Eleven-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams followed world number one Dinara Safina in qualifying for the season-ending Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships.

The 27-year-old Williams won two Grand Slam titles this season and reached the final of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. In addition, the American held the number one ranking for 11 weeks during 2009, and scored eight wins over Top 10 players this season.

"It’s never easy and it’s never a guarantee, so I am thrilled to be going to Doha and competing against some of the best players in the world," said Williams, who has qualified for the prestigious event for the ninth time.

The world’s top eight singles players and top four doubles pairs will share the record of the $4.45 million prize money provided at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Qatar. (source: On the Baseline)

Third seed Venus Williams has crashed out of the Rogers Cup, falling to qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko 1-6 7-5 6-4 in the second round.

Williams had a bye in the first round and easily won the first set against the Ukrainian world No.64. And even though Williams started the match so well, she somehow managed to produce 60 unforced errors (as I read over at Forty Deuce).

The winner of 41 singles titles had made a fine start to the hardcourt season by reaching the Bank of the West Classic final, which she lost to Marion Bartoli. Last week, she lost at the first hurdle in the form of Flavia Pennetta, and that defeat is also understandable. But this week at the Rogers Cup Williams has already become the biggest upset of the tournament. Not promising ahead of the US Open.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion has actually never won a match at the Rogers Cup, having had three attempts. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki stopped the Yonge Street traffic in Toronto to play tennis in front of the crowds of people, as part of the latest stunt organized by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Street Tennis was an innovative way to kick-off the $2,000,000 Rogers Cup. Here's the video of the exhibition match.

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Monica Seles was officially inducted into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame at a special ceremony at the 2009 Rogers Cup.

The induction was the icing on the cake of Seles’ special night. Prior to being honored, the former world number one, who had officially retired in 2008, played one more match in Canada, the country where she played her first match after being stabbed.

Partnered with Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, Seles took the court for an exhibition doubles match against Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams, and lost 6-3. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Davin Shoemaker, 38, has been appointed the new President of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

The native of Otawa, Canada, joined the Tour in 2004 as General Counsel, and less than two years later he was promoted to Chief Operating Officer and General Counsel. Shoemaker added the title of Head of Asia-Pacific region and relocated to the Tour’s Beijing headquarters in July 2008.

In addition to continuing to oversee the Tour's Asian operations, Shoemaker will be responsible for the overall day-to-day operations and business affairs of the Tour; tournament and player relations; strategic expansion of the sport in key growth markets; international TV and digital media rights distribution; and the Tour's year-end Championships.

In his new role as President, Shoemaker will relocate by end of year to the Tour’s corporate headquarters in St. Petersburg, Florida and report to Stacey Allaster, who was recently appointed Chairman and CEO of the Tour. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

When the Western and Southern Financial Women's Open began, Jelena Jankovic was probably the last person I would tip off to win the title. And even through the tournament, I didn’t pay much attention to Jankovic because I thought she would crash to like whichever opponent. Thank you JJ for awaking my expectations!

After going through a spectacular semifinal against fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva, fifth-ranked Jankovic upset world number one Dinara Safina 6-4 6-2 to win her second title of the season. One early break of Safina’s serve was enough to ensure the first set for Jankovic. The fifth-seeded Serb started the second set with a 3-0 lead, then Safina won the next two games, but that was it for the Russian in this final.

Jankovic started the season ranked number one, but has been having major problems to find the form that took her to the top. Now we have a strong reason to believe that another good era of Jankovic’s career is rising. (photo via BBC)

Yippee! We have the winners of Jelena Jankovic's and Ana Ivanovic's autographs. The lucky contestants of our recent competition are Nacho and Gilly. Congratulations!

Of course, the answer to the question was "30 weeks". I'm glad most of you found the right answer, but I'm also glad I made you do a little research. I mixed fun and tennis education.

I would like to thank everyone for taking part in the competition, and for making it so successful. I'm extremely happy it has gone by so well, and I'm happy to announce that I'm negotiating with the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour to organize another one during the off-season. We’ll do our best to provide some cool prizes and give those of you who didn't win this time another chance.

Nacho and Gilly, I will contact you via e-mail address you left along with your comment, in order for you to send me your shipping address. I have to say that if you don’t answer my e-mail within 14 days, I will have to hand the prize to someone else.

Everyone, thank you once again for making this competition so lively and full of positive energy.

Of course, I would like to thank Kevin from the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and Ana Ivanovic’s team for sending me the autographs and cooperating with me on this little project.

Love you all!

Marija

Rejuvenated Jelena Jankovic saved four match points to beat Elena Dementieva and set up a clash with world No.1 Dinara Safina in the final of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open.

The way Jankovic won was incredible. The Serb won the first and epic third set in a tiebreak, while in the second she was bageled. I didn't watch the match but when I saw the 7-6(2) 0-6 7-6(6) score, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

As I read, fifth-seeded Jankovic held three match points at 5-4 in the deciding set, but fourth-seeded Dementieva broke back. The next two games were breaks as well and it was Dementieva who established a 6-2 lead in the tiebreak. Jankovic didn’t give in, and fought back to eventually win on her fourth match point.

Jankovic has thus reached only her second final of the 2009 season: "It feels unbelievable. It's been a long time since I was in a final like this. Hopefully I can play well against Dinara, it's going to be tough." (source: Reuters, photo via Tennis Forum)

World No.1 Dinara Safina of Russia ended Flavia Pennetta’s 15-match winning streak in just 56 minutes, defeating the Italian 6-2 6-0 in the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open.

Pennetta, who will on Monday become the first Italian Top 10 women's tennis player, looked a little bit worn-out playing against Safina who was on fire, hitting winner after winner. Safina retained her perfect record against Pennetta, having won all their seven meetings.

In her eighth final of the 2009 season Safina will face the winner of the semifinal between fourth seed Elena Dementieva and fifth seed Jelena Jankovic. (photo: Life.com)

Tamira Paszek, investigated in her native Austria for doping, has ended her 2009 tennis season because of the back injury which forced her to receive the banned treatment.

The 18-year-old Paszek had her blood taken for enrichment and later reinjected in her lower back and is therefore being investigated by Austrian anti-doping authorities.

The 88th-ranked Paszek, whose last tennis match was the retirement in the first round of Wimbledon in June, has asked the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour for protected ranking for the next six months. (source: Tha Canadian Press, photo: Stephane Martinache)