Day 3: Seeds fall

It's raining seeds in Birmingham. Seeds fall like the incessant rain in this damp and cold tournament.

Birmingham:

2nd Round:
Urszula Radwanska def. (2) Sabine Lisicki 6-3 6-4

Another epic fail from Lisicki. When will she ever break out of this horrendous slump? How can someone go from taking a set of Maria Sharapova in Australian Open to losing to scrubs like Urszula Radwanska? Sabine needs a sports psychologist immediately or else she's going to fade into oblivion.

Misaki Doi def. (1) Francesca Schiavone 7-5 6-4

Granted Francesca is not a natural grass courter, she shouldn't have lost this match against lowly ranked Doi. Schiavone is a former Wimbledon quarter-finalist, so this loss is inexcusable. So much for a resurgance from Francesca, after winning Strasbourg, she went back to sucking which she is apparently getting very good at. I guess we won't be seeing Schiavone next year given her dire results.

Melinda Czink def. (3) Daniela Hantuchova 7-5 7-6(5)

I am going to cut Daniela some slack here. She just returned from an injury after all and would need a few matches to get into a groove. But she did make it close which is a good sign. Melinda is a flat hitter and would pose trouble to most players on this surface. A good win for her. But for the tournament, it loses its top 3 seeds in a day which is a big headache.

Bad Gastein:

1st round:
Yvonne Meusburger def. (5) Petra Martic 6-1 4-6 7-6(5)

Just when you thought a player is ready to breakthrough, she takes two steps backwards again. This is the case with Petra Martic. High from a fantastic performance in Paris, she plummeted back to earth with a humiliating loss to Meusburger. If there's a competition for ugliest tennis strokes, Yvonne would be in the top 10 guaranteed. Her awkward strokes and soft game shouldn't pose a problem to anyone, let alone a Roland Garros 4th rounder. Very disappointing from Petra.

Jill Craybas def. Nina Bratchikova 7-5 6-3

Grandma Jill wins a match! She outlasted Nina Bratchikova who just came off a good showing in Paris. Not sure what to think of Nina. She only shows up for the slams and disappears for the rest of the year. So I'm guessing another 3rd round in Wimbledon? Jill gains precious points for this win and shows us that age is only a number.