At the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Romanian world No.64 Simona Halep is scoring huge victories one after the other and she’s s now through to the biggest semifinal of her career where the concrete wall of Serena Williams is likely to end her dream run. However, we have to mention that their last and only meeting of two years ago, even though on grass, was a tough three-setter, won by Williams 3-6 6-2 6-1.

After going through qualifying and beating former world No.5 Daniela Hantuchova to enter the main draw, Halep dispatched two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round, fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the second, seed No.13 Roberta Vinci in the third and today she triumphed over former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic after coming from the brink of defeat in the third set, always catching up with Jankovic’s leads, and saving two match points to eventually win 4-6 6-0 7-5. Halep’s semifinal opponent, reigning No.1 Serena, eased past Carla Suarez Navarro 6-2 6-0 and recorded the best winning streak of her career with 22 successive matches.

As for the other semifinal, seventh seed Sara Errani received a walkover when two-time defending champion Maria Sharapova withdrew with a viral illness. Still, she stayed at the tournament long enough to have the opportunity to wish her recently-publicly-confirmed boyfriend a happy 21st birthday (it was after her Thursday's third-round win over Sloane Stephens). Errani's semifinal obstacle will be third seed Victoria Azarenka, who defeated ninth Samantha Stosur 6-4 1-6 6-3 in the last quarterfinal. (photos by Francesca Moscatelli, Beyond the Baseline)

In the golden period of her career Jelena Jankovic won back-to-back Internazionali BNL d’Italia titles (2007 and 2008) and after years of predominantly weak results, the Serb has been experiencing a revival of sorts recently, with this spring’s Miami semifinals and Charleston final, and today’s triumph in the grinder against fifth seed Li Na is another reminder that the former world No.1’s abilities should not be given up on. In two hours and 39 minutes, the unseeded Jankovic eliminated Li 7-6(2) 7-5. After resisting Li’s initial 2-0 lead, then her recovery from 5-3 down and the saving of five set points, Jankovic won the first set in the tiebreak, while in the second set she did not let the victory slip away when Li recovered from the brink of defeat, saved a match point and leveled to 5-5. Jankovic broke her serve again and closed the match in the following game.

Jankovic’s quarterfinal opponent will be Simona Halep who relentlessly keeps progressing – after victories over Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, the Romanian upset seed No.13 Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-2. Read more »

The last Alisa Kleybanova's match prior to her cancer diagnosis was the second round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, and now, two years later, the Russian is again reintroducing herself to competitive tennis (she had one comeback in Miami last year, but even though she won the first round, it was too exhausting for her still fragile body), this time at the $10,000 Landisville tournament, the smallest event she has played since the age of 14.

The week the big WTA names of her caliber are competing in Rome, where a victory in just the first round gets you close to $13,000 and 70 ranking points, Kleybanova is playing in Landisville where the champion earns mere 18 ranking points and the prize of $1,440, and not to mention that there are no perks such as ball kids, line judges, chair umpires and electronic scoreboard. But the 23-year-old Kleybanova, who was ranked 26th the moment the disease struck, has her goal in her mind: to maintain her eligibility for a protected ranking.

Having won three qualifying rounds, Kleybanova is now in the main draw, awaiting the match with unranked American Jacqueline Wu.
(source: The New York Times, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

On the opening of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia Laura Robson made the story of the day by taking out Venus Williams and setting up a meeting with Serena Williams in the second round, while another famous up-and-comer took the spotlight on Day 2 in the first round - Bojana Jovanovski upset tenth seed Caroline Wozniacki 2-6 6-4 7-6(5) for her second career Top 10 victory and will next face fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic, who was her first Top 10 victim back in 2010.

Since reaching the second week of the 2013 Australian Open, her best Grand Slam result, the 48th-ranked Jovanovski lost eight straight matches, struggled with injuries and even dramatic personal life (her ex-boyfriend jumped off a bridge in Belgrade), but today against Wozniacki she recovered from losing the first set, being a break down in the second at 3-4, 0-4 in the third set, then 4-5 in the third when Wozniacki was serving for the match and then again recovered from 2-5 in the tiebreak to battle to the win in two hours and 57 minutes.

The highest seed to fall on Tuesday was No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska. The Pole lost handily to world No.64 Simona Halep 6-7(2) 6-1 6-2 in the second round, while Svetlana Kuznetsova was the Romanian's victim in the first round 6-1 6-1. Agnieszka's lower-ranked sister Urszula advanced to the second round with an upset of seed No.15 Ana Ivanovic, 6-3 2-6 6-2. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Serena Williams seems to be too intimidating for Maria Sharapova, who despite her grandeur can't seem to stand up against the American, not having beaten her since 2004, the period which now includes 13 losses after Serena's today's 6-1 6-4 straightforward victory in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open. It's actually Sharapova's first loss in eight claycourt finals, while Serena was, as strange as it may seem, playing her first final on red clay since the 2002 French Open.

The top-seeded Williams raced through the first four games, then Sharapova somehow managed to hold her serve in a game that lasted about as long as the sum of the first four, but her opponent quickly closed the deal, finishing the set in just 32 minutes. The seed No.2 Sharapova offered resistance in the second set, breaking Serena's serve in the opening game and holding her own for a 2-0 lead, but she gave away that advantage by allowing her serve to be broken to love by double faulting on 0-40 in the sixth game of the set. In the tenth game Serena again broke Sharapova to love and won the match and 643,000 EUR in prize money. Read more »