2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships: Torri Edwards 100 meters gold

Her win qualified her to represent the USA at the world championships in Japan.

Photo sources: Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Michael Conroy; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/John Gress; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Brent Smith; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Brent Smith; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/AJ Mast

Martina Hingis versus

I was really, really hoping for a good look at Aiko Nakamura, but all they really had there were pictures of "Martina Hingis returns to . . ." and "Switzerland's Martina Hingis plays a return to . . .." So, who am I to refuse a momentary aside for Martina:

Photo sources: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Alessia Pierdomenico; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Sang Tan; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Sang Tan

2007 AT&T USA Outdoor Track & Field Championships: (upset Johnson!) De’Hashia "DeeDee" Trotter 400 meter dash gold

The story. (I really hate to borrow the picture and the words, but I can't get it better:) In the picture below, "De'Hashia Trotter from Knoxville, Tennessee (C) races Sanya Richards from Austin, Texas (R) and Mary Wineberg from Cincinnati, Ohio in the women's 400 meter dash finals at the USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Indianapolis June 23, 2007. Trotter won the event."

I apologize that I am such a purist in my photography (for example, digital just comes nowhere near film, especially color positive), so I include borrowed pics just as I find them. But just a minor correction of the gamma in the preceding picture put her beautiful facial features back into the photo, with no loss to the blues and reds and white of the flag USA.

Photo source: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Brent Smith; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Brent Smith; Yahoo! News/AFP/Jeff Haynes; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Michael Conroy; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Michael Conroy; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Michael Conroy; (modified) Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Michael Conroy

Contrasting France's Tatiana, Hsieh Su-Wei of the ROC and Switzerland's Patty Schnyder in their Wimbledon whites so far this tourney

Photo sources: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/David Moir; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth: Yahoo! News/REUTERS/David Moir; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/David Moir; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/David Moir

Though three of my favorites are out, there's game in women's singles at Wimbledon: rounds 1 and 2; Photo essay: Tatiana's red on the Queen's green

The seeding is holding pretty well at Wimbledon, leading to a very exciting day of tennis today as the third round gets underway. Just some quick observations on rounds 1 and 2:

Round 1: Emilie Loit of France defeated China's Tiantian Sun 6-3 6-1: the People have got to be displeased. USA's Jill Craybas out to Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine 1-6 2-6. USA's Ashley Harkleroad out to Italy's Roberta Vinci 2-6 1-6. This is more hindsight since I see that she is a factor for round 3, Patty Schnyder very narrowly defeated France's Camille Pin 6-1 6-4 8-6. The Daniela Hantuchova (with a number 10 seed - I'm impressed) on. Possibly hamstring hampered Serena on. Oops, USA's Meghann Shaughnessy out 2-6 4-6 to Jarmila Gajdosova of Slovakia. Greece's Daniilidou (out in the first round on the French clay) on. Oops, USA's Shenay Perry down 6-2 6-7 (4-7) to France's Aravane Rezai (somebody was over-confidently not focused). Veteran doubles great Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain took out her young home sister Anabel Medina Garrigues; Anabel made quite the noice in Paris; sorry about that. Sanya Mirza 6-0 6-3 in her match. Number 11 seeded Petrova took out USA's Vania King 6-0 6-1. USA's Bethanie Mattek 6-1 6-0 over Russia's Vasilisa Bardina. Israel's Anna Smashnova down love love to Germany's Martina Muller. China's Shuai Peng down 4-6 4-6 to Hana Sromova of Czech Republic (the People's Republic can't be too happy with that.) This is really interesting: Tatiana Golovin's injury was tested to the utmost by the Republic of China's Su-Wei Hsieh 5-7 6-3 8-6.

Round 2: Number 17 seeded Tatiana is again tested in three rounds, this time successfully by Austria's Tamira Paszek: Tatiana is out 2-6 6-3 1-6 (I hope the Queen is happy now!). Emilie Loit out. Patty Schnyder on. The Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 7-5 7-6 (7-3) over Likhovtseva! Serena on. Daniilidou out. Martina Hingis, raising the brow of her still fervent fan base, 6-1 6-2 over Japanese Aiko Nakamura. But Aiko's home sister, Akiko Morigami has caused the upset of the event so far on the women's side with her defeat of the number 13 seed Russia's Dinara Safina 6-4 7-5. USA's Laura Granville on! Meilen Tu 4-6 3-6 against French Open finalist Ivanovic. Virginia Ruano Pascual on (opps, didn't see that.) Sania Mirza out to Petrova 2-6 2-6. Mauresmo on. Kutzy on. Dementieva on. Ai Sugiyama on in three sets. Sharapova on. Venus on. The seeds held in all but 7 of the 32 matches.

Round 3 preview: At this posting Justin Henin and Patty Schnyder are on, and will face each other in the next round. Venus faces upstart Japan's Akiko Morigami (quite interesting.) Virginia Ruano Pascual faces Petrova. USA's Laura Granville is waiting for her match with Martina Hingis (whose birthdate is listed as 30 September 1980; is that right: Marina Hingis is 26.)

Photo sources: Yahoo! News/AFP/Glenn Campbell; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Toby Melville; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Toby Melville; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/David Moir ; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Toby Melville

Meilen Tu into the second round at Wimbledon!

Official women's singles scores (by draw) Below USA's Jamea Jackson in her 1-6 3-6 loss to defending champion Amelie Mauresmo yesterday (but compare this with later Mauresmo performance in the event.)

Photo sources: Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Alastair Grant; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Alastair Grant; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Eddie Keogh;Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Eddie Keogh;Yahoo! News/AFP/Adrian Dennis; Yahoo! News/REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

It's kind'a hard to stay awake on women's sports right now

But that's not women's fault: they're doing their thing. They're impressing their mark on "sports", and it will unquestionably be a good thing . . . especially for women: and they really need that right about now.

Anyway, I grabbing the decaf, and . . . digging.

Oh yeah, Justine Henin won the Frech Open

Photo source: Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Lionel Cironneau

Let's see, we were watching . . . oh yeah, the French Open

The only thing in the French Open that has made mainline press was Venus' loss in round three. Excuse me, none, zero, nil, niche of our boys from the US of A made it out of the first round of tournament. Meilen Tu made it to the second round, Mailen Tu!

It was needful to let the odor of objectivity of the mainline dispel. The boys are on their own, I'm not with them.

French Open 07: Days 4 and 5: women's singles second round

China's Na Li 3-6 6-3 6-4 over France's Pauline Parmentier; the Netherlands's Milagros Sequera 6-4 5-7 6-1 over USA's Shenay Perry; Serena 6-0 7-6 (7-3) over Venezuela's Milagros Sequera; Venus knocked out home sister Ashley Harkleroad 6-1 7-6 (10-8); France's Marion Bartoli 0-6 6-2 6-3 over Germany's Andrea Petkovic.

In the bottom half of the draw: Sania Mirza out to Sebia's Ana Ivanovic 1-6 4-6 (news reports are calling it a trouncing, which is true only if you see more in Sania than you are revealing to her); (inte'lesting) Elena Likhovtseva out to Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 5-7 4-6; the Daniela Hantuchova on to the third round 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 over Russia's Olga Poutchkova; Kutzy took out USA's Meghann Shaughnessy 7-6 (7-4) 6-3; Mauresmo (probably quite unhappily) took out home sister Nathalie Dechy 6-3 6-7 (3-7) 6-1 (but that last set looks like "Okay, enough, I've got an open to win", or Nathalie just ran out of gas, we'll see); (hum) Nicole Pratt of Austalia down 6-0 6-1 to the Czech Republic's Lucie Safarova (hum, double hum, and hum again, Safarova huh, hum); USA's Meilen Tu battled Ai Sugiyama, who battled back to end Meilen's (brief) run 3-6 6-1 1-6; Patty Schnyder (who defeated Serena in the quarters of the Italian Open) 6-3 6-2 over Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko (Patty and Serena are pictured from that May 18th match); and, Sharapova took out USA's Jill Craybas 6-2 6-1 (bye, Jill.)

Photo sources (in order) Yahoo! News/AFP/Andreas Solaro; Yahoo! News/AP Photo/Gregorio Borgia