In honor of National Poetry Month

Photo by Daniel Ward

The Errani-Browning Riff

How do I drop thee? Let me count the ways.
I drop thee to the depth and breadth and height
My racket can reach, when feeling out of sorts
For the ends of lobbing and ideal grace.
I drop thee to the level of every game's
Most quiet slide, by sun and stadium-light.
I drop thee freely, as women strive for rights;
I drop thee purely, as they return my second serves.
I drop thee with the passion put to use
In my old beliefs, and with my Fed Cup's faith.
I drop thee with a love I seemed to lose
With my lost ranking. I drop thee with the breath,
Smiles, tears, of all my career; and, if God choose,
I shall but drop thee better after Charleston.

Four former champions remain in Charleston draw

Serena Williams and Nadia Petrova are out, but four remaining Family Circle Cup champions have advanced to the third round. Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Sabine Lisicki, and Sam Stosur are all in the competition.

Venus Williams, who sounds pretty congested and says she's still battling some type of bug, got a good fight today from Chanelle Scheepers (who always plays well here), but the 2004 champion prevailed, 7-5, 7-5.

Photo by Daniel Ward

2009 champion Sabine Lisicki had to go three sets against an in-form Vania King (another player who does especially well in Charleston). Lisicki won the first set 7-5, but then became error-prone as King continued to play at a high level. King won that set 6-4, and then--in the final set--the Charleston Sabine of 2009 showed up and put on a show of serving and expert drop shot execution that was breathtaking. It reminded me a lot of the 2009 final, in which Lisicki beat Caroline Wozniacki.

In that third set, Lisicki had first and second serve win percentages of 75 and 83! She had overall percentages of 76 and 45, and she hit 12 aces. After the match, she talked about what a difference it makes when she feels relaxed. Before the final set began, something in her just loosened up, and she won that set 6-3. Lisicki is seeded fourth in the tournament; her next opponent will be Andrea Petkovic.

Photo by Daniel Ward

2007 champion (and 2013 runner-up) Jelena Jankovic defeated Lauren Davis 6-0, 6-3 in the night match. Here's JJ in all her hot pink stretchy glory.

After her victory, Jankovic told the press that playing that doubles match with Andrea Petkovic last night was the most fun she had ever had on a tennis court in her life. I believe it.

Photo by Daniel Ward

The 2nd seed entered the press conference with a blanket wrapped around her shoulders like a cape, and promptly declared herself a superhero. She was asked whether it was true that she had stopped wearing makeup on court, and she launched into a lengthy--and hilarious--speech about getting older, looking clean and well-groomed, not caring anymore about wanting to "look different," and using lip gloss because her lips are cracked from talking too much.

"Here I want to look like a beast,"  she said. "I just want to look as scary as possible. I don't want to look pretty and all nice and dolled up. For what? I'm going to get dirty and sweaty. The only thing, my hair has to be slick."

Photo by Daniel Ward

Also today, Daniela Hantuchova made easy work of qualifier Grace Min, Ajla Tomljanovic beat Zhang Shuai, 2011 runner-up Elena Vesnina defeated Petra Cetkovska, and Peng Shuai beat 15th seed Madison Keys 6-1, 6-7, 7-6. They played on the Althea Gibson Club Court for almost two and a half hours, and Peng (who was barely acknowledged by a disappointed crowd who had been yelling and screaming at Keys) was the one who stayed very calm and steady in the third set tiebreak. And this following her having gone up 5-1 in the second set, only to get broken repeatedly by a determined Keys.

There was a big upset in doubles. Chan Hao-Ching and Chan Yung-Jan defeated 2nd seeds Kveta Peschke and Lucie Safarova 6-4, 6-4.

"I want to look like a beast"

Photo by Daniel Ward

5th seed Stephens upset in second round of Family Circle Cup

Photo by Daniel Ward

Sloane Stephens and Elina Svitolina played the first match on Billie Jean King Court today, and while both were inconsistent, it was Svitolina who managed to pull things together when it counted. The Ukrainian player had a couple of issues that made the match harder for her to play than it might have been. She went through periods of not being able to get her first serve in, and she also attempted to hit a series of failed volleys.

Most of Svitolina's volleys in the second set were such failures, in fact, that an observer might have wondered why she was bothering to go to the net at all. After the match, she explained that she was trying to learn how to finish points at the net when she plays on clay. "I'm trying now," she said, "to go more forward because I think this is the key on the clay court, that you need to finish more earlier the point, because you can play so long and you can run a lot on the clay court." She acknowledged that "I missed so much. But you know, with the trying you are getting better." I like her attitude; she sees the big picture.

Photo by Daniel Ward

Stephens didn't play badly, but she was inconsistent enough--and sometimes defensive enough--to give Svitolina some breathing room and let her find her misplaced first serve. The Ukrainian player found her rhythm in the final leg of the match, and hit well on both sides. She also showed more patience than she has in the past, or--as she put it--..."I was playing more solid from the baseline trying to don't do crazy stuff, like, you know, going down the line directly after the serve."

19-year-old Svitolina, who is ranked number 35 in the world, is the top-ranked teenager on the tour, and also the only teenager who won a title (Baku) in 2013. She lost to Stephens in the third round of the 2014 Australian Open. Svitolina is making her Family Circle Cup debut.

In the next round, the young Ukrainian will play Belinda Bencic, who, in Charleseton, has reached her first WTA third round. Today, Bencic defeated Marina Erakovic in straight sets; she beat Maria Kirilenko in the first round. The 17-year-old Swiss player has never played Svitolina in singles, not even in juniors, and said that she knows very little about her. This has the potential to be a very tasty match, and one that fans might miss because they players are not very well known.

Quote of the day

"Don't make excuses."

Venus Williams, when asked if she had any advice for young players

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