I know there are more important stories from Day 4 at the US Open than this, but I just had to start the wrap with this quote from Dinara Safina:

Q. Who is more popular in Russia now, you or your brother?
DINARA SAFINA: My brother. By the girls so far. I mean, how many girls there are in Russia? (laughter.)

And how many girls are there in the world?

Dinara Safina struggled again, but fought her way through three more sets to earn a spot in the third round. Two other top seeds can’t say the same. No. 5 seed Jelena Jankovic was knocked out by No. 55 ranked Yaroslava Shvedova and No. 4 seed Elena Dementieva was upset by the spunky young American, Melanie Oudin (ranked #70), who also knocked out Jankovic in the third round of Wimbledon this year. Here’s how Melanie took out yet another top player in another big tournament (and this time it was on Arthur Ashe instead of Wimbledon’s Court 3):

“Well, when I saw the draw, I was like, wow, this is not a very good draw compared to my like Wimbledon one, which I didn’t have, you know, the 4 seed in my second round. But the thing is, I played with no fear today. She’s expected to win, and I just went out there and played my game and I came out with a win.”

Seeds just aren’t intimidating anyone in the women’s draw lately. Half of the top 20 seeds are already out of the tournament: Dementieva (4), Jankovic (5), Ivanovic (11), Agnieszka Radwanska (12), Bartoli (14), Stosur (15), Razzano (16), Mauresmo (17), Schnyder (19), Medina Garrigues (20).

Oudin faces the great unseeded* Maria Sharapova in the third round. *oh yes, I forgot she is seeded # 29. My bad. But that’s almost as good as unseeded, in terms of darkhorse status!

23-seeded Sabine Lisicki made the most painful exit of the day. She served for the match against Anastasia Rodionova in the third set, was broken, and then sprained her ankle on her opponent’s match point. She left the court in a wheelchair.

Court 11 was cursed for a while – Granollers and Soderling were ready to warm-up while Sabine was still sprawled across the baseline. Minutes after she was wheeled off, Granollers retired with a back injury after playing only two games.

Next up was my personal fave, Carla Suarez Navarro, who was dominated by Shahar Peer: 6-2, 6-0. The Israeli wore a striking purple and hot pink ensemble and her tennis was even more remarkable. She hit pummeling ground strokes off both sides, looked fit as a fiddle and was superbly focused and motivated.

I randomly sat next to Shahar Peer’s father during the match (he seemed to be a mellow and well-behaved type of tennis dad) and someone turned to him and said, “You’re that girl’s dad? She’s playing so well, I think she’ll be playing Venus Williams in the semis!“ Well, actually, that match-up can’t happen until the final, but Mr. Peer and I got the drift. He answered with a smile, “Right now I’m just worrying about this match.”

I agree with the bystander – Peer’s my new favorite on the non-Williams half of the draw. Seriously, she was scary-good. She’ll play Kuznetsova next.

With upstarts like Oudin, improving stars like Peer and resurgent former champs like Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters all looking great going into the first weekend, could this be the year of the *unseeded US Open champ? *or seeded #29 like Sharapova!

Speaking of the Williams sisters, they played their first doubles match of the tournament on Thursday in front of a standing room only crowd. They beat the team of Julia Goerges/Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2, 6-2.

With all the drama on the women’s side, the men’s side of the tournament seems a little placid by comparison. Stan Wawrinka is the only top 20 seed to be booted out early (he lost to Lapentti in the 1st round.) The rest of the top guys are punching the clock and getting the job done. Even 21st seeded James Blake held it together, beating Olivier Rochus in four sets and avoiding another early round upset. Countrymen Roddick, Isner, Querrey and Witten also advanced on a great day for the U.S. of A.

Click here for more results from the men’s side and here for more women’s results.

We enjoyed a very busy (and photogenic) Day 4 at the US Open on Thursday, catching the Venus and Serena playing doubles, Shahar Peer beating down Carla Suarez Navarro, Sabine Lisicki rolling an ankle after losing her match, and Dinara Safina battling though as always. Here are some of the photos we took along the way.

*fellow bloggers are more than welcome to use our photos, please link us if you do.

 

Practice makes perfect and the ladies were looking pretty dang good at the official US Open Practice Day on Sunday. Kuznetsova, Dementieva, Jankovic, Sharapova, Safina, Azarenka and Mauresmo were all sweating up the courts. Based on the effort level out there, it looks like each and every one of them expects to make it to the final weekend.  Good luck, gals!

Oh, and it was cool to see Dinara Safina practicing with Carla Suarez Navarro and Daniela Hantuchova hitting with Anna Chakvetadze – I love it when the girls hit with other girls instead of male practice partners. Roar!!!

Here are some of our photos

 

On the men’s side, the big Day 7 stories at Roland Garros were Novak’s upset and Roger’s chest hair (oh, and Andy Roddick’s first ever foray into the Rd. of 16!)

On the women’s side it was all drama, drama, drama! Great for fans, not so great for Serena Williams:

“I’m like one of those girls on a reality show that has all the drama, and everyone in the house hates them because no matter what they do, like, drama follows them. I don’t want to be that girl.” Serena said after beating Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in three sets today in the third round (quote via AP).

The drama involved a crap call that went against Williams when the umpire failed to see that her shot had hit her opponent’s arm, instead of her racquet. When the ball went over the net and the game went to Martinez Sanchez, Serena was understandably upset (replay showed that the ball definitely smacked Martinez Sanchez’s arm before it hit her racquet.)

“She better not come to the net again.” Serena said ominously, though she didn’t act on her threat.

Here’s the replay and Serena’s post match accusations:

God hath no fury like a Williams scorned! I wonder if this injustice will be enough to drive Serena into the final?

What is the bigger surprise, that 4th seed Elena Dementieva went out in the third round to Samantha Stosur today or that she doesn’t think Nadal is going to win Roland Garros? Here’s her quote (via Yahoo!Sports, via Risha):

“Well, he actually looks a little bit tired to me. He doesn’t look like he’s fresh enough. I think it’s going to be tough challenge for him to win this time, actually.”

No. 10 seed Caroline Wozniacki was also upset in straight sets by her good friend Sorana Cirstea. This couldn’t have helped Wozniacki’s cause:

Sad face: Carla Suarez Navarro lost the final set of her held-over third round match against Victoria Azarenka today. Reportedly Vika was booed off the court, but I have no idea why – perhaps like me, the French are just crazy for lil’ Carla?

Fashion faux pas? Virginie Razzano beat Tathiana Garbin today in a tough straight set match. But her opponent was the least of her worries. After the match, she described her harrowing on-court encounter with the WTA patch police:

It was somebody from the WTA (that came out on court). I had a patch, you know, on my polo shirt, and it was not positioned correctly. The problem was this woman wanted me to change my shirt. It was 3‑0. We had started the match, so I was a bit pissed off.

I said, I can’t change my polo shirt, because all my T‑shirts are patched exactly the same. It’s sewn on the T‑shirt. She wanted to use a pair of scissors to remove it. I said, ‘You’re going to ruin all my T‑shirts.’ I had my three white T‑shirts in my bag, and they were all with the same logo at the same place. It was sewn this morning.

It’s my mistake, I know. I knew I couldn’t place it exactly here. It had to be placed on the side, on the shoulder, almost. She said, ‘Well, you have to use another T‑shirt, otherwise you might be fined.’ I said, ‘Please try and find me a T‑shirt,because I said I have no other T‑shirt. Either it’s bare chested or naked or this way, and never mind the fine.’

You know what she said? Well, she went away. It was 3‑0 and I had something else to think about, I can tell you. I was thinking about the match. I didn’t want to bother about this. I didn’t want to get angry about this. I appreciate this woman. She’s kind. I was well into the match. I was playing okay.

The only thing I wanted was to be on my own, and this is when I was up 5‑0, and I was still, you know, how can I say, thinking about this. It was at the back of my mind. I said, ‘Never mind the fine. I’ll have the fine. I’ll play. I’ll play.’ It was not easy, you know.

Awesome promotional strategy, WTA!

Staying under the radar: Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Agnieszka Radwanska and Aleksandra Wozniak all made it through the draw without too much hubbub.

The Round of 16s are set: Safina vs. Rezai, Azarenka vs. Ivanovic, Szavay vs. Cibulkova, Sharapaova vs. Li, Jankovic vs. Cirstea, Razzano vs. Stosur, Kuznetsova vs. Radwanska, and Wozniak vs. Williams.

Especially looking forward to Vika vs. Ana and Maria vs. Na. And of course I’m still keeping my fingers crossed for a final battle between Serena and Safina!

Wozniacki hurt her backy: photo by JACQUES DEMARTHON/AFP/Getty Images via Daylife

Serena is (momentarily) speechless: photo by PATRICK KOVARIK/AFP/Getty Images via Yahoo!Sports.

Last week’s Marbella tournament, a.k.a. the Andalucia Tennis Experience, was all about tourism tie-ins, so it’s no surprise that Jelena Jankovic was stuffed into a polka-dotted flamenco dress as soon as she won the tournament on Sunday. (Love how her tennis dress shows underneath!)

Before it’s too late, I wanted to mention how great this final was between Jelena Jankovic and Carla Suarez Navarro. Jelena found her form and her confidence again, beating the Spaniard 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in an exiting match played before a packed house. Everyone who cares about the WTA should be thrilled that  J.J. is winning (and smiling) again after a well-documented slump – she’s one of the most entertaining characters on tour.

Even more thrilling (to me, anyway) was watching Carla Suarez Navarro, a goofy Tomboy with an awesome one-handed backhand and loads of grit. This was CSN’s first WTA tour final appearance, although the 20-year-old has already made it to the quarterfinals at this year’s Australian Open (l. to Dementieva, beat V.Williams on the way) and last year’s Roland Garros (l. to Jankovic.) She’s a blast to watch, with a unique, all-court game that breaks out of the current WTA mold. If she continues to improve, Carla will soon be my favorite player on the WTA circuit! I’m really excited about her, can you tell?

I was hoping to share some good quality highlights from the final, but decent footage is in short supply. Here’s the best I could do:

Here’s some good stuff from Carla’s Aussie Open match against Venus – just the first two points are damn impressive!

The WTA has stops in Barcelona and Charleston this week. I’ll have more on these tournaments soon – my mind is obviously still in lovely Marbella!