Fourth seed Ana Ivanovic and fifth seed Elena Dementieva marked the start of the prestigious Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha by playing a historic tennis match staged in an extraordinary place – a desert island. Read more »

According to the readers of German newspaper Die Bild, Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic has the most beautiful body of any sportsperson – male or female.

The 20-year-old Ana scored 51% of all votes, beating fellow tennis player Maria Sharapova who took second place with significantly less votes, just 14% (if I understood this German article right – with my very limited knowledge of the language).

Top seed Ana Ivanovic confirmed her return to form by impressively defeating Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-1 in the final of the $600,000 Generali Ladies Linz.

After winning Roland Garros and becoming world No.1, Ivanovic’s slide slowly started. She had won just seven of her previous 14 matches entering Linz, but in today’s final the Serb let the Russian take only three games in a 50-minute match. Ivanovic faced only one break point in the encounter, but broke second-seeded Zvonareva six times, using every chance for a break.

Ivanovic’s road to the title at the Generali Ladies Linz included victories over Sybille Bammer, seventh seed Flavia Pennetta, third seed Agnieszka Radwanska, and finally second-seeded Vera Zvonareva, who lost her fifth final of 2008 (this year the Russian won titles at Prague and Guangzhou). (photo via Yahoo)

Second seed Vera Zvonareva and top seed Ana Ivanovic reached the final of the Generali Ladies Linz on Saturday.

Russia’s Zvonareva defeated her semifinal opponent Marion Bartoli 6-0 6-1 in just 51 minutes. The Frenchwoman won only six points on serve in the first set, while in the second she didn’t earn a game point until the 11th game. Earlier this month Zvonareva and Bartoli also played each other; it was in Stuttgart, and Bartoli managed to win just two games.

In the final of the Generali Ladies Linz Zvonareva will face Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic, the 6-2 3-6 7-5 winner over Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska. Good for the world No.4 Ivanovic to finally live up to the expectations and go far into a tournament.

The Generali Ladies Linz final is Ana’s first since winning the French Open in June. Last week she lost in the semis of the Tennis.com Zurich Open to eventual champion Venus Williams, and that semifinal was also a sort of improvement of Ana’s recent results, but this Linz final is definitely a good sign. (photos: Getty Images)

Ana Ivanovic’s consistency seems to be getting back on track. The fourth-ranked Serb reached her second semifinal in two weeks with a 6-4 6-4 win over in-form Flavia Pennetta at the Generali Ladies Linz.

Both players contributed to a final-like quality of the match, which remained in the balance until the final ball. The seventh-seeded Pennetta was, however, troubled by a serve that produced seven double faults, while Ivanovic used her strong forehand to give her an edge.

The top-seeded Ivanovic will take on No.3 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the Linz semifinals. Radwanska advanced with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over Russian fifth seed Nadia Petrova.

The third known semifinalist is Vera Zvonareva, seeded second, who defeated seed No.8 Alize Cornet 7-5 6-1. The win earned Zvonareva the final place in the eight-player field for the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.

The last player to reach the semis will be either France's Marion Bartoli or Alona Bondarenko. They are currently playing the third set. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)