good form.

K. Bondarenko v. Paszek: Kateryna Bondarenko can use her doubles skills to throw the relentless baseliner off her rhythm. This could be interesting if Bondarenko is willing to play agressively.

Petrova v. Srebotnik: Petrova is one of the very best clay players on the tour, but her career has been on a downward spiral for some time. Srebotnik, also good on clay, is playing quite well these days.

Razzano v. Safarova: Virginie Razzano defines the term "late bloomer." Red clay is not her best surface, but Lucie Safarova is not doing well on any surface these days.

Peer v. Lisicki: Shahar Peer is not having much of a season, so far. On paper, she should be able to take care of the big-hitting but tactically deficient Sabine Lisicki, but considering how she's been playing lately, she may have to really work this one.

Bammer v. Krajicek: Neither is having that good a season; Michaella Krajicek, in fact, is having a dreadful season. She and Sybille Bammer have played each other on clay twice, and have split the victories.

French Open wild card to be determined tomorrow

The French Open wild card playoffs are in progress in Boca Raton, with these results so far:

Lauren Albanese def. Ahsha Rolle, 6-1, 6-0
Melanie Oudin def. Julia Boserup, 1-6, 6-1, 6-1
Madison Brengle def. Coco Vandewegh, 6-4, 6-2
Christina McHale def. Alexa Glatch, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4

Kimiko Date begins comeback by taking out number 1 seed

It's a 50k event, the tournament in Gifu, Japan. Nevertheless, its top seed, Aiko Nakamura, has been knocked out by none other than 37-year-old Kimiko Date Krumm, who has returned to the tour.

Date Krumm retired in 1996 with seven career singles titles. She reached the semifinals of both the Australian Open and Roland Garros, and the quarterfinals of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open (twice).

What are they doing?

Where are the players who dropped out for a while because of injury and illness or other problems? What are they doing?

Anastasia Myskina just had a baby.

Sam Stosur is playing in challengers. She just lost to Yanina Wickmayer in the quarterfinals of the Boyd Tinsley USTA Pro Women's Tennis Championships in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Tatiana Golovin is playing in challengers. She just lost to in the second round of the Cagnes-Sur-Mer in France to Maret Ani.

Sesil Karatantcheva was playing in challengers and is now playing in Tour events.

Jelena Dokic just keeps coming back, over and over, but to no avail.

Sharapova unhappy with tour's pre-Rome demand

Maria Sharapova is using her blog to express her dissatisfaction with the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's mandate that she do a four-hour (and, as Peter Bodo points out, a "four-hour" shoot lasts a lot longer than four hours) commercial shoot right before the Italian Open. She says that if she refuses, she will be fined more than $300,000.

Sharapova says that she is happy to do a video shoot to market the tour, but that she has a personal rule that does not do any type of shoot right before a tournament because she needs to focus on tennis.

"Girls" and "men"

"Girls talking to girls and men talking to men, but neither one of them communicating with each other."

That's an assessment of the sad state of affairs of male-female communication. Only the sadder state of affairs is that the author, Serena Williams, refers to females as children and to males as adults. It's bad enough that men do that--women really need to stop doing it. It is especially disappointing to see an accomplished, assertive woman like Williams do it.

Friday cat blogging--laundry day edition