Sweeping the court in Charleston

Belinda Bencic says that when she was younger, she had a poster of Maria Kirilenko on her wall, so "it is very nice to win against her."

Kiki Bertens had to retire after the first set of her second round match against Sara Errani. Bertens sustained a lower back injury.

Ed McGrogan wants Miami to go green like Charleston.

Andrea Petkovic needed just 49 minutes to defeat Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6-0, 6-0 today.

The Genie Army is alive and well in Charleston, and has already delivered a teddy bear to Genie Bouchard.

Over the past 14 years, around 400 players have been guests, in some form or other, in the homes of people in the Charleston area. Bethanie Mattek-Sands' story is especially interesting.

Charleston All Access Hour

Serena Williams upset in Charleston second round

Photo by Daniel Ward

Defending champion and top seed Serena Williams, who won the Family Circle Cup in both 2013 and 2012, lost her second round match tonight to Jana Cepelova. It was Williams' first match in Charleston; she had a bye in the first round. Constrained by a thigh problem, Williams also had to deal with a very focused and relaxed Cepelova, who defeated her 6-4, 6-4.

Williams had her thigh taped during the match, but it didn't seem to help. She later downplayed the issue and said that she was very tired and needed a vacation. Only a few days ago, she won the premier mandatory event in Miami, and then traveled straight to Charleston.

Cepelova, who is number 78 in the world, had never before beaten a top 15 player.

Photo by Daniel Ward

Hantuchova beats home favorite on Daniel Island

Photo by Daniel Ward

Experience matters, and that point was emphasized by Daniela Hantuchova this morning in Charleston when she defeated local favorite Shelby Rogers 7-5, 7-5. Hantuchova was all over the place, alternating winning and losing streaks, but when it counted, she went into aggressive mode and got the better of her opponent.

The Slovakian veteran is currently coached by Peter Lundgren. Lundgren, of course, has a lot of experience coaching ATP players, and Hantuchova talked about the changes he's going through as he gets more acquainted with the WTA.

"I'd have to say he's very surprised how fast we play. We hit the ball really fast, where the guys use maybe more spin. But overall it's pretty much the same, except the thinking part, where we, I think in general, like to make things a little bit more complicated than the guys."

Hantuchova also challenged the assumption that the green clay courts at the Family Circle Cup are faster than European red clay courts. She said that the really slow courts like those in Berlin and Hamburg, are gone, that Madrid and Paris have very fast courts, and that the courts in Charleston are now some of the slowest-playing courts in the world.

Stosur moves past Shvedova in Charleston

Photo by Daniel Ward

It took her three sets, but 2010 Family Circle Cup champion Samantha Stosur defeated Yaroslava Shvedova today in Charleston to advance to the third round. Shvedova went up 5-2 in the second set but then took a medical timeout for a leg problem. The timeout seemed to put Stosur back in the mix, as she broke to get the set to 5-all. Shvedova held at 40-love to go up 6-5, and it was within that game that she had a real "Radwanska" moment, doing a half twirl as she hit a backhand volley over her shoulder.

Stosur, after losing the second set, quickly went about the business of closing the match, and defeated Shvedova 6-3, 5-7, 6-1.

Photo by Daniel Ward

2004 champion Venus Williams also had to go three sets to get a victory, and her situation was more complicated than Stosur's. Williams has been ill lately, apparently the victim of some type of bug, and there were times in her match against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova that she appeared breathless and exhausted. But that certainly wasn't
her only problem: Zahlavova Strycova played at a very high level, serving very well and engaging Williams in long rallies.

Photo by Daniel Ward

It's obvious that the Czech player spent her recent "time off" in the gym. She doesn't physically resemble the player she used to be. Zahlavova Strycova has become stronger and more muscular, and is hitting from a really stable core. After losing the first set 3-6, she won the second set 6-0. In the third set, she impressively saved four match points when Williams served at 5-4. But in the end, after playing for two hours and 18 minutes, Williams was able to take the last set 7-5.

Gladys Knight was in the house, and caught one of Venus's autographed tennis balls. "She's got some hand-eye coordination..." Williams said of the singing legend.

Of her opponent, Williams said, "I've never seen her play that well, truth be told.
" "And she was so extremely focused today."

Williams seemed tired during her press conference, yet she talked at length about what her past year has been like as she has learned more about how to manage living with Sjogren's syndrome. "...you're not doing anything wrong; you've always done things right your whole career and you're kind of facing something that you can't control."

Photo by Daniel Ward

Things didn't go as well for 2006 champion Nadia Petrova, who lost in three sets to Marina Erakovic. Petrova got a line call she didn't like, and proceeded to go on a rant about the "blind people" in her midst. Oh, Nadia.

This morning, Zhang Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei went at it for two hours and 48 minutes on the Althea Gibson Club Court. Hsieh isn't having a very good season in singles, and today's match didn't help. There was a third set tiebreak, postponed a bit because of some type of medical timeout that Hsieh took. Zhang then won the tiebreak 7-0. With a 3-6, 7-6, 7-6 victory, she advanced to the next round.

Also winning today were Elena Vesnina (def. Anna Schmiedlova), Peng Shuai (def. Caroline Garcia), Andrea Petkovic (def. Lesia Tsurenko), Vania King (def. Julia Glushko),  Lourdes Dominguez Lino (def. Anabel Medina Garrigues), Eugenie Bouchard (def. Alla Kudryatseva), Teliana Pereira (def. Sorana Cirstea), and Lucie Safarova (def. Virginie Razzano).

And could there be anything more fun than a doubles team composed of Jelena Jankovic and Andrea Petkovic? Hmm....no, there couldn't be. Cracking each other up from start to finish, the wild cards beat Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond 7-5, 2-6, 10-7 in the opening round of doubles. Jankovic was on fire, rushing the net and smacking winning volleys as though she did it all the time. It was a really good match with some stunning rallies.

Today is the first day of National Poetry Month

And that's as good a reason as any to re-read my favorite tennis poem, Clive James' "Bring me the sweat of Gabriela Sabatini," from The Book of my Enemy: Collected Poems: 1958-2003.

Top seed Pennetta out of Monterrey in first round

Top seed Flavia Pennetta got done up like a zombie for the Monterrey player party on Sunday night. In hindsight, maybe that wasn't such a good idea (for her, that is--I loved it). Pennetta was knocked out of the tournament yesterday in the first round, a victim of Kimiko Date-Krumm, who beat her 7-5, 6-2. Kimiko the Zombie Slayer strikes again.

5th seed Garbine Muguruza and 7th seed Karin Knapp were upset by Donna Vekic (7-6, 7-6)  and Jovana Jaksic, respectively. 2nd seed Ana Ivanovic and 3rd seed Caroline Wozniacki play today. Ivanovic plays Ula Radwanska, and Wozniacki faces Coco Vandeweghe.