World No.8 Samantha Stosur has won 21 of her last 24 matches, and her latest victory came against Patty Schnyder in the third round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

Schynder was a semifinalist at the Premier-level tournament last year and has more wins on clay than any other active player, but the eighth-seeded Stosur defeated the Swiss 7-6(3) 6-2 and is marching towards the Top 5 in the rankings (she is projected to reach a career-high of No.7 next week).

Here’s what Stosur says about her continued good results:

I've been playing well since Indian Wells. That all started on hardcourt and it has been running onto the clay courts, too [Miami, Charleston, Stuttgart]. It's just one of those things. You win a number of matches in a row then you grow in confidence, and it doesn't matter what surface you're on.

Awaiting Stosur in the quarterfinals is fourth seed Venus Williams, whom Stosur has never defeated in three attempts. Actually, Stosur hasn’t won a set against Williams. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: sr_cranks)

Venus and Serena Williams both played their third-round matches at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open on Wednesday, but with different outcomes.

The fourth-seeded Venus lost the first set against seed No.15 Francesca Schiavone, but was dominant in the remainder of the match to win 3-6 6-1 6-2.

Serena, who barely survived her match against Vera Dusevina in the previous round, played her third-round right after older sister Venus and fell to No.16 seed Nadia Petrova 4-6 6-2 6-3. The world No.1 Serena was playing only her second tournament since winning the Australian Open in January.

Venus’ win is securing her to move one spot up in the rankings, from No.3 to No.2, which means that the Williams sisters will occupy the Top 2 spots for the 46th week in their careers when the new rankings are released on Monday. Venus hasn’t been in the Top 2 since 2003. (photo: Emmett Anderson)

The all-Serbian second-round clash of Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open happened to be an interesting affair of constant breaks of serve (the total of 19) and the world No.4 Jankovic won the match despite holding serve only five times in all the three sets. Final score: 4-6 6-4 6-1.

The first set consisted solely of the breaks of serve except for the seventh game which Ivanovic won.  Jankovic had her chances when she saved a number of set points at 5-3 and then served to equal the score at 5-5, but she was broken to love and Ivanovic took the set 6-4.

The second set was a breakthrough for Jankovic – she won her first service game in the 14th game of the match! In general, the second set was pretty similar to the first one, but this time in Jankovic’s favor. Ivanovic held one serve, Jankovic held two and thus won the set 6-4.

Ivanovic crumbled in the deciding set and managed to win only one game and the seventh-seeded Jankovic advanced to the third round of the $4,500,000 tournament.

Jankovic is still trailing the 2008 Roland Garros champion Ivanovic in career meetings, 3-6. (photos: Stephane Martinache)

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki is still recovering from an ankle injury sustained in Charleston and her erratic performance led to a 6-2 6-3 loss to Alona Bondarenko in the second round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open. That’s not to underestimate the 25-ranked Bondarenko, who made winner after winner to score the biggest victory of her career.

The world No.2 Wozniacki started this claycourt season well, by defending her MPS Group Championships title and reaching the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, but the injury the Dane sustained there has, not surprisingly, affected her later results and she fell in the second round of Stuttgart, Rome and now Madrid.

However, Wozniacki keeps her hopes high for the upcoming claycourt Grand Slam: "I really think I am going to be okay for the French Open."

Many other seeds were just as unlucky as Wozniacki in the second-round action at the Madrid Open. Sixth seed Elena Dementieva fell to Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru 6-1 3-6 7-5. It is Dulgheru’s second Top 10 win, and her first one came just last week against Dinara Safina. Patty Schnyder defeated ninth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 3-6 6-4 6-4, Anabel Medina Garrigues crushed seed No.12 Marion Bartoli 6-2 6-0, while Andrea Petkovic saved nine set points in the first set and then defeated No.14 seed Flavia Pennetta 7-6(3) 6-3.

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez is now in the limelight because of her spectacular victory in Rome last week, but eighth-seeded Samantha Stosur ended the Spaniard's run by defeating her 7-6(2) 6-4. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Russian Dinara Safina did not only fall in the rankings from No.3 to No.5 on Monday, but also fell in the first round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, the claycourt tournament where she was defending her title. Qualifier Klara Zakopalova upset Safina 7-6(1) 7-6(3).

Both Safina and Zakopalova claimed seven breaks of serve during the match, but the world No.88 Czech dominated the tiebreaks, the first one 7-1 and the second 7-3. Zakopalova is now 2-0 in career meetings with Safina.

Just a short reminder that Safina was defending her title in Rome last week as well and also lost in the first round. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.1 Serena Williams escaped the fate of her Rome appearance where she fell to Jelena Jankovic despite having two match points and advanced to the third round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open by battling past 43-ranked Vera Dushevina.

The match at the Premier-level tournament in Madrid lasted almost three and a half hours and included three tiebreaks to finish with a score 6-7(2) 7-6(5) 7-6(5). The twelve-time Grand Slam champion’s career is sure rich in experience, but her today’s much against  the Russian winner of one WTA title is the longest match of her long career.

The top-seeded Williams had three set points in the first set before losing it, then fought off a match point in the second, and in the third set she wasted a 5-2 lead only to see herself trailing 4-0 in the deciding tiebreak. However, the top-seeded Williams eventually defeated Dushevina after a close and long match. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Playing her first match since winning the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart in the end of last month, Justine Henin was bageled in the third set by Aravane Rezai and lost in the opening round of the $4,500,000 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

The 4-6 7-5 6-0 victory of Rezai over Henin on clay is making us question Henin’s title prospects for the upcoming French Open, but as usual in women’s tennis, everything is possible and you never know what will happen.

The world No.22 Rezai will play Dinara Safina in the second round, if the Russian defeats Klara Zakapalova in their first-round match. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open was Maria Sharapova’s first appearance at the Premier Mandatory event, as well as her first tournament since pulling out of Indian Wells in March, and it was cut short by Lucie Safarova.

Safarova, who beat world number two Caroline Wozniacki in Stuttgart last month, charged into a 4-0 lead in the first set, and even though Sharapova leveled at 4-4, Safarova took the next two games and won the set. The second set went with serve until Safarova took one break and it was all she needed to win the set and match. Final score: 6-4 6-3.

The opening-round meeting of Sharapova and Safarova in Madrid was also their first career meeting.

Sharapova’s first tournament on clay this season didn’t start well, but the Russian is heading to Strasbourg to get more practice on clay before Roland Garros. (photo: sr_cranks)

The Estoril Open final featured two first-time WTA finalists who played each other for the first time on the WTA level and Latvian Anastasija Sevastova defeated eight years older Spaniard Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-2 7-5 in an hour and ten minutes.

The 74th-ranked Sevastova, unseeded at the Estoril Open just like her opponent in the final, started the claycourt tournament with an upset of top seed Agnes Szavay, while in the semis she defeated seventh-seeded Chinese Peng Shuai. The 81st-ranked Parra Santonja ousted second-seeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea to reach the final.

Sevastova’s victory brought her $34,000, while Parra Santonja earned $17,500. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Seventh seed and twice champion in Rome Jelena Jankovic eliminated both the Williams sisters in two days en route to the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, but that meant nothing to Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. The unseeded Spaniard defeated Jankovic 7-6(5) 7-5 after 2 hours and 20 minutes to win the biggest title of her career.

The 27-year-old Martinez Sanchez, ranked 26th, is a tricky opponent because of her numerous drop shots, serves and volleys, and because of her left-handedness.

The final started with Martinez Sanchez racing into a 5-2 lead, before Jankovic fought back with four successive games to serve for the set. The world No.7 Jankovic didn’t close it out and then Martinez Sanchez edged the tiebreaker. The Spaniard was a break up twice in the second set and served for the match at 5-4, but Jankovic broke back. However, the former world No.1 dropped serve once again and then Martinez Sanchez served out victory.

All the opponents Martinez Sanchez sent packing in Rome: Alla Kudryavtseva, seed No.13 Francesca Schiavone, seed No.2 Caroline Wozniacki, Lucie Safarova, Ana Ivanovic and finally Jelena Jankovic.

Martinez Sanchez now has three WTA singles titles, having won Bogota and Bastad in 2009. (source: BBC)