Quote of the day

"...I guess they're pretty darn good but since I never finished that Football for Dummies book, and the only football games I ever watch is when I mistakenly turn on a sports channel, I am so clueless to who they are and what exactly they do."

Maria Sharapova on the football players at her Phoenix rehab facility

This and that...

Amelie Mauresmo has confirmed that the split from her coach and her trainer is not temporary.


Maria Sharapova is said to be romantically linked to Charlie Ebersol.


Malaysia will get a Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournament some time soon.


Steve Flink writes about the tour.


Ksenia Palkina, ranked 203rd in the world, upset Olga Govortsova today in Tashkent. It was her first victory over a player in the top 50.


For those of you wondering how Laura Robson did in Shrewsbury: She was defeated in the semifinals by Maret Ani, who lost in the final to Roberta Vinci, the 7th seed.


Larcher de Brito watch: Michelle Larcher de Brito has defeated Andreja Klepac to get to the second round of the Tashkent Open. Her next opponent is Tatiana Poutchek, and that should be a, shall we say, boisterous match.


Maria Sharapova starts hitting tennis balls again next week, and that's a good thing.

Stuttgart draw is very competitive

At the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, it isn't so easy to get out of the first round. Yesterday, Nicole Vaidisova made an exit, and today, those leaving included Agnes Szavay, Flavia Pennetta, Alize Cornet, and Dominika Cibulkova. To quote an inappropriate and sexist commentator we all know, "Oh, my."

Szavay has not had a good season. I have no idea what is wrong. In today's case, she did come up against a very tough opponent--Victoria Azarenka, so the loss was hardly shocking. Pennetta was shown the door by Kateryna Bondarenko, Cornet was defeated by perennial giant-killer Tsvetana Pironkova, and Cibulkova fell victim to Marion Bartoli, as one might expect. Of these losses, the two surprises were Pennetta (who lost in doubles, too)--though Bondarenko can play some very good tennis when she puts her mind to it--and Cornet. All of the matches were competitive in terms of the draw--Cornet vs. Pironkova, maybe not on paper, but you know how Pironkova can be in an early round.

The resurgent Anna-Lena Groenefeld will have to wait a bit to show her comeback skills; she was pretty much run over by Venus Williams--6-1, 6-2.

Tomorrow should be just as competitive. In further first round play, Patty Schnyder plays Svetlana Kuznetsova, who just lost the final in Beijing. Schnyder has usually done very well on indoor surfaces, though Kuznetsova will give her all she can handle. Vera Zvonareva plays Daniela Hantuchova, and that, too, should be worth watching (if only I could watch it).

Watch for these second round contests:
Serena Williams vs. Li Na
Victoria Azarenka vs. Agnieszka Radwanska
Alona Bondarenko vs. Jelena Jankovic

In the second round, Nadia Petrova will get the winner of the Schnyder-Kuznetsova match, and Bartoli will play the winner of the Zvonareva-Hantuchova match. This is some competitive stuff.

Game, set, sexism

Every year, I see this slogan and am disappointed. I had actually forgotten about it, but blog reader Claire brought it to my attention today. Yes, it is "cute." But it is cute at the expense of the actual adults who compete in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. Very few of the competitors are girls--almost all of them are women. The tournament directors would never refer to Federer, Nadal, Kiefer, Safin, and Ferrer as "boys," but they think nothing of making children out of the women who are playing in the tournament.

Here is the email address: tennis@porsche.de

Vaidisova out in first round in Stuttgart

Probably to no one's surprise, Nicole Vaidisova has been eliminated early from competition in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. She was defeated, 6-1, 6-2, by Li Na. It is, of course, no shame to be defeated by Li. Now that Li is entering tournaments without a seed, she is probably the most dangerous floater on the tour. But this was more than a defeat--it was a runover--and there have been so many other early defeats for Vaidisova.

I have never found Nicole Vaidisova to be an especially interesting player. That view is subjective, of course, and part of my indifference toward her has to do with her attitudes about women's roles on the tour. But what really bothers me most about her--from a strictly-tennis standpoint--is that I have not seen her develop mental strength to match her obvious tennis talent. Vaidisova has always been somewhat of a hot-head, and like pre-Berlin Safina, this trait has gotten in her way (I'm not convinced it gets in everyone's way--some hot-heads can use their anger well on court).

I haven't seen Nicole Vaidisova play in a while, so I really don't know what is going on with her. But she is having such a disappointing season. She is still quite young, so she has time to get her head together and start fresh.

A note to Tennis Channel...

If you are going to advertise yourself as the "Home of the Slams," you should probably use a voice-over person who knows how to pronounce 'Wimbledon." Just a thought.

Jankovic wins China Open

Throughout their final in Beijing today, Jelena Jankovic looked focused and sharp, and Svetlana Kuznetsova--as is so often the case these days--looked sluggish and somewhat dazed.

Not that Kuznetsova didn't have some fine moments--she is such a good player that it is impossible for her not to have some. But she was unable to deal with Jankovic's almost frenetic drawing her from side to side, and her relentless returning of shots that lesser players would have tossed into the net or outside the lines.

I wrote recently about Patty Schnyder's recent poor record in finals. Kuznetsova's is even worse, with only one win in the last ten. She recently parted from her longtime coach and will now be coached by Olga Morozova. Perhaps having a new coach will help her out of what is now a serious rut.

Jankovic def. Kuznetsova, 6-3, 6-2