Sharapova passes 2nd round test in Stanford

There was some anticipation about Maria Sharapova's second round match against Victoria Azarenka at the LA Women's Tennis Championships last night. Sharapova, obviously still struggling with her serve (as are so many) double-faulted twelve times, but she defeated the 3rd seed 6-7, 6-4, 6-2.

There were two other upsets yesterday. Urszula Radwanska defeated 7th seed Dominika Cibulkova, 6-4, 6-7, 6-4. And Sorana Cirstea defeated 4th seed Caroline Wozniacki, 1-6, 6-4, 7-6. Cirstea also defeated her friend Wozniacki in the third round of the French Open.

Wozniak and Lisicki brush past opponents in Los Angeles

Last week, I wrote that Sabine Lisicki--since her return from injury and illness--cannot stop double-faulting. And so it goes...Today, in her first round in Los Angeles, she double-faulted eleven times against Kimiko Date Krumm. Krumm served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, but was broken, and Lisicki wound up winning 7-6, 2-6, 7-5. But this madness has to stop.

Aleksandra Wozniak defeated Bethanie Mattek-Sands 7-5, 7-5. Ayumi Morita retired because of a GI illness, and seven of the qualifiers are out in the first round; only Jill Craybas is still standing.

Szavay out in first round in Los Angeles

Just when Agnes Szavay was ending her slump and returning to form, she met Elena Vesnina in the first round of the LA Women's Tennis Championships. Vesnina, who is having her best season to date, defeated Szavay 6-1, 6-0. As good as Vesnina has become, that is still a most puzzling score.

Also in the first round, Anna Chakvetadze upset 11th seed Virginie Razzano, Lucie Safarova upset 15th seed Kaia Kanepi (who is not having a good season), and Jill Craybas upset 16th seed Francesca Schiavone. Nicole Vaidisova won two games against Yanina Wickmayer, Coco Vandeweghe defeated Tathiana Garbin, and Anastasia Rodionova retired from her match with a left ankle injury.

A slight detour, and a blog I recommend

Before I published Women Who Serve, I published The Dees Diversion--which covered a variety of social and political issues, including feminism--and I wrote for the Mojo Blog, the official blog of Mother Jones. One of my favorite blogs from those days--and still a must-read for me--is Tennessee Guerilla Women. I am quite pleased to have something I wrote featured there today.

I do not generally link to my work on the Web (I sometimes publish in electronic literary magazines, and last year, I did some guest blogging prior to the U.S. election), but since Tennessee Guerilla Women was kind enough to mention and link to this blog, I am using this opportunity to do likewise.

Pouchkova saves 3 match points to give Washington Kastles first WTT championship

The Washington Kastles have won their first World Team Tennis Championship. The Kastles defeated the Springfield Lasers 23-20, a win sealed when Olga Pouchkova saved three match points to defeat the Lasers' Vania King.

Kastles team owner Mark Ein called it the most exciting WTT match he had ever seen, and "a dream come true to win this in front of our fans."

Vania King named WTT Most Valuable Player

Vania King of the Springfield Lasers has been named the World Team Tennis female Most Valuable Player for 2009. King had a 65% winning percentage this season, posting 61 singles games and 40 women's doubles games. This was King's first time to play World Team Tennis.

Named female Rookie of the Year was Liga Dekmaijere, who played for the St. Louis Aces. Dekmeijere won 52 women's doubles games.

Miscellany

Marion Bartoli has withdrawn from the LA Women's Tennis Championships. Bartoli has a calf strain, and had she stayed in, she would have had no rest at all between tournaments. Sam Stosur has taken her place in the draw, and lucky loser Varvara Lepchenko has also moved into the draw.

Here is an interview with the refreshingly thoughtful and articulate Andrea Petkovic.

The Boston Lobsters recently wore numbers on their jerseys for the first time. Team members wore the number 20 to commemorate teammate Martina Navratilova's 20th year as a World Team Tennis player.

Bud Collins will soon be writing a Thursday column for the Tennis Channel website.