Stosur out in first round of Portugal Open

Bagels seems to be a popular item at the Portugal Open. Timea Bacsinszky delivered one to 3rd seed Sam Stosur in the second set of their first round match; Stosur lost the first set 4-6.

Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Zhang Shuai 6-4, 6-0. But Lucie Safarova was the one who was really baking and boiling. In her first round match, she  defeated Magdalena Rybarikova 4-6, 6-0, 6-0.

Of note: 2nd seed Genie Bouchard defeated Alisa Kleybanova 6-4, 6-1 in the opening round. Kleybanova was coming off of a very good week in Stuttgart.

Merrakach champion Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor advanced to the second round with a straight sets win over Peng Shuai.

Sweeping the court

Victoria Azarenka, still out with a foot injury, has withdrawn from both Rome and Madrid.

Andy Murray has made a list of possible coaches, and at least one of them is a woman. A few years ago, Fed Cup captain Amelie Mauresmo was on the short list of candidates to become the French Davis Cup captain.

I'm posting this a little late, but you can still get to know Jana Cepelova. I recommend it, in fact.

Laura Robson is working with Virgin Active to find a couple of young tennis stars.

The WTA still isn't offering any official gear for fans to buy. Nothing has been available since the tour became the WTA again and not the Sony Ericsson WTA. What is that about? My Sony Ericsson WTA shirt wore out a long time ago. I still have my (much better quality) "Get In Touch With Your Feminine Side" (my favorite of all the WTA promotional themes) shirt, but--unless you're a teenager--how many places can you wear a tiny hot pink shirt that has the words I'M IN TOUCH in huge letters on the front?

Torro-Flor wins first title

Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor won her first WTA sinagles title today. Torro-Flor defeated Romina Oprandi 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the Marrakech final. Both players were unseeded; Oprandi took top seed Daniela Hantuchova out in the semifinals.

Torro-Flor is the sixth woman to win her first singles title in 2014.

Oprandi had a better outcome in doubles. She and partner Gabine Muguruza won the championship when they defeated Katarzyna Piter and Marnyna Zanevska 4-6, 6-2, 11-9.

The Portugal Open begins Monday. The top seed is Carla Suarez Navarro, who was injured this week in Stuttgart. The second seed is wild card Eugenie Bouchard. Defending champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova isn't playing. Both Torro-Flor and Oprandi are in the draw.

Sharapova wins Stuttgart for third consecutive year

Maria Sharapova had the relaxed look of experience today as she drove her new blue Porsche off the ramp and onto the red clay of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. But before she could get the keys to her new car, the two-time defending champion had to fight back from being a set and a break down against Ana Ivanovic. Ivanovic spent the first set giving Sharapova the "one-two" that Sharapova is known for delivering to her opponents. Ivanovic went up 5-0 in that set, won it 6-2, then went up 3-1 in the second set.

Was it almost over? Of course not. This was Sharapova (and this was Ivanovic), who turned on the switch we've seen her turn on so many times before. Ivanovic was a point away from going up 4-1, but that was as close as she would come to at least giving the appearance that the end was near. Sharapova got the break back, took the second set 6-4, and then cruised through the final set 6-1.

This is the Russian's 30th WTA title. She is now 8-2 against Ivanovic.

Sharapova is a brand ambassador for Porsche. The latest Sugarpova gummy candy is Speedy ("Sweet Ride"), a replica of the Porsche 911.

Top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci won the doubles title. In the final, they defeated 2nd seeds Cara Black and Sania Mirza, 6-2, 6-3. Errani and Vinci hadn't won a title since their Australian Open defense, so this victory is a reminder of how good they are on clay. (During the trophy ceremony, the emcee suggested that the Italian pair lobby for Porsches to be awarded to the doubles champions, so Vinci turned to the Porsche representatives and asked for her car!)

Sharapova takes another step toward Stuttgart final

Maria Sharapova defeated top seed Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets in Stuttgart today, which puts the two-time defending champion into the semifinals. It's funny--years ago, we might have assumed that Radwanska had more of a chance on clay and Sharapova on grass, but now the reverse is more likely. Sharapova had a time of it at the end, though, winning on her eighth match point.

Sharapova's opponent in the next round will be Sara Errani, who won her quarterfinal against Carla Suarez Navarro. Suarez Navarro retired in the middle of the third set because of a wrist injury.

The other semifinal match will be Serb-to-Serb. Former Stuttgart champion Jelena Jankovic will take on Ana Ivanovic. Jankovic defeated Alisa Kleybanova in straight sets, and Ivanovic defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-3, 2-6, 6-4. Both Ivanovic and Kuznetsova are former French Open champions. Ivanovic is 8-3 against Jankovic, and 2-1 against her on clay.

Jankovic and Kleybanova are playing doubles together and have reached the semifinals, in which they will play top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci.

Defending champion squeaks by in opening Stuttgart round

Two-time defending champion Maria Sharapova had her hands full yesterday with Lucie Safarova on the red clay in Stuttgart. I didn't get to watch it all because of work, but I have an idea that those who did watch it may have felt exhausted by the end. It took Sharapova over 3 hours and 23 minutes to defeat Safarova 7-6, 6-7, 7-6. The Russian led 5-1 in the third set and held three match points, but was forced to go to yet another tiebreak. I wish I could have watched the whole thing.

Last year, Sharapova had to tangle with Safarova, too, in the second round, and that also went three sets, with Sharapova winning 6-4, 6-7, 6-3. And last month, in Miami, the two of them went at it for almost three hours, with Sharapova emerging the winner.

But the drama wasn't confined to Maria and Lucie. Jelena Jankovic had to fight like crazy against Mona Barthel and wound up saving four match points to win 2-6, 7-6, 6-3. It's good to see Barthel doing so well; she tends to go into lengthy slumps (can you call it a "slump" when it lasts that long?).

Incidentally, Roberta Vinci has advanced to the second round, and Sara Errani has advanced to the quarterfinals, giving the Italians a bit more clay court "normalcy" than they've had lately.

For court-side coverage of the Porsche Tennis Open, check Marija's reporting at Women's Tennis Blog.

Czech Republic and Germany advance to Fed Cup final

For Italy and Australia, today was just more of yesterday in the Fed Cup semifinals. Petra Kvitova defeated Roberta Vinci (subbing for Sara Errani) in straight sets, clinching her country's spot in the 2014 Fed Cup final. The fourth rubber was skipped and the doubles rubber was played, and the Czech Republic won that, too, with Andrea Hlavackova and Klara Koukalova beating Camila Giorgi and Karin Knapp 6-2, 5-7, 11-9.

In Brisbane, Angelique Kerber won the deciding match, defeating Sam Stosur 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 in the third rubber. The doubles rubber was played in that tie, too, and Australia won it, so they went down 1-3. Taken out of the semifinals by both Germans, Stosur can't be feeling too good right now. Australia's top player just cannot perform on home turf.

Who would have guessed that Sorana Cirstea would be Romania's Fed Cup star this weekend? The talented but wildly inconsistent Cirstea followed up her victory over friend Ana Ivanovic with a 6-3, 6-6, 6-3 victory over Bojana Jovanovski, putting Romania into the World Group. And what a match it was. It took Cirstea six match points to get the job done, and there were many moments when Jovanovski looked like she was going to take control of the match. She took the long road, but the shaky Romanian won. There was an attempt to play the doubles rubber, but the Serbian team retired in the second game of the first set.

I have to hand it to Cirstea. A player who seems to practically walk onto the court mentally conflicted, she nevertheless found a way to beat her best friend, and to equalize Simona Halep's 1-1 record for the weekend.

Also in World Group II Play-Offs, Sweden defeated Thailand 4-0, and Switzerland defeated Brazil 4-1 (Timea Bacsinszky was the star). The Netherlands beat Japan 3-2. Team Bertens and Rus actually clinched the tie at 3-1 but the doubles rubber was played, and Japan won it.

The USA and France had to go to a deciding fifth rubber in doubles. Sloane Stephens defeated Virginie Razzano, who substituted for an ailing Alize Cornet (causing commentator Rennae Stubbs to "sort of" apologize for her not-so-veiled speculation that Cornet's leg pain was less than significant). Stephens had a pretty easy time of it, but then Caroline Garcia took to the court again and beat Madison Keys in straight sets.

For the doubles rubber, both nations tossed out their originally announced teams and went with today's singles players, i.e., Keys/Stephens vs. Garcia/Razzano. Stephens had an excellent junior record as a doubles player, making her the only one of the four with any kind of doubles record of which to speak. The irony is that the USA has a real wealth of great doubles players--the Williams sisters, of course, but also Vania King, Lisa Raymond, Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Raquel Kops-Jones, and Abigail Spears. King and Mattek-Sands are also good singles players. Mattek-Sands, when she isn't injured (as she is right now) and can create some momentum, is an especially fine singles player.

But I digress. The Frenchwomen won the first set pretty easily and it looked as though they would cruise through the second, but Keys and Stephens, down a double break, were able to get those breaks back. That was as far as it went, though, as France pulled off the win at 6-2, 7-5. France's 3-2 victory over the USA puts the spotlight on Caroline Garcia, who put the "3" into 3-2. Garcia's amazing Fed Cup weekend (her first one ever) comes only a week after she won both the singles and doubles titles in Bogota. Some of that spotlight needs to shine on captain Amelie Mauresmo, too. (And I have to believe that Marion Bartoli's fighting spirit also hovered over that French team.)

Perhaps the most remarkable thing about the close French win is that Mauresmo's team pulled it off with two of their key players injured. Kristina Mladenovic, who is frequently half of a very successful doubles team known as Mladenovic and Anybody, had to withdraw from the competition because of an arm injury. Then France's top player, Cornet, sustained an injury during the first day of play and had to be replaced by Virginie Razzano today. Razzano lost her singles rubber, but she was an able partner for Garcia in doubles. Fed Cup--where anything can happen, and usually does!

Russia redeemed its World Group status with a 4-0 win over Argentina. Canada emerged 3-1 over the Slovak Republic (Jana Cepelova lost to both Wozniak and Bouchard) and Poland beat Spain 3-2. That was kind of interesting, with one Radwanska (Aga) winning both of her singles rubbers, and the other Radwanska losing both of hers. But then the elder Radwanska teamed with Alicja Rosolska to beat the Spaniards in straight sets in doubles. On clay, in Barcelona. Well done, A-Rad!