Go See Sebastien

One from three on Stars today - Marin Cilic beat Flavio Cipolla, but both Jeremy Chardy and Eduardo Schwank were first round casualties. Not too fussed about Schwank - he was, I think, only a flash in the pan, and is only hanging on to Star status by his teeth. But Chardy... I'm a bit disappointed by his performance over the last couple of weeks. He was the fourth seed in one of the tournaments last week, and I thought he had quite a good shot at winning... but last week was the week of the old guy, I suppose. Here's hoping Jeremy gets back on his feet again soon.

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Speaking of a disappointing performance, Alize, where art thou? She was the top seed in Barcelona, and got absolutely pulverised by Stephanie Cohen-Aloro. If she isn't injured... God, I hope she's injured. This performance is absolutely inexcusable otherwise. Ever since she had those match points against Safina in Australia, she has absolutely crumbled. Perhaps she should go and have a word with countryman Sebastien Grosjean. He knows a thing or two about choking.

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...though he probably couldn't give her many useful points on how to stop.

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But seriously, it is so disappointing! She is a great little player and she's great on clay especially. What's gone on here? This is something that clearly needs to be addressed. I hate to see promising young guns, who should be off conquering tennis Everests with Victoria Azarenka and Caroline Wozniacki and co, succumbing to the paralysis currently sweeping the WTA. I thought it was only the more 'senior' members of the top ten (feels strange to call players like the Serbians senior - they haven't been round that long!) but Alize's caught the disease too.

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Who is going to fix the WTA? That has got to be the biggest question in tennis right now. Where did it go wrong, and who is going to set it right?

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Today's Results

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Monte Carlo Rolex Masters (Monte Carlo)

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Marin Cilic def. Flavio Cipolla, 6-3 6-2

Nicolas Lapentti def. Radek Stepanek, 6-3 1-6 6-3

Oscar Hernandez def. Julien Benneteau, 6-4 6-4

Juan Igancio Chela def. Igor Kunitsyn, 6-4 2-6 7-5

Victor Hanescu def. Alberto Martin, 6-2 6-3

Andreas Seppi def. Jurgen Melzer, 6-2 6-0

Marcel Granollers def. Jose Acasuso, 7-6 (7-4) 7-6 (7-2)

Juan Monaco def. Jeremy Chardy, 6-2 7-5

Marc Gicquel def. Eduardo Schwank, 3-6 6-1 7-6 (7-2)

Andreas Beck def. Nicolas Kiefer, 1-6 7-6 (7-1) 6-4

Ivan Ljubicic def. Kristof Vliegen, 6-4 6-7 (5-7) 6-4

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Family Circle Cup (Charleston)

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Peng Shuai def. Anastasia Pivovarova, 6-0 6-2

Alona Bondarenko def. Anne Kremer, 6-4 6-0

Virginie Razzano def. Mallory Cecil, 6-1 6-2

Vania King def. Olga Govortsova, 6-7 (3-7) 7-6 (7-5) 6-3

Tamira Paszek def. Julia Schruff, 7-5 6-2

Patricia Mayr def. Yan Zi, 6-2 6-2

Rossana de los Ríos def. Carly Gullickson, 6-1 6-4

Varvara Lepchenko def. Galina Voskoboeva, 6-1 6-3

Julie Ditty def. Ayumi Morita, 6-1 6-1

Anastasia Rodionova def. Madison Brengle, 6-2 7-6 (7-4)

Lenka Wienerova def. Alexa Glatch, 6-4 7-5

Melanie Oudin def. Olga Savchuk, 6-4 6-0

Anastasija Sevastova def. Marta Domachowska, 6-1 1-6 6-4

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Barcelona Ladies Open (Barcelona)

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Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro def. Alizé Cornet, 6-0 6-3

Flavia Pennetta def. Petra Kvitova, 6-3 6-3

Sara Errani def. Mathilde Johansson, 2-6 7-5 6-3

Lucie Safarova def. Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-1 3-6 6-0

Magdalena Rybarikova def. Klara Zakopalova, 6-1 7-6 (9-7)

Roberta Vinci def. Pauline Parmentier, 6-4 7-6 (9-7)