Tidbits

Myskina an inspiration: Russian 10th seed Ekaterina Makarova was asked to speak about some of the top Russian players who inspired her.

Svetlana Kuznetsova was mentioned, as was Dinara Safina and Elena Dementieva. But there was silence on Maria Sharapova, her Melbourne semifinal opponent.

"My idol was Anastasia Myskina," Makarova said. "I was watching so many matches of her when she won the French Open (in 2004) and when she was playing Olympics. That was a great time, when Dementieva, Kuznetsova, Safina, they were all - like we had four girls in the quarterfinal, two of them in the semis. I really wanted to be one of them when I was watching them and learning some things from them."