Zheng Jie dethroned Elena Dementieva in the third round of the Rogers Cup with a 7-6(3) 6-4 victory in their first career meeting. The Chinese has recorded her seventh Top 10 win.

Before defeating the fourth-seeded Dementieva, Zheng made one more upset, coming back from 7-5 4-2 down to beat seed No.16 Aravane Rezai in the second round. Zheng is now the only unseeded player left in the Rogers Cup draw.

Second seed Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the quarterfinals by defeating 15th-seeded Flavia Pennetta 4-6 6-3 6-1 for her fourth win in as many meetings with the Italian. Next for Wozniacki is French Open champion Francesca Schiavone who ended Dinara Safina’s seven-match winning streak in Montreal by defeating the Russian 6-4 6-3.

Fifth seed Kim Clijsters followed up her second round thriller against Bethanie Mattek-Sands with an easy victory over Kaia Kanepi, 6-2 6-1.

The Rogers Cup quarterfinals are set now: Marion Bartoli vs. Victoria Azarenka, Kim Clijsters vs. Vera Zvonareva, Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Zheng Jie, and Francesca Schiavone vs. Caroline Wozniacki. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Justine Henin has announced that her 2010 tennis season is over, although she expects to resume practicing in October. The Belgian still needs time to recover from the elbow injury she sustained in the fourth round of Wimbledon in July. The former world No.1 is scheduled to play the Hopman Cup which begins on January 1st.

Luckily, the ankle strain Ana Ivanovic so unfortunately sustained in the Cincinnati semifinals is healing well. Here’s what she wrote in her new blog entry:

I had almost non-stop icing for two days, to prevent swelling. My ankle has reacted quite well to the treatment and I still hope to play in New Haven next week. It’s going to be touch and go, but fingers crossed.

Also, Ivanovic gave praise to Kim Clijsters, her opponent in the semifinal, who visitied Ana at the doctor’s to see how she was.

Not only was she very sympathetic after the match but the next day, as she was preparing for the final and I was seeing the doctor again, she came to me again to show her support. It’s rare in tennis to see this kind of generosity and it meant a lot.

(photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Dinara Safina has extended her winning streak in Montreal to seven matches by upsetting seed No.18 Nadia Petrova 7-5 4-6 6-4 in the second round. The Russian’s winning streak in the city started in 2008, when she won the title, and she has now added the victory over Petrova to her first round defeat of Andrea Petkovic.

The Safina vs. Petrova match was a marathon which proved to Safina that she can still play high intensity matches. In the decider the former world No.1 won five straight games from 1-4 and thus recorded her first back-to-back victory since the Australian Open in January. In addition, this is Safina’s first three-set victory since Stuttgart in April.

Kim Clijsters followed up her memorable comeback win over Maria Sharapova in the final of Cincinnati this past weekend with another come-from-behind victory, over Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round of the Rogers Cup. The fifth-seeded Clijsters, who had a bye in the first round, lost the opening set, fell 4-1 down in the second set and Mattek-Sands even had points for 6-4 5-1. But Clijsters’ then won five straight games to level the match and in the deciding set she was already on a roll. Clijsters defeated Mattek-Sands in a highly entertaining match in which the American showed the diverse skill she has to offer. Final score: 4-6 6-4 6-3.

Here’s how Clijsters commented on her opponent after the match:

"Bethanie came up with some amazing shots. She's a player who can rise to the occasion. If she plays the level she played tonight in those first two sets, I don't see why she shouldn't be in the Top 10 or Top 15." (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photos courtesy of Fiji Water)

Qualifier Iveta Benesova recorded the biggest victory of her 12-year pro career by upsetting top seed and world No.3 Jelena Jankovic in the second round of the Rogers Cup in Montreal. The world No.75 Benesova, in 2009 ranked as high as No.25, defeated Jankovic 7-6(3) 6-3, even though the Serb had a 5-3 lead in the first set.

After having to retire from matches at both Wimbledon and Portoroz, with back and ankle injuries respectively, Jankovic hasn’t been playing well. She lost her opening match at San Diego and her second match at last week’s tournament in Cincinnati, and at both events she was top-seeded.

Having not played many matches lately, Jankovic is not very confident for the US Open, the only Grand Slam she reached the final of. (photo courtesy of Fiji Water)

Dinara Safina had a comfortable 6-3 6-3 victory over world No.36 Andrea Petkovic in the first round of the Rogers Cup played in Montreal this year. The Russian won the Rogers Cup the last time the tournament was played in Montreal, in 2008. In that final she defeated Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-1.

At this point last year Safina was ranked No.1, but right now she’s as low as No.70. She has suffered a drop of 35 spots since last week, failing to defend her finals showing in Cincinnati.

Safina’s opponent in the second round will be the winner of the match between No.18 seed Nadia Petrova and Lucie Safarova. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Maria Sharapova has been added to the long list of withdrawals of top players from the Rogers Cup in Montreal. The Russian three-time Grand Slam champion started to feel pain in her left foot during the second set of the bizarre Cincinnati final against Kim Clijsters on Sunday and has been forced to pull out from the now infamous tournament in Montreal.

Sharapova, who has risen from No.15 to No.12 in the rankings, is hoping the foot problem will go away after just a few days of rest. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Tenth seed Maria Sharapova wasted three match points as clouds were approaching Cincinnati and didn’t manage to be faster than the rain, so her final against fourth seed Kim Clijsters got suspended at 6-2 5-3 with Clijsters serving on deuce. You know how these rain delays can bring a turnaround and that's exactly what happened. When play resumed, Clijsters took charge, won three successive games, soon after the tiebreak 7-4 and the deciding set 6-2. The victory slipped through Sharapova's fingers and on top of everything she even needed a medical timeout for her ankle. Final score: 2-6 7-6(4) 6-2.

The world No.7 Clijsters has become the first WTA player this year to win three titles: Brisbane, Miami, and now Cincinnati. The Belgian improved to 4-0 in finals since her comeback and is now 38-17 in career finals.

En route to the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open title Clijsters defeated Dinara Safina in the second round, Christina McHale in the third, seed No.11 Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals, Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals, and finally the three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova.

By winning the Cincinnati title Clijsters earned $350,000, while Sharapova earned $175,000 as runner-up. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Ana Ivanovic’s promising return to form in Cincinnati was making all the headlines and unbelievably all the hope of her resurgence got a bitter tone as the Serb retired injured from her semifinal against Kim Clijsters after playing just three games. We could have expected a meltdown, nerves, bad play, or whatever, but an injury! No way!

Ivanovic was trailing 2-1 when she made a return and hurt her ankle. She then received treatment and got back to the court, but couldn’t continue with the match. Nevertheless, the world No.62 Ivanovic will return to the Top 40 in the new rankings, but if the injury turns out to be serious she could well slip again. I hope the future will be favorable to Ana.

Clijsters’ opponent in the final will be the winner of the match between Maria Sharapova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.4 Venus Williams has withdrawn from the Rogers Cup in Montreal due to a left knee injury. Williams was supposed to play in Montreal for the first time.

Top-ranked Serena Williams will also miss the event because of the right foot injury she sustained when stepping on broken glass at a restaurant. Another Top 5 player, Samantha Stosur, will not play the US Open warmup either, because of an arm injury.

Let’s recall the words of the Montreal tournament director, Eugene Lapierre, when he initially refused to give Ana Ivanovic a wildcard:

"If we didn’t already have the best players in the world, if we didn’t get all the players we think we can get, my choice would certainly be for the wild cards to go to international players, because you want to sell the attraction. But we have them, so it’s normal to give the chance to young players."

Fellow blogger C Note said it well: "But it's ok, you guys!  They have Stephanie Dubois and Valerie Tetreault!  They'll be fine." (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The 2012 London Olympic tennis competition will take place on the grass of Wimbledon and the traditional all-white clothing we’re used to seeing at the venue will be replaced by as many colors as players wish to wear. The all-white rule is in force only for Wimbledon, so the Olympics will be free of such strict dress code even though the tennis competition will be held at the All England Club.

The last Olympic Games were held in Beijing in 2008 and women's tennis competition singles medalists were Elena Dementieva (gold), Dinara Safina (silver) and Vera Zvonareva (bronze). The Williams sisters won in doubles. (source: Reuters, photo: Ian Wilson)