Last year’s runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced to the semifinals of the China Open, while Elena Dementieva fell at the same tennis complex where she won her Olympic gold medal 14 months ago.

The sixth-seeded Kuznetsova defeated fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in straight sets, 6-3 6-3, and will next face No.13 seed Nadia Petrova, who followed up her victory over soon-to-be No.1 Serena Williams with a quarterfinal win over Peng Shuai.

The Russian fourth-seeded Dementieva was upset by 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5 6-3. The Pole will play 14th seed Marion Bartoli in the semis, who advanced by upsetting seventh seed Vera Zvonareva.

The 2009 China Open champion will collect $775,500. (photo: Jean-Sebastien Marceau)

As we’re slowly approaching the end of the 2009 season (for some players it’s already over), the first Grand Slam of the year is warming up for January’s action, by painting everything blue.

The 2010 Australian Open has released its TV commercial and the women's tennis stars featured are defending champion Serena Williams and home favorite Samantha Stosur.

Has the No.1 jinx already transferred to Serena Williams? Just one round after securing to be ranked No.1 in the next week’s rankings the American lost to Nadia Petrova 6-4 3-6 7-6(5).

The 13th-seeded Petrova and second-seeded Williams each won a set of their third-round match and in the decider they both held serve until tiebreak, having each faced only one break point in that final set. Petrova raced to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreak and although Williams showed resistance the Russian managed to close it out.

Before this encounter, Petrova had defeated Williams only once in their seven previous meetings. (photo courtesy of Women Who Serve)

On Tuesday Maria Sharapova had played a three-hour match against ninth seed Victoria Azarenka and recovered from a 5-2 down in the third set to win the match. That marathon took its toll, and to the delight of the home crowd China's Peng Shuai followed up her upset of defending champion Jelena Jankovic in the second round with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Maria Sharapova in the third.

World No.53 Peng got to lead 6-2 5-2 against Sharapova, and although the Russian almost pulled off one of her trademark comebacks, closing to 6-2 5-4 and getting to deuce, there was no more fuel in her tank and she fell on Peng's third match point.

"My energy level was not where it should have been … there've been occasions where I've been able to fight back, today was just not one of those days unfortunately," said the world No.15 Sharapova, who claimed her first title since returning from injury in Tokyo last weekend.

"She played really solid and really aggressive and did all the right things to win the match." (source: Reuters, photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Serena Williams seems to be celebrating her freshly regained No.1 ranking by posing nude for ESPN The Magazine’s first "Body Issue".

As our faithful reader Teerin shares, athletes will take their clothes off for the "Body Issue" annually. This year, the only women’s tennis player featured, among six athletes, is Serena Williams.

The issue of the magazine will hit news stands on October 9.

Reminder: Two years ago Serena got nude for Jane magazine, when she was photographed from a different perspective.

World No.2 Serena Williams is guaranteed to return to the top of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings, having defeated Ekatarina Makarova in the second round of the China Open.

Serena had one condition to fulfill in order to overtake Dinara Safina – to go further at the China Open than the Russian. It proved to be an easy task as Safina lost in the second round to No.226-ranked Zhang Shuai, who became the lowest-ranked player ever to defeat a world No.1.

Here’s you can watch an interview with Serena Williams after her 6-3 6-2 victory over Makarova.

Safina is spending her 25th week at No.1. Williams will take her place next Monday and begin her 73rd career week as a top-ranked player. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Top seed Dinara Safina and third seed Venus Williams lost in the second round of the China Open, with the Russian making history, in a bad way though.

The world No.1 Safina, who is currently spending her 25th week on top of the rankings, lost to No.226-ranked Zhang Shuai 7-5 7-6(5), which is the biggest on-paper upset in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history. Ouch!

Zhang is now the lowest-ranked player ever to beat a reigning No.1, bettering the No.188 ranking held by Julie Coin as she upset Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 US Open.

The 20-year-old Zhang has won 12 ITF titles, but has never before this week’s China Open won a main draw match on Tour.

"It's very disappointing, I'd like to take a break now. I'm very upset with myself," said Safina, who had an early break in both sets and a set point in the second set.

Last week Safina also lost in the second round of a tournament, falling to 132nd-ranked Chang Kai-Chen at the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

In addition, Safina will lose the No.1 ranking to Serena Williams, if Serena wins her match against Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday.

The other upset of the day happened when world No.39 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova scored her second straight win over Venus Williams. The 18-year-old Pavlyuchenkova defeated the seven-time Grand Slam champion last week at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, and today at the China Open the Russian took out the world No.3 American with a score 3-6 6-1 6-4, in the second round as well. (via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Jean-Sebastien Marceau)

Svetlana Kuznetsova qualified for the Sony Ericsson Championships for the fifth time in her career and joined Dinara Safina, Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki and Elena Dementieva in the elite field.

During this tennis season, the Russian won her second Grand Slam title at the French Open and the Premier-level tournament in Stuttgart, and in both finals she defeated world No.1 Dinara Safina.

Top 8 singles players of the 2009 season will compete at the Sony Ericsson Championships, which means that three more players can qualify for the singles competition. Of course, top 4 doubles team will also compete.

For the second year in a row the season-ending event will take place at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex in Doha, Qatar, from October 27 to November 1. (source: On the Baseline)

Serena Williams has another chance to overtake Dinara Safina at the top of the rankings. The one who goes further at the ongoing China Open will be No.1 after the tournament.

Both the No.1 Safina and the No.2 Williams progressed to the second round of the $4.5-million, Premier-level event. Safina defeated Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-4, while Williams followed with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Kaia Kanepi.

If Serena doesn’t do it this time, I think it would be fair for her and the rest of the world to completely stop discussing Dinara and her top ranking. Am I right? (photos: our reader Jacob)

Former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic has ended her unsuccessful 2009 season, withdrawing from the China Open due to an upper respiratory tract infection. Ana talks about the season behind her and here are some parts of her latest diary entry.

I guess having to withdraw from Beijing is an appropriate ending to a very disappointing season.

I have gone through a lot of training and physical changes over the past few months, which have mostly remained private until now… My body is quite fragile at the moment, because I over-trained during the first part of the year. This was, I think, what caused me to have many small injuries this season.

Instead of being patient and accepting that my best form was almost impossible due to physical limitations, I was always over-thinking things, and I never dealt with it very well.

On the positive side, I am still No.11 in the world. I have no clue how I am ranked so highly, but to look on the bright side, I can't play any worse than I did this year and I'm still in the top 20!

Despite my disappointments there is not a single doubt in my mind that I will reach the top again and win Grand Slams.

(photo: Ralf Reinecke)