Raymond and Stosur out of the U.S. Open

Like them or not, the crowd at the U.S. Open will get to see more of Bethanie Mattek's tennis outfits. She and Sania Mirza just defeated second seeds Lisa Raymond and Sam Stosur in what appeared, from the scoreboard, to be a genuine thriller. Raymond and Stosur took the first set, 6-2, and Mattek and Mirza took the second, 7-5. In the third, Mattek and Mirza broke at 4-all, but were broken right back when they served for the match. But they broke again at 5-all, and held to take the third set, 7-5.

The top seeds, Cara Black and Liezel Huber, are already gone. They were defeated by Maria Elena Camerin and Gisela Dulko.

Next up for 16th-seeded Mattek and Mirza are Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung.

Top half set for U.S. Open quarterfinals

Sybille Bammer lost her round of 16 match to Jelena Jankovic, but gave Jankovic a high-quality match

Marion Bartoli, serving well and finding the corners when she could, was no match against a brilliantly-serving Serena Williams. Bartoli seemed a bit sluggish to me, but her interview reveals that what she felt was more resignation than anything else. Final score: Williams def. Bartoli, 6-3, 6-4

Meanwhile, Ana Ivanovic (selected as U.S. Open "Player of the Day" this week for doing nothing in particular) was totally outclassed by Venus Williams. Unable to break Williams' serve, Ivanovic seemed to fade away, and we didn't get to see much of that wonderful forehand. Final score: Williams def. Ivanovic, 6-4, 6-2

For her part, Justine Henin made short work of a very frustrated Dinara Safina, defeating her 6-0, 6-2.

The most interesting of the four matches was the one between Jelena Jankovic and Sybille Bammer. Bammer has really raised her game of late, and she turned the match into a spirited contest, grabbing a set from Jankovic, and putting on a sometimes-beautiful groundstroke display. Jankovic, for her part, looked tired, and her defense, though good (when is it not?) was not quite a sharp as usual. Jankovic's second serve remains weak. If she has to use it much against Venus Williams in their quarterfinal match, she will pay dearly. Jankovic appears to have overdone it this year, not taking enough breaks, and one wonders whether she can stay both physically and mentally strong enough to keep going. It is frustrating to see such an extremely gifted player on the verge of possible burnout. Final score: Jankovic def. Bammer, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1

Just in case you didn't hear it the first 500 times...

Sybille Bammer is a mother.

How can she stay up past ten at night?! Her "boyfriend" travels with her. There goes "mom!"

All the commentators need to shut up about Bammer's parenthood, but Tracy Austin in particular needs to find something else to talk about. Perhaps she can do some homework about Lleyton Hewitt or Max Mirnyi or Fabrice Santoro and talk nonstop about their parenthood. All those children--how do they do it?

Sharapova vultures need to pick someone else's bones

I knew it would happen the moment Maria Sharavpova lost her U.S. Open third round match against Agnieszka Radwanska--"Sharapova is finished," "Sharapova is overrated," "Sharapova will never win another Slam."

This type of bashing, though de rigeur in a culture that loves to build people up, then knock them down--is simply not fair. Though Sharapova lost largely because she fell apart mentally, it is instructive to take a look at why she did so. Sharapova has spent a terrible year nursing a serious shoulder injury that caused her to lose one of her most effective weapons--her serve. Both her first and second serves have been two of the best on the tour for a while, and with her shoulder vulnerable, she has struggled to regain them. When a person struggles with something, especially something that was once second nature, her confidence plummets.

Sharapova finally won a tournament a few weeks ago in San Diego, but then she had to withdraw from her semifinal in Los Angeles, because of a lower leg strain. In other words, she came into the U.S. Open with relatively little match play, a tweaky shoulder, a new service motion, and recent recovery from a new injury.

The same people who like to complain that there is "no depth" in women's tennis are now complaining because the U.S. Open defending champion was upset by a phenom. These fans, however, were relatively silent when Marion Bartoli demolished Justine Henin in the Wimbledon semifinals. The difference? Sharapova is a big media star, and Henin isn't. That's because our culture likes to promote long-legged blondes whose faces have not even fully formed, and then attack them when they do not live up to their superstar status.

Yes, Sharapova needs to do whatever it takes to regain her confidence. But is she finished? Hardly. In fact, anyone who was really watching her at the U.S. Open noticed that she was trying new techniques--working to make her game better.

Sharapova is not a quitter. In the words of another female superstar: "Nobody's perfect--what did you expect?"

Phenoms gone wild

Though everyone is talking about Agnieszka Radwanska's defeat of defending champion Maria Sharapova, it should also be mentioned that three other hot young players, Tamira Paszek, Victoria Azarenka, and Agnes Szavay, also moved to the round of 16 today by defeating Patty Schnyder, Martina Hingis, and Nadia Petrova, respectively. Petrova experienced a hip strain during her match, which, of course, didn't help. Hingis won only one set, and Schnyder was in a closely contested three-setter in which she got run over in the third set tiebreak.

Ukrainian player Julia Vakulenko moves on, with a defeat of Maria Kirilenko. Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated Anabel Medina Garrigues, and Anna Chakvetadze took out one of the season's hottest players, Sania Mirza. The night match was a messy thriller between Nicole Vaidisova, who has been out since Wimbledon with a viral illness, and Shahar Peer. Peer has developed a more aggressive game, which she needed, but her serve let down over and over; it will have to improve for her to go much farther. She won the match, however, on her fourth match point. Final score: Peer def. Vaidisova, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6

Umpire tells Williams to put her notebook away

Serena Williams has a long-standing habit of bringing notes with her onto the court. She reads them during the changeovers and between sets, for they are little reminders to her about the kind of mental attitude she needs to have. The notes are strictly motivational; at the Australian Open, the "notes" amounted to one word--the name of her murdered sister.

Yesterday, chair umpire Damian Steiner told Williams to put her notes away during a break in her match against Vera Zvonareva. There is no rule against having notes on the court, as long as the player brings the notes herself. Steiner, apparently unfamiliar with the rules, eventually reversed his decision.

Said Williams: "Well, it's not like I'm Harry Potter and my dad can magically give me notes to read."

The game of mental toughness: Radwanska-1, Sharapova-0

Agnieszka Radwanska stood well inside the baseline, a la Marion Bartoli, waiting for Maria Sharapova's poorly executed second serves, then attacked repeatedly. Sharapova used to have one of the best second serves on the tour, but that was before she had shoulder problems and probably lost some confidence. Her second serve problem wouldn't have been an issue, but she missed her first serve enough times that service games became a problem.

That was the first set story. In the second set, Sharapova looked like herself again, whipping sharp groundstrokes and thrilling the crowd with some outstanding volleys. She made short work of that set, and it looked, for all the world, as though she would do the same in the third.

But something happened in that final set: Radwanska came onto the court with the same mindset she had in the first set. She was broken right away, but she endured the early break and went on to break Sharapova back, then break again...and again, the last break coming after five deuces. Standing well inside the court, she went back into attack mode, while Sharapova struggled with her serve and made continual errors.

Sharavpova's first two rounds indicated the strength of her service game, which has sometimes suffered since she hurt her shoulder. She committed twelve double faults in her match against Radwanska, and she had a second serve win total of only 23%. When the heat was on, it was the young phenom who kept her head about her. Final score: Radwanska def. Sharapova, 6-4, 1-6, 6-2