Defending champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia finished her quarterfinal match against Hungarian Agnes Szavay with a victory and in that way reached the final four of the Qatar Telecom German Open where she'll play Elena Dementieva.

Ivanovic and Szavay started their match yesterday, but it was called off at one-set all due to bad light. Today, Ivanovic wasted little time in taking the third set and the final score was 3-6 6-4 6-3.

Seed No.2 Ivanovic and seed No.7 Demetieva will play the semifinal later today. The Russian has won all three of their previous meetings, including a defeat three months ago in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, but they have never played each other on clay. Ivanovic needs to reach the final to hold on to her number two ranking otherwise Russian former number one Maria Sharapova will overtake her.

In the other semifinal, Russian Dinara Safina, who sent home Justine Henin and Serena Williams, plays Viktoria Azarenka of Belarus. (via Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

On day two of the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Marion Bartoli lost in the second round (in the first round she had a bye), while Agnes Szavay and Sania Mirza left the tournament in the first round.

France’s Marion Bartoli still hasn't managed to replay her fantastic performance from Wimbledon where she was the runner-up. At the Qatar Total Open, the eighth seed lost in straight sets 6-2 6-3 to 17-year-old Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, who is seriously making her way to the top. Wozniacki is one of the young players to watch. Taking into account her attractiveness, her fruitful tennis career is likely to be accompanied with marketing success. Actually, Wozniacki already did a commercial for Sony Ericsson. Fellow blogger Juan has a nice little article about Wozniacki’s achievements and future career prospects. Read more »

Top seed Anna Chakvetadze defeated seventh-seeded Agnes Szavay 6-3 2-6 6-2 and became the Open Gaz de France champion for the first time in her career.

With this victory, the Russian extended her perfect career record in finals to 7-0.

At tomorrow's new ranking, Anna Chakvetadze will be one spot higher, at No.6, while Agnes Szavay will reach No.18 for the first time in her career (if she had won the tournament in Paris she would have become world No.17).

On her way to the title Chakvetadze defeated three home favorites Nathalie Dechy, Amelie Mauresmo and Marion Bartoli, and of course Hungarian Agnes Szavay in today’s final.

The titlist Chakvetadze collected $95,500, while Szavay earned $51,000. I hope the prize won’t bring back the thieves to Chakvetadze. (photo via Yahoo!)

Hungarian teenager Agnes Szavay and top seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia will battle for the Open Gaz the France title in Sunday's final.

In today's semis seventh-seeded Szavay, who won her first two singles titles (Palermo and Beijing) and reached the US Open quarterfinals last year, defeated Elena Dementieva 6-3 1-6 7-5. Chakvetadze advanced to the title match with a 2-6 6-2 6-0 win over local favorite Marion Bartoli. Bartoli made a promising start but then collapsed against Chakvetadze, who made her breakthrough last year by winning four titles and reaching the US Open semifinals. Read more »

Agnes Szavay of Hungary beat Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 6-1 to advance to the semifinals of the Open Gaz de France in Paris.

Second-seeded Hantuchova took a 4-1 lead in the first set, but seventh-seeded Szavay recovered and eventually took the tiebreak 7-4. In the second game of the second set Hantuchova received treatment on her right hand and had it bandaged. After that, she lost five consecutive games, and hence the match, but she refused to blame the defeat solely on the injury.

"My hand was hurting, it's true, but that's not an excuse," said Hantuchova. "My opponent played really well."

In the semifinals of the Tier II tournament in Paris, Szavay will face Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva, who advanced with a 7-5 6-2 win over Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko. (source: Reuters)