The Women's Draw is out, and it features no one named Williams:

http://www.bnpparibasopen.org/4/assets/com.../09WTA_MDS1.pdf

Ummm and why would it feature someone named Williams? Hasn't that horse been beaten to death? They will never play Indian Wells AGAIN!! They said it after the year the incident happened. I mean how much clearer can they be, and why is it even mentioned year after year?

Well it takes a dead-horse-beater one to know one, huh?

Relax. I wasn't passing any judgement. Only mentioned it to show Venus & Serena were true to their word.

Cute, but not relevant to their overall not playing the tournament. The issue of whether they will play or not is a dead one. What was still of issue at that time was what, if any consequence there would be for skipping it since Larry Scott tried to institute this "mandatory" foolishness for the top tournaments.

Um hmmm.

http://www.tennisnews.com/exclusive.php?pID=27530

A WTA source said the sisters will do "promotional activities in the tournament market," which extends from Indian Wells and Palm Springs, Calif., to Los Angeles.

If I were the Indian Wells tournament director I wouldn't even want them to do promotions for the event. Its clear they wouldn't want to so let them do the charity work for some other event or promote something else. That would be the worst PR promotion for a major tour event given by two of its biggest stars. It would be so lackluster.

Some thoughts:

Poor Dokic has reverted to her pre-Aussie form losing to Craybas in the first round in straight sets. I read that she complained she wasn't mentally there, so maybe some time off will get her back in gear again. There's still a lot of tournaments to go and points to attempt to accumulate.

Two 15-year old kids are in the draw. Larcher de Brito already lost to the younger Radwanska, but the actual youngest player in the draw is Ajla Tomljanovic from Croatia. I can't find anything on her other than she's being touted. It doesn't look like she's played at the WTA level before. She faces qualifier Angela Haynes today, so if she has game, she may be able to demonstrate it against a non-elite player.

Lastly Nicole Vaidisova stopped the bleeding with a win over Krajicek and now faces comeback player-killer Craybas in the second round. I still can't believe she is not even 20 yet and it feels like she's gone through an entire career cycle from teen phenom, to top 10 elite player, to veteran has-been. Of course the Capriati and Williams sisters model (which Dokic is trying to follow) seems to be that you have multiple lives in tennis and not just one period of excellence before the inevitable fall.

I think Peer may have stopped some bleeding from her last year and previous year results, too, taking out Bartoli...even though she already had a convincing 5-1 record against her previous to the match. Good for her, after her last two years of results and the rotten thing that happened in Dubai, I think she's due some positive energy. I hope she takes out Choke-vetadze.

Maybe Dokic didn't play that badly (I didn't see the match, of course ) against journey-woman-extraordinaire-Craybas, since Craybas then went on to take out Medina Garrigues.

Amélie!! While I wish the Groenefeld match hadn't been that tough, a win is a win, and I want that confidence from Paris to last until (and throughout) the NEXT big event in Paris! Amélie!!!

Vaidisova and Chakvetadze both winning matches, with Vaidisova winning 2?!??!! Talk about a real need to stop some deadly hemorrhaging! Any bets on how long these "winning streaks" will last?

How about Glatch taking out CSN? Or little Radwanska taking out the Kuz? And now both of them having to face each other?

Surprising stuff, so far, to be sure.

Is there something in the water at Indian Wells? The women's seeds are dropping like crazy!!!

Out are:

2. Jankovic
3. Dementieva
6. Kuznetsova
10. Bartoli
11. Cornet
13. Schnyder
14. Cibulkova
15. J. Zheng
16. Medina Garrigues
20. Sugiyama
24. A. Bondarenko
26. Benesova
27. S. Errani

This is a real opportunity for Ivanovic and Vaidisova to take advantage, get deep and get some confidence at such a premier tournament. Dinara should really be taking advantage too being as though she can overtake Serena as the computer #1 if does well here.

Maybe whatever is in the water is what gives Hantuchova her strength.....is it time for her 3rd Indian Wells title? Surely Dinara, Vera, and Ana are the faves, but this is anyone's tourney at this point. Go Shahar! Or could we still have an all-sister final? Aggie and Ursula, of course.

How about Elena's early exit? 14 double faults. At key times too, of course. 40% 1st serve percentage. Weird, just when you thought she may have put that behind her, it rears its ugly head in an inconsequential match against Cetkovska. Elena and Jelena didnt have a chance to overtake #1 this week, did they? Their losses yesterday sure seemed odd.

Water? I don't know. The only thing that might be different is that the weather is unseasonably warm for march. (I am nearby)
If the women had been going through normal winter weather, this might be kind of a shock. But Australia and really hot wasn't that long ago...or was it?

Well, I guess things are closer to normal now that Vaidisova lost to Craybas. But then again, Crabyas took out Dokic and Medina Garrigues, so maybe she's having a bout of once-in-a-liftetime-journey-woman-brilliance. Still, congratulations, Jill! While I think there's a better chance of monkeys flying out of my ass then her beating Safina in the next round, Jill must be very happy that she's made it this far in a Tier I. Props to Angela Haynes for taking out Sugiyama, too.

Once in a lifetime? Not so sure about that. She did beat an out-of-shape Serena back in '05 in the 3rd round. Serena then predicted that sister would have no problems with Jill, which was validated by Venus.

Oh Amelie. Just when I'm about to start considering that you may actually start getting consistent again you lose.

When we did predictions at the start of the year I said Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was most likely breakthrough player of the year. She had sustained strong juniors slam and ranking results. I like the looseness of her game.

After straight-setting Jankovic, she has a decent chance of making the quarters if not semis here at Indian Wells. I might be jinxing her, but hope not.

Well, my girl Dani is through to the fourth, having beaten the speedy-court-covering-Elena D-vanquishing-Cetkovska. But boy was that some ugly tennis. Hantuchova had a strange bout with an isolated symptom of Djokovitis...no, not the main symptom of qutting when losing ... but the strange need to hit ridiculous drop shots with ridiculous frequency...with NONE of them working. Neither player could seize momentum...it was win two points, lose two points....win three, lose three...error here, sprayed shot there.

I'm glad Dani's through, but she's going to need to pick up her game (especially that 2nd serve! ) and her confidence and her ability to maintain momentum if she wants to be around in the draw longer.

Looks like a potential battle in the third set between Azarenka and Safina.

I haven't been a fan of Azarenka, but am being won over by how well she's playing and the fact that she continues to improve. The Sharapova-ish sounds are still too much, but her strokes look a lot better now --smoother, more topspin, same power -- than they did even 6 months now. And they yield better results.

The bottom line is that while Sharapova is AWOL, Vika is the only young player of the new generation to truly step it up. So many squandered talents in the WTA. At this point I'll root for anyone young who is out to build her game and in it to win it.

edited to add:

Brava Vika. Excellent point construction -- such a rarity in the WTA these days. She's consistent, but her placement isn't predictable, and it is varied.

In the second half of the third set, Azarenka truly had Safina on a string. Not through sheer power -- by thinking one step ahead of Dinara.

Azarenka is going to be interesting to watch this year. I see no reason why she can't be a French Open contender, for a start.

Given how the last couple French Opens have played out, I'm guessing (if for no other reason than symmetry), that the final will pit Dinara Safina against Victoria Azarenka, with Dinara coming out on top. The pattern seems to be a new threat emerges on the tour early in the year, breaks through by making the French final against an established star, struggles a little to bag a slam and finally captures her first slam the following year, just as the next big thing has emerged. I can totally see that scenario. Or I can see either Venus and/or Serena zoning and sweeping through the French Open draw on a mission for a scalp of red clay.

I hear you.

Dinara needs to rest. She just isn't that present mentally out there. Her game will probably start come back together on clay. With Serena and Venus you just don't know how they will be at the French. I think Serena has more capability of winning Roland Garros. But I don't know if I'd favor her there.

Azarenka has scheduled very smartly in 2009. She is fresh and on a winning streak.

Based on her performance last night, I'd like Vika to win this tournament. Bepa Zvonareva is fine but not so exciting. Ivanovic's game is just too much of a mess for my liking. Aside from on clay, I just don't enjoy watching her quick strike error prone tennis. It'll be interesting to see if she regains her consistency on clay. I find it strange how erratic she becomes when off the red stuff. It's literally like she loses her balance a little as a shotmaker.

That leaves Pavlyuchenkova, who continues to knock off top 10 players. I knew she was going to make waves this year, but I want to see more of her game.

As long as we are doing French Open predictions, I am going with Venus Williams. I think she played on the red clay in Acapulco earlier to get herself to start thinking very early about a French Open run. And she said she learned patience there this year. Like Rafa changing his game to be more aggressive on grass at Wimby, I think Venus will alter her game to be more patient and surprise a lot of people at Roland Garros this year.

OR Kim Clijsters comes back and whoops everybody despite her saying in the past that clay is her worst surface...um, two Roland Garros finals and many clay titles....but that stemmed from Justine in her head even more than Rafa's in Roger's. Did anybody else hear Lindsay doing commentary for Indian Wells where she eluded to the fact that Kim will probably come back? But I guess the fact that KC will be playing World Team Tennis and the Wimby exo were big signs already. I can't wait!!!!

Back to the thread at hand....the Ivanovic-Zvonareva final could be a joy or a nightmare to watch. Ana has played MOSTLY spectacular tennis this week BUT that serve is teetering on the edge. She has chased so many bad tosses....and many hit well despite chasing....and I think that has frustrated and baffled her opponents even more this week. Havent seen Zvonareva play at all, but she certainly can play some pretty inspired or some pretty ugly tennis if she allows her negative emotions to come on court with her. This tournament, without the Williams sisters (and I must admit without Maria and even Justine) and Elena/Jelena bowing out early, was a complete bore (for me anyway) and showed me that the women's field is not as deep as I thought it had gotten over the past couple of years. I hope some teenage sensation comes around to change things because I am getting a little bored by the WTA, and I used to enjoy the women more than the men....and that seems like ages ago at this point.

Then again, if Kim really does make a comeback, I take back everything I just said.

Vera!! Won both the singles and doubles!! Good for her, what an amazing couple of weeks for her. Her first Tier 1 title. This is the first time I've ever seen her have an outburst, but still win. Granted it was just a mini-outburst after she lost the 2nd game of the first set, when she trashed a racked "au-Marat"...but she moved on quite well from there. It wasn't one of those "break down into tears for most of the match" kind of breakdowns she's been known for.

There was some downright ugly tennis going on with that wind, but she played very well all week to get there, and handled the win better than Ana. Nice to see someone who had been written off for so long as a head-case actually turn things around and win titles and shoot up the rankings like that, she'll be #5 when next week's rankings come out.

Have to give props to Zvonareva for excellently exploiting the vacuum at the top of the women's game - she has not only returned to where she was a few years back, but has now eclipsed those results entirely. A bronze medal, the year-end championship final, the AO semi and now the IW title. (Not to unfairly ignore the Pattaya City win along the way. ) She is a convincing Top 5 player in my mind now, kind of a proto-Dementieva in terms of what to expect as far as her place in the pecking order.

The wind was ridiculous, more so than for the men's final subsequent - I think the only time I've seen worse conditions was the Charleston final a couple years ago between Jankovic and Safina, and that was on green clay which kept whipping up in the gusts. (And the green stuff is denser than the red.) Otherwise they'd be tied.