At the Tier II WTA Tour event on Amelia Island in Florida last week, the carnage continued apace for Russia's so-called "dominant" female tennis players.

Four Russians entered the tournament's third round, including half of its top six seeds. Only one of them, Maria Sharapova, reached the quarter finals as the rest were cut down like sheafs of wheat before the scythe -- and Sharapova herself only barely survived a brutal three-set challenge from the Spaniard seeded #15.

Russia's #6 seed Dinara Safina was beaten by a lower-seeded Ukrainian.

Russia's #2 seed Anna Chakvetadze was decisively crushed by an unseeded Slovakian, winning only three games in the two sets she lost.

And unseeded Elena Vesnina lost in straight sets to unseeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet.

So the only "Russian" to reach the quarters was the one (Shamapova) who learned her game in the United States and lives there full time, and she got there by the skin of her teeth, winning two of three sets both in tiebreakers.

In typical Shamapova style, upon reaching the quarters she discovered that the highest-ranked player she could face in there, or in the semis or finals, was the #8 seed (relatively unknown Agnes Szavay of Hungary). In fact, Shamapova faced the #10 seed in the quarters, needing three sets and a tiebreaker to prevail. The the semis, she then only needed to defeat the #16 seed -- that's right, it got easier as she moved towards the finals, where she was guaranteed to face an unseeded opponent for the title.

But wait! It gets better! In the semifinals, Shamapova's opponent came down with fever and defaulted, so Shamapova marched into the finals to meet an unseeded opponent without even having to play a single point.

Champion? We think not.