Player of the week: Kim Clijsters

Former WTA #1 Kim Clijsters amazed everyone when she became US Open 2009 champion right after coming back from a 2-year break and becoming a mother. This week she wrote antoher chapter of her successful story winning her 37th WTA title in Miami.


Clijsters already started the tournament in an impressive way, dropping just 2 games to Kvitova in the 2nd round, 1 game to 17th seed Shahar Peer in the 3rd round, and 4 games to defending champion and 4th seed Victoria Azarenka in the Last-16 round. But after another straight sets victory over Samantha Stosur in the quarters, Clijsters had to face a very special and tough semifinal against fellow former #1 on her way back to the Tour Justine Henin. Despite losing a 6/2 4/0 lead to lose the 2nd set in the tiebreak, Clijsters didn't lost her focus and managed to win the match in a thrilling third set tiebreak. The final also looked difficult as Clijsters was facing 3rd seed Venus Williams, who was on a 15-match winning streak, but Clijsters rolled to a 6/2 6/1 victory.


With this victory, she has got her place back in the Top-10, but she sees herself contending for #1. Be aware Serena.

Player of the week: Jelena Jankovic

After being WTA #1 in 2008, Serbian Jelena Jankovic wasn't able to keep that level in 2009 and dropped to #8. But this season she may recover her status, as she showed last week in Indian Wells that she is back on the winning track.


After a straight set victory in the 2nd round against upcoming youngster Petra Martic, Jelena survived a very tough match against Sara Errani in the 3rd round. After winning the 1st set, the Italian was two points away from victory in the 2nd set tiebreak and had four points for a 5-2 lead in the 3rd, but Jankovic put up a good fight to come back and take the match. This victory gave Jankovic the confidence she needed, as she won the rest of her matches in straight sets - 62 62 over Shahar Peer, 64 64 over Alisa Kleybanova, 62 64 over Samantha Stosur and 62 64 over Caroline Wozniacki in the final.


With the clay season and Roland Garros coming in the following months, more titles could arrive for Jankovic. The first chance is this week in Miami.

Player of the week: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

1991-born Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova was one of the most promising young players as she entered the Top 30 as a 17 year old after and amazing semifinal run at Indian Wells 2009, and she still was the youngest player in WTA Top 40. But this week she has become a reality as she has captured her 1st WTA title on her first WTA final appearance in Monterrey.

Anastasia had good sensations from the very beggining of the tournament, as she went through Anna Tatishvili, Polona Hercog and Klara Zakopalova dropping no more than 5 games on each match. But her first problem arised as her semifinal was cancelled due to rain and she had to face both semifinal and final in the same day. After defeating Anastasija Sevastova on a tough 3-set match, things didn't look good at all for Pavlyuchenkova as she lost the first set to Daniela Hantuchova by 6/1. But Anastasia fought back and with her big serve and powerful goundstrokes dismantled Hantuchova taking the 2nd and 3rd set by a clear 6/1 6/0.

With this victory, Pavlyuchenkova reaches her highest career ranking at #25, and this week in Indian Wells she will try to repeat her amazing 2009 run.

Player of the week: Venus Williams

Despite being on the Tour for 16 years, Venus Williams is still hungry for titles. This week she succesfully defended her crown in Dubai and got her 42nd career title, leading active players in singles titles.


And she did in a impressive way, without losing a set throughout the tournament and dropping no more than 8 games on each match. In the early rounds, Williams defeated three promising youngsters, German Sabine Lisicki and Russians Olga Govortsova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. In the semis Venus had to face a difficult match against a very motivated Shahar Peer who was having a great run, but she only awarded 5 games to the Israeli. And in the final, Williams took advance of her experience to defeat another upcoming youngster, WTA #6 Victoria Azarenka.


And just after winning in Dubai, Venus flew to Acapulco to play on a very different surface (clay) looking for a 2nd title in a row, just as she did last year.

Player of the week: Lucie Safarova

After her breakthrough in early 2007, when she reached the quarter-finals in the Australian Open and the final in Paris defeating Top-3 at that time Justine Henin, Amelie Mauresmo and Svetlana Kuznetsova, Czech Lucie Safarova hadn't showed that great level again. But this week she has found her game back and by coincidence it was again in the Paris indoors tournament.


After sweeping Tamira Paszek in the 1st round losing just 3 games, Safarova had to face a very tough draw as an unseeded player. 4th seed and WTA #18 Francesca Schiavone was the first victim of Safarova in the 2nd round, who also swept 6th seed Shahar Peer, one of the best players in late 2009 and early 2010 season, in the quarter-finals by 6/3 6/0. The semifinal was even more difficult, as she faced 2nd seed and WTA #12 Flavia Pennetta, but despite losing the 1st set Safarova came back to get her place in the final. And then the most difficult challenge, 1st seed and WTA #7 Elena Dementieva. Safarova took the 1st set in the tie-break, but Dementieva raised her level to take the title in a high-quality final.


Although Safarova had to content herself with the runner-up place as in 2007, recovering the best sensations on her tennis are really good news for her.

Player of the week: Flavia Pennetta / Melanie Oudin

With the great motivation of playing for their countries, it is usual that some players become the heroes of their Fed Cup teams. Multiple players had a remarkable performance last weekend, but we are going to highlight two of them.


With two titles in 2006 and 2009, Italy is one of the strongest Fed Cup teams. And one of the keys of their success is having a solid leader in Flavia Pennetta. This year they have the pressure of being the defending champions, and had a complicated start as they were playing in Ukraine. The tie started in the worst possible way, with Ukranian Alona Bondarenko sweeping Italian Francesca Schiavone. But Pennetta came to the rescue and eased the way of the Italian team with two straight set victories over Katerina Bondarenko and Ukranian #1 Alona Bondarenko.


With the Williams sisters skipping Fed Cup, the leadership of USA team rest on the shoulders of 18 year-old Melanie Oudin. And despite not having good results since her amazing run at the US Open 2009 and playing away against a classic Fed Cup team as France, Oudin didn't feel the pressure and led her team to the victory. Encouraged by the victory of US #2 Bethanie Mattek over French #1 Alize Cornet, Oudin sealed the tie with two straight set victories over Pauline Parmentier and Julie Coin.

Player of the week: Serena Williams

After the comeback of former WTA #1s Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin, the Belgians seemed to threaten the leadership of Serena Williams at the WTA Tour. But at the Australian Open Williams has confirmed that she still is strongest player.


Williams stormed through the early rounds defeating Urszula Radwanska, Petra Kvitova and Carla Suarez and dropping just 3 games on each match. In the Last-16 round, 13th seed Samantha Stousr wasn't a big deal either, and Williams defeated her in straight sets. But in the quarter-final, Serena had to face a critical moment, being 6/4 4/0 down to Victoria Azarenka. She even thought she was out of the tournament, but then played her best to come back and win the match. In the semis another tough match against Chinese Na Li, who had defeated her sister Venus. But Serena avenged her and defeated the Chinese in two tie-breaks. And then the final everyone was expecting, the current #1 against the former #1 coming back to the Tour, Justine Henin. Williams was in control of the first set, which she took by 6/4. Then in the 2nd set Henin played some amazing tennis to win 5 games in a row, taking the set 6/3 and the lead in the third. But Williams got the momentum back to take the final set.


With this title Serena became the only woman to win the Australian Open 5 times in the Open Era, and with 12th Grand Slam titles tied with Billie Jean King on the all-time list just behind Court, Graf, Wills Moody, Navratilova and Evert.

Player of the week: Elena Dementieva

As last year, Elena Dementieva has started the season in the best possible way winning the first Premier event of the season at Sydney.


After a straight sets victory over dangerous Italian Francesca Schiavone in the first round, 5th seed Dementieva found bigger opposition on former Top-5 Daniela Hantuchova, who was the only player who managed to take a set from Dementieva during the whole week. But once in the quarters, Dementieva started to play her best tennis to consecutively defeat WTA #2 Dinara Safina in the quarter-final, WTA #7 Victoria Azarenka in the semifinal and WTA #1 Serena Williams in the final, dropping no more than 5 games on each match.


Now she will try to confirm her good moment in the Australian Open, although it will not be easy as she will meet former WTA #1 Justine Henin in the 2nd round and US Open champion Kim Clijsters in a potential quarter-final match-up.

Player of the week: Justine Henin

Despite not winning the title, former WTA #1 Justine Henin got most of the attention this week on her comeback to the Tour.

She started her comeback upsetting 2nd seed Nadia Petrova in straight sets in the 1st round. After overcoming Sesil Karatantcheva in the 2nd round, she found much more opposition on 7th seed Melinda Czink in the quarters and needed a third set tiebreak to defeat her. The semifinals looked a tougher test as Henin was facing 3rd seed and former WTA #1 Ana Ivanovic, and this time Henin went through with ease by 6/4 6/3 to set-up a highly expected final against fellow Belgian and former #1 Kim Clijsters, who successfully came back to the Tour last year to win the US Open. After losing the first set, Henin came back to win the 2nd set and the match was decided in a tight 3rd set tiebreak, which was won by Clijsters.

The high quality of the final is a breath of fresh air for the Tour, which lacked of real competetivity between its leaders. And, although she may not be at her best yet, Henin has shown that she's ready to compete again for the big titles with the top players.

Player of the week: Aravane Rezai

Despite being one of the latest players to qualify, 22 years old French player Aravane Rezai surprised everyone as she became the first champion of the new WTA Tournament of Champions that was held in Bali last week.


Rezai started the tournament losing the first set to 4th seed and WTA #25 Sabine Lisicki by 6/1, but she came back to win the match. And in fact this was the only set she lost throughout the week. She secured her place in the semifinals defeating WTA #38 Melinda Czink in straight sets. In the semifinals she overcame doubles Championship winner and WTA #30 Maria Jose Martinez. But the final was going to be a much tougher test, as she was facing 1st seed and WTA #12 Marion Bartoli. Rezai won the 1st set by 7/5 and benefited of Bartoli's retirement due to quadriceps strain.


This is biggest career title for Rezai, who this week reaches her career best ranking at #26.

Player of the week: Serena Williams

There has been some controversy this year about Dinara Safina being WTA No.1 without having won any Grand Slam title and Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams being No.2. But in the Sony Ericsson Championships Serena Williams has removed any doubt about who's the WTA leader, as not only she has win the title but regained the No.1 in the ranking.


In the Championships, Serena showed that she is on a higher level than the rest of the players. She started the tournament with a tight win over Svetlana Kuznetsova, just before facing a duel against her sister Venus that Serena won in the third set tiebreak after saving a match point. Following matches were easier for Williams, as she easily overcame Elena Dementieva in straight sets and in the semifinals a physically burdened Caroline Wozniacki retired after losing the first set. The final featured another Williams sisters clash, but this time it was easier for Serena, that took the match and the title by 6/2 7/6.

Player of the week: Francesca Schiavone

In Seoul, Italian Francesca Schiavone reached the final for the 10th time in her career, and was defeated for the 9th time. But she wasn't affected for another dissapointment and this week in Moscow she captured the most important title of her career.


The tournament didn't start well for Schiavone, as she lost the opening set to qualifier Nuria Llagostera, but this was the only set she was going to lose throughout the week. After coming back to defeat Llagostera, Schiavone consecutively defeated Monica Niculescu, Maria Kirilenko, Alona Bondarenko and Olga Govortsova in straight sets. She was playing her best tennis as she progressed to the decissive rounds, dropping just 5 games to Kirilenko in the quarters, 4 games to Bondarenko in the semis and 3 games to Govortsova in the final, eventually closing the tournament with a 6/0 set.


Next objective for Schiavone is the Fed Cup final next week, where Italy will try to get the title against USA.

Player of the week: Samantha Stosur

Already recognised as a great doubles player, with 22 doubles titles and finishing #1 in 2006 doubles ranking, Samantha Stosur is showing this season that she is also a player to take into account in singles. But, despite reaching the semifinals in the last French Open and reaching #13 in the rankings, she still missed a singles title and had a 0-5 record in finals. But her luck changed in Osaka, where she has captured her 1st singles title.


Stosur started the tournament in an impressive way and consecutively defeated Panova, Morigami and Craybas in straight sets and dropping no more than 6 games on each match. But in the semifinal she had a much greater challenge, as she was facing 1st seed and WTA #6 Caroline Wozniacki. After sweeping Wozniacki in the 1st, the young Danish came back to win the 2nd, but the Stosur held her nerve and closed it out. In the final Stosur faced Francesca Schiavone, another player with a horrible record in finals (1-9), so one of them was meant to break the bad streak, and it was Stosur who did it.


With this title, Stosur not only equals her best singles ranking at #13, but also qualifies for the Tournament of Champions in Bali, where she will be one of the favourites for the title.

Player of the week: Svetlana Kuznetsova

With all the big favourites failing to overcome the early rounds in the last few tournaments, Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova was the only Top-10 to show a good performance as she captured the title in the big Premier event in Beijing.


Although she didn't have to face any Top-10 player, her way to the title wasn't as easy as it may be suppossed. In the first round Kuznetsova survived a very difficult match against local hero Jie Zheng that was decided in two very tight sets. After sweeping Anabel Medina in the 2nd round, Kuznetsova overcame the loss of the 2nd set to bagel Alona Bondarenko in the 3rd. This was the point when Kuznetsova found her best tennis, and in the decissive rounds she consecutively defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Nadia Petrova and Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets and dropping no more than 6 games on each match.


After winning Roland Garros in June, it seemed that Kuznetsova had lost her focus a little bit, but now she's back at her best and ready for the last challenge of the season, the WTA Sony Ericsson Championships.

Player of the week: Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova captured the Premier-level Toray Pan Pacific Open last week, her 20th career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title and her first since returning to the Tour in May after being sidelined with a right shoulder injury for nine months.


Sharapova was pushed to the limit in her first round match by Francesca Schiavone, fighting from 64 42 down to win in three sets. In the 2nd she sweeped 12th seed Samantha Stosur by a clear 6/0 6/1, but in the 3rd round she had to come back again from a set down to overcome Alisa Kleybanova. The quarters were again easy for Maria as she defeated Iveta Benesova in straight sets, but she found a much tough opponent in the semis, and the match against 11th seed Agnieszka Radwanska was decided in the third set. This set up an interesting final between two former #1s, Sharapova and Jelena Jankovic. Despite losing the first two games, Sharapova found her range to win five games in a row to lead 5-2 when Jankovic had to retire due to a right wrist injury.


After so long absence and limited performance due to the shoulder injury, it's great news that Maria Sharapova is back on the winning track. With Clijsters and Henin coming back to the Tour, the full recovery of Sharapova promises a really interesting fight for the Grand Slam titles.

Player of the week: Kimiko Date-Krumm

One day before her 39th birthday, Kimiko Date-Krumm made history as she captured the title in Seoul and became the second oldest woman to win a WTA title, just after Billie Jean King who got the title in Birmingham at 39 years and 7 months old. Former WTA #4 Date retired in 1996 at 26 years old, but in April 2008 she decided to comeback 12 years after her retirement.


Although since her comeback she had enjoyed sucess on the ITF circuit, she hadn't broken through again at the Tour level, going 0-8 in main draws. Date finally got over the hump with a 63 64 1st round win against Korean wildcard Lee Ye-Ra. But the way to the final wasn't that easy anymore. She was down 64 52 to Alisa Kleybanova in the second round, facing a match point down 64 53 as well; but she overcame, rallying for a 46 76(4) 63 win. Then toughed out another pair of tough wins, 76(3) 46 64 against top seed Daniela Hantuchova in the quarterfinals and 36 62 64 against the defending champion, Maria Kirilenko, in the semifinals. Against No.2 seed Medina Garrigues in the final, Date Krumm faced her most tenacious and consistent opponent yet, but the Japanese withstood the mental pressure for a 63 63 victory and the trophy.


This was the 8th WTA title of her career and she promises to continue "as long as her body holds up". If her thought of playing for a couple of years more is right, we may see her overcoming King as the oldest woman ever to win a WTA title.

Player of the week: Melinda Czink

After 9 years as a professional, Hungarian Melinda Czink captured last week her first WTA title in Quebec City.


After defeating Monique Adamczak and Severine Beltrame in straight sets in the 1st and 2nd round respectively, Czink had to face 1st seed and WTA #13 Nadia Petrova in the quarters. After a very tight 1st set won by Czink in the tie-break, the Hungarian benefited of Petrova's retirement due to a viral illness. In the semifinal Czink defeated home favourite and 3rd seed Aleksandra Wozniak. And in the final, Czink came back from a set down to defeat 4th seed Lucie Safarova in a very close match that was decided by 7/5 in the third set.

Player of the week: Kim Clijsters

More than 2 years after leaving the Tour for creating a family and becoming a mother, and just having played two tournaments since her comeback to the Tour, former WTA #1 Kim Clijsters returned to a Grand Slam tournament, and she did it to take her 2nd Grand Slam title in the US Open.


Clijsters reached the Last-16 round after sweeping Victoriya Kutuzova and Kirsten Flipkens and upsetting 14th seed Marion Bartoli coming back from a set down. Then Clijsters showed that she was a real candidate for the title upsetting WTA #3 Venus Williams in a match decided in a close third set after baggeling each other in the 1st and 2nd set. After defeating Chinese Na Li in straight sets in the quarters, Clijsters faced an anticipated final against Serena Williams in the semis. Despite the controversial end of the match Serena's threats to the lineswoman, Clijsters was already in control of the match and just two points away from the victory. And in the final, Clijsters didn't lose her concentration against the deffensive game of Caroline Wozniacki and captured the title by 7/5 6/4.


With the lack of leadership the WTA Tour is suffering since Justine Henin's retirement, the return of Kim Clijsters at her best are the best possible news for the Tour.

Player of the week: Caroline Wozniacki

19 year old Danish player Caroline Wozniacki showed once again in New Haven that her progression is on the good way as she captured her 3rd WTA title this season. And she did it without dropping a set during the tournament and dropping no more than 7 games on each match.


Caroline enjoyed an easy start of tournament, as she was drawn Lucky Loser Edina Gallovits, who got double baggeled by Wozniaki. Wozniacki also sweeped promising Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the 2nd round, and Top-20 Virginie Razzano in the quarter-final wasn't much of a problem for her either. In the semis Wozniacki had a real test against 3rd seed and Top-10 Flavia Pennetta, who is in great form lately. But Caroline was far superior and got a clear victory to get her place in the final. There she stopped surprising Elena Vesnina's run.


We have seen many times now that she is able to be very consistent in the minor tournaments, now it's time for her to get a big achievement in a Grand Slam. She will have a chance in the US Open.

Player of the week: Elena Dementieva

Although she still lacks a Grand Slam title to be considered a big champion, Russian Elena Dementieva is one of the most regular and figthing players in the last few years, with 5 Top-10 finishes in the last 6 years. This week, the Olympic champion in Beijing'08 has captured in Toronto one of the biggest titles in her career.

And it had something of revenge as, after defeating Ai Sugiyama and Shahar Peer in the early rounds, Dementieva had to overcome Samantha Stosur, who had defeated her in Roland Garros, and Serena Williams, who beated her in a thrilling Wimbledon semifinal, in the quarter-final and semis respectively. The final was another challenge for Dementieva as she was facing Maria Sharapova who, although is not at her best yet after her shoulder injury, had defeated her in most of their meetings. But this time Elena was more consistent and took advance of Sharapova's errors to take the match by 6/4 6/3.

With the US Open starting next week, Dementieva will be again one of the big favourites. We will see if she falls again in the decissive matches or she finally achieves her goal: a Grand Slam title.