Mary Pierce, in her first match back from yet another injury, beat Sugiyama in straight sets 6-3, 6-3....

I doubt many players in the top twenty want to see Mary Pierce in their part of the draw in the early rounds of any tournament...If she starts cooking, look out at the French, who knows what could happen? She was so stable though when she won two years ago - boyfriend, creatine, God - and all that seems less certain after all the injuries and the breakup...She's certainly one of, if not the most unpredictable player to ever win a major...but if she's healthy and gets a few matches under her belt, she could easily upset a top player during the clay season...

That's a great win for Mary, after such a long layoff. The other seeded player in her quarter of the draw is Shaughnessy, who has looked shaky in her last couple of tournaments, so I think Mary might be able to get as far as the semis here.

I'm picking Sanchez-Vicario to win the tournament. She's looked pretty good lately, and is a great dirtballer. If Dokic is 100%, she should win, though.

hmmm, I'm not so sure about Arantxa. I picked her to lose the final against Dokic, but now I'm having second thoughts, given that she LOST IN STRAIGHT SETS to Husarova.

As for Shaughnessy, I guess she's having some back problems, which will make this Weingartner match tonight really tricky (Marlene beat Meghann in the 3rd Round at Australia this year and on clay last year at Charleston). An upset seems likely.

I honestly can say I could see any of ten women winning this tournament, especially given Dokic, Shaughnessy, and Pierce's injury troubles.

Oh, by the way, it seems that Mary got a hair cut. Maybe it will resurrect her career like it did Lenny Kravitz's?

Whoops...picking Arantxa proved less than prescient. Yeah, if Dokic isn't on, this is a wide open to draw--literally, almost anybody who survived the first round could win. Jelena needs to be real careful with Smashnova, who is red hot this year.

Side not--the Sarasota Open Site is the worst tennis tournament homepage I've ever seen. It doesn't seem to have a scoreboard, and its draw is riddled with errors. Patty Schnyder apparently defeated Patty Schnyder 6-0, 6-1. While she is often her own worst enemy, eliminating herself so ruthlessly must have been some match to see!

Hey dude! That Patty Schnyder defeats Patty Schnyder angle you told is a hoot! Thanks.

But I think Patty's worst enemy isn't herself. It was that weird guru she had who told her that drinking orange juice (and not training) was the way to a better game. What a freak! and he wasn't even cute! At least my coach is cute.

It seems that Mary Pierce wasn't able to make it out of the second round, dropping a third-set tie break to Anastasia Myskina, 7-4. Myskina is clearly an up& coming player, and is far more match-tough right now than Mary, so this was by no means a disaster for Ms. Pierce. Hopefully she'll continue to rise and be able to make a mark at the French this year. The crowd will certainly be on her side.

Meanwhile, Dokic mauled Smashnova! The Yugoslav seems to be past her earlier injuries and the Israeli never had a chance. Jelena's quarterfinal will certainly be the highlight match of that round: Schnyder has had a couple of decent results this year and could certainly use the points that come with beating Dokic. At this point, however, I don't see it. My pick for the finals is still Dokic over Myskina. (The poor Russians just can't win, can they??)

Dokic certainly seems to have gotten her game together, and no one in this field can stop her if she's really on (unless Schnyder suddenly rediscovers her 1998 form). Myskina is quite promising, but not quite in Dokic's league yet, I don't think. Not sure who will emerge out of the bottom half of the draw--perhaps Suarez?

They've cleaned up the Schnyder vs Schnyder problem on the website now, but I can't get anything but 1st round results there. No up-to-date news reports on their site either.