Where No One Is Safe

There's been something strange going on in the women's game this year -- for the first time in what seems like forever, we're seeing some consistency on court. Victoria Azarenka may no longer be undefeated for the year, but her only loss came at the hands of Marion Bartoli, herself a powerful player. Aggie Radwanska's two titles come in addition to three quarterfinal and two semi runs. Maria Sharapova has made three finals this year, two in a row in Indian Wells and Miami. And even the lesser-known names -- Angelique Kerber, Mona Barthel, Sara Errani -- are lasting more than a few rounds at a time.

So it's a little strange that this week we're seeing one seed after another fall by the wayside.

The bloodshed started early in Barcelona. Top-seeded Francesca Schiavone lost in straight sets to world #83 Olga Govortsova. Defending champion Roberta Vinci came back from a set down to win her opener, but fell a day later to Simona Halep. And earlier today Flavia Pennetta, who'd made finals in Auckland and Acapulco already this year, dropped her second round to qualifier Yuliya Beygelzimer.

A couple seeds have survived, of course -- at least so far -- but they might still be in danger. Dominika Cibulkova was just able to force a third set against Klara Zakopalova. The Slovak won the pair's only meeting last year, on her way to the title in Moscow, but after a heart-breaking loss to Victoria Azarenka in Miami, she might be fighting more demons than her opponent. And second seeded Julia Goerges may have to keep an eye on her next opponent -- eighteen-year-old Garbiñe Muguruza Blanco beat both Pennetta and Vera Zvonareva at the Sony Ericsson Open. She hasn't yet cracked the top one-hundred, but if she keeps it up, she might be on the way there soon. And Carla Suarez Navarro, still on the mend from an injury that halted her 2010 season, might be able to regain her form and take advantage of others' losses -- already having ousted Petra Cetkovska, she could keep up her momentum a few more rounds.

The results in Copenhagen haven't been quite so dire for the favorites -- Angelique Kerber survived a scare earlier today and two-time champion Caroline Wozniacki, fresh off arguably her biggest career win in Miami, is currently up a set against Pauline Parmentier. But the retirement of Ksenia Pervak in the first round and losses by Sofia Arvidsson and Monica Niculescu have nevertheless opened the door some.

Alize Cornet, once so close to breaking into the top ten, is now just knocking on the door of double digits. She delivered a double bagel against wildcard Malou Ejdesgaard in her opener, though, and survived a two-plus hour contest against Patricia Mayr-Achleitner on Wednesday. She'll have to raise her game farther in the next round, where she'll likely meet Wozniacki, but it's still nice to see her winning again. And Bojana Jovanovski, who has yet to follow up on her success from early last year, may have a bit of a reprieve against her next opponent -- she beat Petra Martic at a Challenger event two years ago. She'll still be the underdog, ranked nearly fifty spots below the Croat, but if she can find her game, she could present a challenge to even more seeds.

It'll be a tough task for some of these players to continue their runs, but it might be a tougher task for the favorites to hold on to their edge. And whomever is able to take advantage of the holes in the draws could reap more than a few benefits.

And this week might just be the time to do it.

In Opposite Corners

It's a crazy calendar professional tennis players endure.

With just two weeks between the French Open and Wimbledon, most players were eager to make the quick switch to grass courts and get whatever practice they could before the year's next Grand Slam. But others, for better or worse, skipped right past the lawn season and went straight to the hard courts. We'll see who got the better deal.

In Copenhagen, where the eBoks Sony Ericsson Open was contested several months earlier than it had been last year, players may have gotten some prep for New York rather than London, which might explain why reigning champion Caroline Wozniacki was the only top thirty player entered in the draw. Still she got through her matches without dropping a set on the way to the finals -- her seventh of the year.

There she met Lucie Safarova, one of my perennials favorites who can never seem to gain enough traction to make the jump into the highest levels of the sport. The Czech survived four straight three-set matches in Denmark, and might have been slightly exhausted by the time she reached Sunday's final. She won just four points on the world #1's serve in the first set, and got down on the count in just over twenty minutes. She put up a slightly better fight in the second set, but Wozniacki was just too much for her. After just over an hour of play, the hometown hero had gotten the win and reiterated her position at the top of the sport.



But did she get the preparation she needed? Over in Birmingham the ladies were put to the test on grass, and though a rain-soaked Sunday kept the ultimate winner from being determined yet, the two ladies who are going for the title have so far proven to have made the adjustment to the slicker lawn.

Fourth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova is fresh off a solid French Open, having dealt Caro a tough third round loss and putting up quite a fight against 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova a few days later. But the Slovak, a quarterfinalist at Wimbledon way back in 2002, reminded us she shouldn't be discounted on this surface either. She dropped a handful of games in her first three rounds and stayed study after losing a first set tiebreak to Ana Ivanovic in the semis. She didn't drop serve again that match, and truly earned her second final of the year.

There she'll face former world #22 Sabine Lisicki, a surprise quarterfinalist at the All England Club two years ago. She lost a bit of ground last year when an ankle injury kept her out of contention for the better part of 2010. But she's shown signs of brilliance this year, nearly taking out Vera Zvonareva in Paris as a qualifier and battling past three seeds this week in Birmingham. Now certain of breaking well back into the double-digits rankings, she finally seems to in the shape to do real damage at the Majors.



We might not yet know whether Hantuchova and Lisicki's early statements on the lawn have served as proper warm-ups for Wimbledon, or if Wozniacki's seventeenth career title gives her the confidence she needs to finally make her Slam splash. They've all certainly made different arguments for their own cases. And which, if any, will ultimately prevail is still an open question.

But the title bout is about to begin