Maria Sharapova wasn’t strong enough to pass her third obstacle at the Warsaw Open. Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko defeated the Russian in the quarterfinals of the event.

Sharapova was victories in the first two matches of her singles comeback, but fell to the eighth-seeded Bondarenko 6-2 6-2, which we can’t say we weren’t prepared for.

It’s interesting to read Bondarenko’s opinion about Sharapova’s form after the nine-month injury layoff.

"I have played her (Sharapova) twice before her injury and I thought the match would be harder," the world No.39 said. "She makes more mistakes than before the injury… her serve was a little slower."

Despite losing, Sharapova is happy with her achievement at the Warsaw Open, and believes that she had the best preparation for the upcoming French Open. However, the current world No.126 is keeping her expectations low. (source: Reuters, photos: Ralf Reinecke)

Svetlana Kuznetsova’s recent excellent results have come to a halt with a 6-3 6-2 defeat to Alona Bondarenko in the second round of the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

This is Bondarenko’s third victory over Kuznetsova, while Kuznetsova has won only one of their career meetings. The two have clashed on claycourts three times, and each time the Ukrainian was victorious.

Kuznetsova, seeded sixth in Madrid, won Stuttgart two weeks ago, and was runner-up last week in Rome.

The 46th-ranked Bondarenko will next play Anna Chakvetadze.

Additional info: The world No.7 Kuznetsova has a new coach, former top-ranked doubles player and current Fed Cup coach Larisa Savchenko, who will help her during the claycourt season. Savchenko seems to have a good idea when to let Kuznetsova go her own way.

"She's very easy-going and relaxed and we have great communication," said the 23-year-old Kuznetsova.

"She tells me little things and it helps me find my way out. For me, external opinions help, but it doesn't have to be pushy and bring me down." (photo by our reader Elisa)

Former world No.1 Amelie Mauresmo suffered yet another early exit, this time to Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko. The Frenchwoman lost 6-1 6-2 in the third round of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells.

Mauresmo, who is now ranked only 27th in the world, simply can’t get back in form and this loss will make her agony and thoughts of retirement even more intense. In today’s match with world No.24 Bondarenko, Mauresmo could barely keep her serves in play and posted seven double faults. Bondarenko took advantage of Mauresmo’s poor form and did not even give the two-time Grand Slam champion a look at a break point.

Amelie Mauresmo and Alona Bondarenko will meet again at the Pacific Life Open, in doubles. Amelie and Svetlana Kuznetsova will play against Alona and her sister Kateryna Bondarenko, the Australian Open doubles champions. (source: On the Baseline, photo via Getty Images)

Unseeded Ukrainian sisters Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko won the Australian Open women’s doubles title beating 12th seeds Victoria Azarenka of Belarus and Israeli Shahar Peer 2-6 6-1 6-4.

It was the first time the Bondarenko sisters had won a doubles title in their 38th tournament playing together. Alona Bondarenko believes that the key to success may be the fact that they stopped fighting on the court, and started listening to each other.

Their previous best was reaching three semifinals in WTA Tour events.

Reminder: In singles Alona was seeded 21st and lost to Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki in the second round, while unseeded Kateryna lost in the first round to France’s Aravane Rezai. (source: Reuters, photo via Yahoo)