man on women's sports

So harried by all the missed layups hitting everything on the court but net (and it wasn't just Tamika, her former Huskie teammate Svetlana Abrosimova missed her share), I missed women's sports on the real side: Serena returning to the court Tuesday for the first time in six months, apparently recovered from a left knee injury. She opened her play at the Cincinnati Open with a stunning victory over Anastasia Myskina (pictured left) 6-2 6-2. In the second round it was 6-3 6-1 over USA's Bethanie Mattek (pictured below).

In the quarters, Serena defeated Amy Frazier 6-2 6-2. Last night, she was halted in the semis by Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-3. That's to be expected: she has been off the tour for six months, and nothing is more clearly established than that there is just no substitute for the rigor of the tour than actually playing in tour events.

Venus was in town (may still be at this 4:00 am writing), featured with the Philadelphia Freedoms in World Team Tennis (WTT) action against the Houston Wranglers. The Wranglers carried every event except women's singles, including mixed doubles that also featured Venus. Match Results (I'm not really sure how to read and interpret the stats on the page, but because I'm an illiterate doesn't make the rest of the world the same.) I didn't attend: when I first learned of her appearance here, I was sure I'd be in San Antonio for the weekend with Washington Friday night, and Conn last night. Recently, the TV commercials for the venue pictured it as much larger than I anticipated, suggesting that I really needed to have gotten a ticket much sooner to have gotten decent pics.

And I was sure I saw Myskina coming here after Venus. WTT Schedule I've said it before, (sports) man cannot read.

Oh, well, at least Tamika and Svet's tight from UConn, Asjha Jones, didn't miss any layups in that part of the Conn v SA game I caught after the LA @ Indiana game (I am not going there; this is a posting about the never disappointing Serena.) Asiha and Tamika graduated with Swin Cash and Sue Bird. At left, Tatiana Golovin of France also defeated by Vera Zvonareva in Cincinnati.

Photo sources: (all) Yahoo! News/REUTERS/John Sommers II

# posted by wonderbot @ 1:21 AM