I'm very excited for the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina this week!!! I love it because I love the green clay and this tournament is actually on TV! (At least the semis and final). But Day two consisted of a bunch of my favorite players. The matches I looked forward to consisted of Sania Mirza, Marion Bartoli, Alexandra Stevenson, Shenay Perry, Dominika Cibulkova, and Bethanie Mattek-Sands. The seeds that played other than Bartoli and Cibulkova were Nadia Petrova, Vera Zvonareva, and Elena Dementieva.
The first matches of the day that ran simultaneously consisted of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Shenay Perry. Bethanie Mattek-Sands came to Charleston after a defeat against number 13 in the world, Marion Bartoli. And she continued her solid clay court play against Colombia's Mariana Duque Marino with a 76(3) 75 win. Now many of you may not have heard of America's Shenay Perry. But I've always been intrigued by her unusual forehand and her one-handed backhand. She got through the qualifying rounds pretty easily and it looked as if she wouldn't be able to pass the Czech 15th seed, Barbora Zahlavova Strycova. But to Zahlavova Strycova's surprise, Perry has come back on tour with a more refined game and after a first set struggle, Perry dominated her Czech opponent, 75 61.
Vera Zvonareva and Sania Mirza were next up. Zvonareva followed Mattek-Sands on Stadium Court. Her opponent was Paraguay's Rossana De Los Rios. De Los Rios could have made a match against Zvonareva, but Vera wouldn't let Rossana in and took her out in just over an hour, 63 62. One of my favorite players, Sania Mirza faced Kazakhstan's Sesil Karatantcheva on Court three today. I've never seen Mirza have a great clay court season. But her wrist problems have usually taken her out of most of her clay court tournaments. Sania is more comfortable on the fast hard court because of the massive damage her forehand can do. And the only other time i've heard of Sesil Karatantcheva was when she shocked Venus Williams in Roland Garros a couple years back. But Sania played consistent tennis today to defeat Karatantcheva, 64 64.
The sixth seed from France Marion Bartoli was up next on stadium court. Her opponent was qualifier from Latvia, Anastasija Sevastova. Bartoli can produce good tennis on all surfaces, but after her appearance at the finals of Wimbledon in 2007, 2008 was an inconsistent year to say the least. Bartoli gained weight and lost some horrible matches. But Marion has brought her game back in 2009. And she asserted her improvement by reaching the finals at Auckland and beating Jelena Jankovic en route to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open. And Bartoli showed promise on the clay today by dismantling her Latvian opponent, 61 63.
The other seeds on court today were Nadia Petrova, Dominika Cibulkova, and Elena Demtieva. Nadia Petrova faced off against Austria's Patricia Mayr. But Mayr put up a good fight. Ultimately though, Petrova overcame Mayr with a 61 26 62 win. Cibulkova had a potentially tough encounter with another Austrian, Tamira Paszek. But Dominika was a finalist here last year and she was not willing to fall early this time around. She had very little problems with her game and took Paszek out, 64 60. And the last match of the day was between the number one seed, Elena Dementieva and American lefty, Julie Ditty. Dementieva almost embarrassed Ditty winning the first 10 games of the match. After Ditty squeezed in a few games, Elena overall smashed her, 60 62.
Other Scores of Day 2:
Stephanie Dubois(CAN) def. Katie O'Brien(GBR) 46 62 61
Alla Kudryavtseva(RUS) def. (Q) Angela Haynes(USA) 64 57 60
(9) Aleksandra Wozniak(CAN) def. (Q) Abigail Spears(USA) 63 46 60
Elena Vesnina(RUS) def. Evgeniya Rodina(RUS) 60 62
Viktoriya Kutuzova(UKR) def. Mariya Koryttseva(UKR) 61 61
(16) Sabine Lisicki(GER) def. (Q) Marie-Eve Pelletier(CAN) 75 64
Who I Want to Win: MARION BARTOLI
Who I Think Will Win: VENUS WILLIAMS
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