The Draw is out.

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/SEWTATo...010/609/MDS.pdf

Wow. Justine Henin and Martina Navratilova are playing doubles against Lindsay Davenport and "S Graff." Haven't figured out who the latter is yet, but wonder if this is an exhibition or what. Justine didn't used to play doubles at all. Maybe it's all part of having fun this time around.

Dulko ousts Henin. Did anyone see this?

I didn't see the Justine match. I caught some of the Kuz/Suarez Navarro match. Both are somewhat surprising results, but at the same time CSN and Dulko are very capable spoilers. CSN especially. Her one-handed backhand and well-timed loopy stuff has infuriated high seeds before...just ask Venus. The Kuz looked really out of sorts. She seemed impatient as CSN hung tough.

From what the commentators said about Justine, she was just spraying the ball and serving horribly. They said her unforced error count was really high and really uncharacteristic for her. Didn't see the match, don't know.

I did see Clijsters and she looked good. She didnt' have to be that good, though, Strycova couldn't get out of her own way. Like I said in the men's thread, the wind was making it a tough day at the office.

The feel-good WTA story, for me, anyway, was Sloan Stephens. She had a great and competitive match with Zvonereva. She made it through the qualies and won her first round match, and she hung tough and didn't make life even remotely easy for Vera. Let's hope she and Melanie Oudin start taking the torch from Venus and Serena soon.

I have to agree on Ms Stephens. Usually I just sigh in exasperation whenever commentators want to showcase a supposedly-promising young American (Ryan Harrison anyone?) who is almost always hopelessly outmatched, while real competitive matches go overlooked elsewhere. But since I was staying in while metro NYC got pelted with driving rain and howling winds, I ended up watching the entire match against Zvonareva. I was impressed. She can walk away proud from that one. Apparently with her efforts this week she literally doubled (halved?) her ranking, from the mid-700s to the 300s. She's still just 16, and I hope to see more of her in the not-too-distant future.

As for the Henin result, it's not such a shock as it's being made out to be. It was Justine's first match at IW in ages and her first since Australia, and as Sharapova and Ivanovic have already learned in the past year, Dulko is a tricky customer when you're having a bad day at the office. Miami is no happy hunting ground for her either, other than her lone final (even then she lost to Serena having held championship points); I think all that's on her plate is adding a few ranking points and getting ready for the clay.

Sharapova escaped her match against Dushevina, who served for it. So did Wozniacki. I guess with Serena flaky at the non-majors, the Serbs in a downward spiral (with her loss to a Latvian, sealing the loss of her points from pretty much her only good result in the past year, the IW final, Ivanovic has plummeted into exile in the 50s), the Russians shaky or unpredictable as ever, and the Belgians still finding their footing, there are still no real top women to speak of. Still, that really makes you appreciate when the Azarenkas or Wickmayers step it up, or when Venus has one of her good weeks (although the latter not an option at IW obviously).

Well Sharpie didn't escape from Zheng. They played some lights out tennis in that match, especially the last set. That was some high quality stuff. Sharpie/Zheng was reminiscent of Graf/Coetzer or Graf/Sanchez Vicario, with the ball-blaster type of player vs the human backboard type of player. And like Coetzer and ASV could do at times, the way they'd frustrate Steffi, Zheng frustrated Sharapova. Chasing down balls and redirecting for winners, forcing the opponent to go for too much out of respect of the opponent's speed.

Kudos to Zheng. She held tough when she had her breaks, and she didn't fade after a lapse in the second set. She went for her shots and connected. She also chased everything down in that nearly 3 hour brawl.

Sharapova, though? 14 double faults! Yikes!

I'm not ready to stick a fork in her yet, but damn, that serve has been a liability for too long, now. I'm wondering if she'll ever be the same after the shoulder surgery and the subsequent serve motion tinkering.

Oh Ana. Her first round loss means her ranking is going to slip into the 50's!

Is this it for her?

I am just about ready to write off Sharapova. She doesn't have the natural athleticism of the Williams sisters or Kim Clijsters. Her serve is such a huge part of her game because it sets up the point for her. Without that, she's not very intimidating. At this point I think she'd be better off trying to serve with her left hand.

Then we have Gisela Dulko who can't seem to back up a big win. After taking out Henin, she loses 1 and 0 to freakin Radwanska??!!

As for Ivanovic, I don't even know what to say. Its ashame that a girl who recently won her first major and seemed to be a mainstay at the top of the tour could mentally implode the way she has. It hasn't been anything physical. Perhaps the pressure was simply too much.

Mdterp01, I think the problem with Ivanovic is simply lack of sleep. It is that damn Adam Scott that is keeping her up all night.......chatting (sic). Yep that is it, lack of sleep hence lack of concentration.

Easily understood.

So Azarenka goes down in straight sets to "that ball did NOT hit my arm" Sanchez, and Kim loses to Kleybanova. Kim's loss I can kind of understand. Kleybanova can be a lethal blaster at times. Azarenka's loss I don't understand, but I didn't see the match.

Well, when so many seeds fail all over the place, there's bound to be some feel-good moments somewhere. Shahar Peer is one of them. After last year's deplorable Dubai visa refusal, I'm glad she's on her way back. Instead of whining and feeling sorry for herself after that injustice, she's brought herself back to #20 in the rankings (and moving up), and this year, her worst result has been a 3rd round loss, with almost all other events being QFs and SFs. (And what great payback...making it to the semis at Dubai this year!) She made the final at the Hobart, losing to A-Bond. Her win over a recently-hot Penetta in her last round is a great announcement to the field that she is once again a force to be reckoned with. And the way Jankovic seems so lost, I wouldn't be even remotely surprised if Shahar beats her today. Welcome back, Shahar!!

Alicia Molik is another great story. Her comeback after her time off has been slower, but becoming steady. Granted, the only big name she beat here in IW is Medina Garrigues, but hey, she's still in the 4th round of a huge event. At 29, she probably doesn't have a lot of time left being truly competitive in the WTA, but I'm hoping she'll have a few more moments in the sun.

And say goodbye to Clijsters too. How ugly that last set was. Comeback Kim led 3-0 with a break in hand, only to squander it and struggle to get to the tie break. And that tie break was a complete melt down mentally. Clijsters zipped out to a 4-0 lead, then watched as Kleybanova reeled off 7 straight points to take the match. The Old Kim is back: the one with no patience, no thought behind her shots, and often times making careless errors because her feet are not set properly. That said, Kleybanova played her heart out, scrambling and making some incredible gets, and forced Clijsters into a lot of errors - especially at the most crucial moments.

So as of the 16's, all of the Grand Slam singles champions are out o the tournament: Kuznetsova, Henin, Clijsters, Sharapova and Ivanovic.

That was definitely an old-school Clijsters meltdown. What's worrisome is that these are not coming against, say, Justine or Serena, but rather the likes of Petrova and Kleybanova - very solid players, but the sort she should be able to handle if she wants to add more titles. I guess it's good she got her Slam when she did, because I think her aura for the other players is going to be slightly tarnished with each of these performances; and because of her limited schedule, I'm not sure if she'll ever really be match-tough this season. That wasn't a factor when she was underdog Kim last summer, but apparently it will be when she's not swinging as freely. Still glad to have her around though.

With Zvonareva's exit to Stosur yesterday, there are officially no former champions in the draw. To say the seeds have been decimated is an understatement. Still, we've got a perfectly respectable QF round of the last remaining top players (Dementieva, Wozniacki and Jankovic) and a credible second-tier, like the ever-improving Stosur, Kleybanova and Zheng, and the more established sorts like Radwanska. I would replace Martinez Sanchez with Wickmayer, whom she defeated, but the Spaniard has crept into the Top 30 and she seems to be troublesome on her day.

Isn't Martinez more of a net player? Not sure if she's a serve-and-volleyer, but I recall her liking to be up there at net, which may throw off her younger opponents, who are used to ball-bashing from the baseline.

Congrats Sam Stosur, and a big thank you to Karma! See the way her match ended? Martinez-Sanchez thought she had a first serve coming to her after she lost a shot-spot over-rule on her first serve at 7-8 in the tiebreaker, but since it was really out and Stosur had a play on it (she actually made contact with the ball, and then immediately asked for a challenge), Martinez Sanchez only had a second serve coming. When she missed that serve, the chair umpire called "Game, Set, Match."

Normally, I wouldn't be glad that someone lost in this fashion, and even though I'm not even remotely as big a fan of Serena as I used to be....last year, Serena was playing Martinez Sanchez and returned a ball that hit her on the arm, and it was when she was at the net, and it bounced back onto Serena's side of the court. And Martinez-Sanchez ran right to her chair afterwards, since it was a game point. Serena argued with the umpire explaining the how the ball obviously made contact with Martinez-Sanchez's body, but the umpire refused to do anything about it (there's no "shot-spot" for something like that). Martinez-Sanchez won that set, knowing full well she didn't deserve that game point. Fortunately Serena still won the match, but that was pretty low-rent of MMS.

I'm glad Karma credited that debit last night.

Hmmm...three counterpunchers and Stosur in the semifinals of one of the Tour's biggest events. Is this a quick break from big babe tennis dominance or will Sam hit her way through the top defensive players in the game right now?

Jankovic rolled over her, so we may be seeing a bit of a Jelena resurgence. It might be partly the surface here. Indian Wells has the reputation of being one of the slower hardcourts on the tour, so we might be seeing a bit of a French Open preview (though I gotta think Justine will be a huge factor there). I wouldn't be shocked to see Wozniacki & Jankovic as French Open semifinalists, though. Maybe even Radwanska, if she gets a favorable draw.

Heh. James LaRosa, who blogs and tweets for the Tennis Channel, wrote a hellacious ode to the counterpuncher the other day on this very point. People love to deride 'pushers' and dismiss their successes as flukes, but the fact is that they complete the circle of tennis. In this tennis era, especially on the women's side, where the big hitters can implode without a moment's notice and being seeded can sometimes seem more like a scarlet letter as far as advancing in the draw, someone's got to be there to pick up the pieces. That's what Wozniacki did at the USO, and what Jankovic, Radwanska and Wozniacki again have done this week. Consistency is just as much a weapon as big groundstrokes, I think.

Still, it was a great tournament for Stosur, and she's into the Top 10 now, so she's cashed in her FO semi points and backed them up too. Unfortunately for Sam, her serve - her biggest weapon and, like her intimidating court presence, is second only to Serena's I think (when counting both first and second serves) - wasn't there for her today, with an astounding zero aces along with 4 doubles. It was a very nervous match for her, not too surprising given the prize on the line. Good to see Jankovic battle her way to a big final; in fact, if she wins the title, it'll be her biggest ever, having come up short in the Miami and USO finals. It's probably too early to declare that she's back, but at least she's shored herself up in the Top 10 for now until she finally gets past the fourth round of a Slam again.