Iga Swiatek wins her very first title in Poland.

“She is a tough player, tough opponent,” Wickmayer said afterwards. “I’ve always had tough matches against her so I’m happy with the win. I’m especially happy since it’s been quite a tough year — a lot of injuries and a lot of tough losses. Every win is really good for me and makes me really happy. I’m very excited to be still in and still playing.”

Interesting starts for the struggling (1) Kerber after a bye vs. the Jankovic-Barthel winner, (3) Cibulkova after a bye vs. Makarova, (10) Woz vs. the Russian riser Kasatkina, and (11) Vandeweghe vs. her U.S. Fed Cup teammate Riske…

The No. 2-seeded Beck starts against the upset specialist Mattek-Sands…Wildcards were awarded to Canucks Francoise Abanda, Aleksandra Wozniak and Carol Zhao…The last three seeds are ranked outside the WTA Top 90…

Gael Monfils and Johanna Konta took home titles Sunday.

CITI OPEN Washington, D.C., USA; Surface: hard ADHEREL Men’s Seeds: John Isner, Gael Monfils, Bernard Tomic, Benoit Paire, Steve Johnson, Jack Sock, Alexander Zverev, Sam Querrey, Kevin Anderson, Viktor Troicki, Alexandr Dolgopolov, Grigor Dimitrov, Ivo Karlovic, Gilles Muller, Marcos Baghdatis, Borna Coric Men’s Floaters: none Men’s Notes: No Top 10ers, but three Top 20 players…The […]

Wozniacki returns from a foot injury…Wildcards were awarded to Pliskova and Brits Robson and Freya Christie…The slew of tournament withdrawals included former No. 1 Victoria Azarenka, Madison Keys, Petra Cetkovska, Irina Falconi, Monica Niculescu and Lesia Tsurenko…

Guess the tournament couldn’t meet Petra Kvitova’s price point?…No Top 10 players in the field, but multiple Grand Slam title winners and finalists among the seeds…Tough start for (8) Wickmayer vs. Giorgi…

Lots of floaters in the draw and tough opening-round match-ups including (1) Radwanska vs. Petkovic, (8) Safarova vs. Pliskova in an all-Czech, (6) Vinci vs. Makarova, (3) Muguruza vs. Lisicki, and (2) Kerber vs. the riser Beck in an all-German…

Keep your fingers crossed for the Serena vs. Maria and Kvitova vs. Venus quarterfinals, and the champions should unravel from there.

“We didn’t announce Maria (had entered) because we knew she wasn’t going to play, and we didn’t want to disappoint the fans (again),” Family Circle Cup General Manager Bob Moran told the Charleston Post and Courier. “Sharapova officially withdrew on Friday…We knew she never had any intention of playing this year.”

Roger Federer and Stan Wawrinka play singles then doubles today at Indian Wells.

Notes: (1) Dementieva opens against Peng, and (3) Wickmayer against the Osaka finalist Schnyder; wildcards went to Dementieva, Russian Yulia Putintseva, Luxembourg’s Mandy Minella, and France’s Virginie Razzano; in last year’s final Francesca Schiavone defeated Olga Govortsova.

The development was that Montreal’s star power suddenly began to dip with all the pull-outs, and Lapierre came back to Ivanovic with the wildcard offer — which she promptly told him, in so many words, to stick up his ass.

The sadly-slowing American drumbeat goes on this week at the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open. World No. 1 Serena Williams is sidelined with a cut foot, and elder sister Venus is out with a tweaked knee. No Americans are seeded, and only one American, Melanie Oudin, got directly into the main draw via her ranking (barely).