Morigami changes her story

Akiko Morigami now says she never meant to imply that she was asked to throw a match. She says her comments were "misunderstood." Right.

Recent withdrawals

Maria Sharapova has withdrawn from the International Women's Open in Eastbourne, one of the key Wimbledon warm-up tournaments. It is unknown whether she will play in Birmingham. Nicole Vaidisova is taking her place in the Eastbourne draw.

Agnieszka Radwanska, meanwhile, has withdrawn from the DFS Classic in Birmingham, citing a need to rest and concern about her arm. Like Jankovic, Radwanska complained of arm injury because of the heavy balls at the French Open.

Harkleroad turns down chance to be on U.S. Olympic team

Ashley Harkleroad has turned down an opportunity to play in the 2008 Olympics because, she says, she wants to concentrate on improving her ranking during the hard court season.

Harkleroad was recently off the tour for a while because of emergency surgery.

French Open doubles--the upsets keep coming

Today it was number 4 seeds Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung who made an exit in Paris. They were defeated by number 10 seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and former world number 1Virginia Ruano Pascual in a very close match--6-7, 7-5, 7-5.

Of the top four seeds, only number 1 seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber remain.

In the meantime, number 6 seeds Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Peer were also upset, by Casey Dellacqua and Francesca Schiavone, 7-6, 7-5.

Serbian semifinal set

Can the JJ Express travel all the way?

Patty Schnyder battled high winds, which meant Ana Ivanovic did not have to battle much. She beat Schnyder, 6-3, 6-2 today to reach the semifinals of the 2008 French Open.

Jelena Jankovic (in her USA Today blog, she reminds everyone, yet again, that her named is pronounced YELL-e-nuh) won her semifinal in straight sets, too. She defeated surprise quarterfinalist Carla Suarez Navarro with the same scoreline as her countrywoman. Jankovic, like several of the women on the tour, has been complaining about the heaviness of the balls. She has had quite a bit of arm and shoulder pain, and Sunday, she flew to Serbia to see her doctor. She reports that she is much better now and hopes that tomorrow's day of rest will help her heal.

The two Serbs have played each other six times, and Ivanovic has won five of those contests. The only time they have ever played on clay, it was on the green clay of Amelia Island, in 2006, and Ivanovic won that one.

Dementieva reverses her Charleston fortunes

In a very well-played match, Vera Zvonareva defeated Elena Dementieva in the Family Circle Cup semifinals in April. Today, Dementieva reversed that outcome by defeating her countrywoman 6-4, 1-6, 6-2. I did not get to see this match, and I really wanted to.

Dementieva will play another of her countrywomen (one of the television commentators said that the upper half of the draw should be renamed the Moscow Open), Dinara Safina, in the quarterfinals. And as of this writing, another Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova, is up a set over Victoria Azarenka; their match was suspended because of darkness.

Pot. Kettle. Noir.

No doubt, Maria Sharapova was over the top in today's round of 16 match. Her language was quite colorful, to be sure, but the French have heard colorful language from WTA players before. Sharapova is sometimes criticized for taking too long between points, but all I saw today were some repeated ball tosses because she was having trouble with her serve. She didn't take any questionable bathroom breaks or questionable injury breaks. She also didn't break her racquet (her opponent did that) or yell at the umpire.

The French crowd booed and whistled whenever Sharapova questioned a line call. That is outrageous. She has a perfect right to question a line call, especially the way lines are called at some of these tournaments, and especially during a clay court match, when there is no Hawkeye system to confirm calls. They booed and whistled when she did a ball toss over. They cheered when she faulted. And they booed her when she walked off the court after an especially demoralizing defeat.

The French crowd seems to pride itself on such behavior, while--at the same time--projecting rudeness onto Sharapova.

Sharapova was, as always, philosophical about the whole thing: "I can't please everyone. That's not in my...job description."