Monthly Archives: March 2011

The great thing about the Tour­na­ment of Broads is that there are no easy wins. When you’re deal­ing with sixty-eight of the most beau­ti­ful and tal­ented women in the world, in any given matchup, any of them could emerge vic­to­ri­ous. And in the round of 32, that’s exactly what we saw, as peren­nial con­tender Jes­sica Alba dug deep and knocked off num­ber one over­all seed Brook­lyn Decker, whom many — includ­ing myself — thought could win the whole thing.

Well, the NCAA tour­na­ment may be on a break for a few days, but the Tour­na­ment of Broads is just heat­ing up. After a hec­tic sec­ond round, the field has been cut in half. Among those going home? Last year’s Cin­derella story, Teresa Strasser. And Acad­emy Award-winner Natalie Port­man, who couldn’t over­come the gritty per­for­mance of porn queen Sasha Grey. And newly-single Eva Lon­go­ria, who fell vic­tim to Olivia Wilde’s dra­matic comeback.

But the biggest story of the early matchups may very well be the strength of the higher seeds, most of whom won con­vinc­ingly. Undoubt­edly, though, as we advance in the tour­na­ment, the level of com­pe­ti­tion will only increase, and there will be no easy vic­to­ries for any of the broads in the field.