Creme (but not de la creme)

I know the WTA tour is basically a cesspit of despair at the moment, a land of headcases and nut jobs and total freakouts and injuries, etc. All this aside, we have had some pretty surprising winners over the past few weeks.

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Like Marion Bartoli. What was that? She plays the weirdest tennis in the history of the world and I've pretty much considered her a one-Slam wonder since Wimbledon 2007, where she didn't even win the Slam. What was with her beating Venus? That was just bizarre. I don't get it.

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And now Flavia Pennetta! No disrespect to the Flavinator, because I have epic kudos for her, but surely there are people in this draw who should have eaten her for breakfast. But no... Flavia won LA. I was very disappointed that she beat Sam Stosur in the final - I thought Sam should have pulled that one through. All credit for Flavia - and Marion - for coming through tough draws, but still...

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...this should not be happening.

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In tournaments where the creme de la creme are playing, the creme de la creme should be winning. End of story. Instead, Marion Bartoli and Flavia Pennetta, who are creme, but not de la creme, if you know what I mean, are winning and the creme de la creme are being beaten early. I don't get it... I suppose it makes things a bit interesting, but it's also very disappointing.

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So what will happen this week? There's an interesting question. Because if Marion and Flavia are winning, then I think the WTA is primed for a run like Juan Martin del Potro had last year. Who's it gonna be, ladies? Who's gonna step up and play hardball?

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Today's Results

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Rogers Cup (Montreal)

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Mikhail Youzhny def. Marin Cilic, 4-6 7-6 (7-4) 6-1

Frederic Niemeyer def. Igor Kunitsyn, 7-5 6-1

Rainer Schuettler def. Florent Serra, 6-4 6-0

Igor Andreev def. Dmitry Tursunov, 5-5 retired

Paul-Henri Mathieu def. Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, 7-5 0-6 6-1

Jeremy Chardy def. Yen-hsun Lu, 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-4

Peter Polansky def. Bruno Agostinelli, 6-3 7-6 (8-6)

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Western and Souther Financial Group Women's Open (Cincinatti)

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Roberta Vinci def. Tatjana Malek, 6-4 6-1

Patty Schnyder def. Gisela Dulko, 6-4 6-0

Lucie Safarova def. Iveta Benesova, 6-3 7-6 (9-7)

Olga Govortsova def. Ekaterina Makarova, 6-1 6-3

Aleksandra Wozniak def. Carla Suarez Navarro, 6-0 6-3

Melinda Czink def. Alize Cornet, 6-3 6-2

Ana Ivanovic def. Melanie Oudin, 2-6 6-1 6-1

Anna-Lena Groenefeld def. Virginie Razzano, 6-3 3-6 6-4

Victoria Azarenka def. Kaia Kanepi, 6-3 7-6 (7-2)

Kateryna Bondarenko def. Magdalena Rybarikova, 6-2 6-2