While most of our attention is focused on Rome, Stuttgart actually has a pretty good field, much better than Charleston.

The draw is here

Draw

This is Justine's first clay tournament. I'm a little surprised to see her so soon after the broken finger, but she's playing although her finger is "not yet beautiful".

Also of interest is Dinara Safina is playing in her first tournament since Australia. She has a LOT of points to defend this season.

There have already been some noteworthy results. Svetlana Kuznetsova crashed out to Na Li earlier and Lucie Safarova upset Wozniacki today.

I see Azararenka lost to Lapushchenkova, too.

As far as Safarova, she and her boyfriend may be starting to believe in their own talents (although Berdych went out early in Rome, he's been on fire this spring). Wozniacki is a great counter-puncher, but that will only go so far when a Big Babe starts to connect. And as we all know, there've been times when Safarova's shown she's capable of some spectacular Big Babe-ness.

Is anyone else getting the feeling that Stosur has moved from dark horse to a favorite at the FO? With Kim and Justine hurt (although the latter might not be "that" hurt) and Venus and Serena kind of weak on clay and out of practice, with Stosur's momentum and great results last year...doesn't it seem like she could be a strong favorite that's still flying under the radar?

I saw Azarenka's first match against Pennetta and I thought she played well. And then today she was sent packing by Lapushchenkova

Kuznetsova is a mess this year. Wozniacki was having some movements' problems today (her ankle again) but Safarova played well (especially the serve) and deserved it.
Safina gets through a 3 setter against Szavay.

I think we can ignore Justine's injury as a factor, as she continued her dominance over Jankovic today, but Clijsters may not even play the French now. As to Stosur...yes, I overlooked her in my clay season preview. You wouldn't think she'd be all that good on clay, but it seems like that kick serve she has causes opponents a lot of trouble. It will be interesting to see what happens if she plays Justine in the Stuttgart final.

And you're right, the Kooz is a mess this year. I thought maybe clay would revive her, as it often has, but apparently not. Wozniacki's movement issues were noticeable enough that Lucie commented on them, and said she was trying to make her run. Caroline needs to start pulling out of tournaments when she's not fully healthy.

Anyone know anything about this Simona Halep who is in the Fes final? Apparently she won the Juniors at Roland Garros a couple years ago. Twohander, you're usually up on the Romanian girls...any comments?

Seriously. When I saw her breezy comments afterward about not being able to move well due to the ankle injury, and Safarova's basically admitting that was the key to her victory (followed by her topsy-turvy loss to this week's previously anonymous giant-killer Lapushchenkova), I thought to myself, 'THEN DON'T PLAY. You are No 2 in the world. Congratulations: you don't need to play every week anymore! Save yourself for that thing called the French Open in a few weeks - why risk aggravating the injury for a handful of ranking points and cash? At the very least take a pass for the more high-profile Rome or Madrid events.' Jankovic took a while to get used to this fact of tennis life herself back in the day once she made it to the top. The sooner Wozniacki reaches that same epiphany, the better.

Speaking of Jankovic, I feel that her loss to Henin was more about their history than a signal that Henin is ready to reclaim her clay throne. Jelena basically wrote a love-letter to Justine in her post-match comments, but the truth is that the match was in her hands, and like on several earlier occasions with Henin, she let it slip out of her grasp. (Where do I start? Back in the USO semis in '06, up a set already, in the second set with a point on her serve to hold for 5-2, she let herself get bent out of shape at the chair ump over a line call - on a FIRST SERVE and when the challenge system had already been put into place, which she sulkily refused to use on that call for some reason. She then lost the last 10 games of the match in what wasn't a very pretty display. Then she had the misfortune of playing Justine half a dozen more times or so in '07, one of the Belgian's most dominant years; but even then she contrived to lose the otherwise exciting Toronto final in straights despite leading 4-1 in each set, and she lost six games in a row from leading 4-0 in the third set in a Berlin quarterfinal.) She was at her steady best, pressuring Henin from the start to 5-all in the second, when she held break point. Once the chance came and went, she did well just to hold for the tiebreaker and didn't play a very clean one. After Henin leveled things, the match was all but over, with JJ kind of losing heart and handing over a break right away on a DF. She did get that break back, but Henin still ran off the last three games of the match. So I guess somebody DOES beat Jelena Jankovic 10 times in a row. If nothing else, Davydenko took 13 tries and Gerulaitis took 17 before breaking through, so there's still hope for her.

Meanwhile, things look pretty good for Henin picking up the first title of her comeback, if she can handle Stosur and her winning streak. It's not as glamorous as Kim's so far (US Open and Miami compared to Stuttgart, which since it became an indoor clay event, something I wasn't crazy about since the fall indoor event had some cachet, reminds me of playing in a sandbox or something - clay doesn't really belong indoors outside of Fed/Davis cup necessity) but it's a start, and she might still add a fifth Roland Garros after all is said and done. She still needs to work on her form though, which is what events like this are about after all. I think the finger she broke is on her left hand, which would be quite an issue for someone with a double-handed backhand, so she's fortunate in that respect; it doesn't seem to be a factor as JC said.

The qualifier had Stosur 5-2 in the first set. Stosur has come back to 6-5. I was sort of hoping for an easy final for Justine. I think if Stosur wins (which seems likely), she will be a handful and win. Sure wish I could watch the final! It won't be broadcast.....

To lower down the tone of the discusssion, she was best known in the media because, erm, her breasts were quite big. She recently had a reducation surgery. The pre-surgery pics http://www.totalprosports.com/wp-content/u...nnis-hottie.jpg

Wow, that must have been a burden. I'm glad she could have the surgery. I've never seen a woman play top level sports with that size of chest.

*** spoiler alert*** not that anyone cares anymore....

Justine wins in another 3-setter. Did anyone see the match?