Ana Ivanovic has a chance to celebrate her 24th birthday by defending her Bali title, having advanced to the final by defeating Nadia Petrova despite a set point against her in the second set. Her opponent in the title match will be Anabel Medina Garrigues whose second straight opponent retired from the match injured. Hopefully she will not bring bad luck to Ivanovic, who has already had an injury scare because of a fall in Bali quarterfinals. Read more »

Top seed Marion Bartoli retired with an ankle injury soon after the start of the third set of her opening match against Anabel Medina Garrigues at the Commonweath Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali. And that wasn't the only blow to the tournament on Friday. An earthquake hit the exotic island so much that the press conference had to be held outside the tournament facility. Luckily it happened after the matches were completed and spectators had already left.

"I’ve never done a press conference like this before," said Daniela Hantuchova who lost her quarterfinal to Sabine Lisicki 7-5 6-2. "It was quite frightening, but we seem to be okay." Read more »

Now that the WTA Championships in Istanbul have come to a close, let's shift our attention to the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions which is about to start on November 3 in Bali. The Tour actually announced the draw of the really-season-ending tournament on the day the much more important season-ending tournament commenced (how awkward is that?), but I decided to postpone the Bali talk until Istanbul finishes.

You know that in order to qualify for the event in exotic Bali you have to win an International-level WTA tournament in the ongoing season and not qualify for the WTA Championships in Istanbul which features the best eight singles players of the year. To make things even more complicated, Marion Bartoli did not qualify for Istanbul and was therefore eligible to play Bali, but as the first alternate in Istanbul she did eventually play the event because of Maria Sharapova's withdrawal. Nevertheless, Bartoli is still qualified to play Bali. Pretty messed up. But hey, let's see who's in. Read more »

For the fifth time in her career Anabel Medina Garrigues won the title at the XXIV SNAI Open – Internazionali Femminili di Tennis di Palermo, thus bringing her number of clay-court titles to ten! This amazing feat brings the Spaniard ahead of Venus Williams, who used to be the leader among the active players with her nine clay-court tournament wins.

The 28-year-old Medina Garrigues won her 32th match in Palermo with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Polona Hercog, who claimed her maiden WTA title last week at the Swedish Open. "I think Polona was a little bit tired, because she won in Bastad last week and made the final here too, but I played a really good match," said Medina Garrigues, who won only one title on a surface other than clay (Canberra 2006).

The world No.39 Medina Garrigues has lost only three matches in Palermo so far, and in addition to this year she lifted the trophy in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006. (via WTA Tour, photo courtesy of Tony)

The second round of the GP de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem was the last one for both defending champion Anabel Medina Garrigues and top seed Carla Suarez Navarro this year.

The third-seeded Medina Garrigues was eliminated by fellow Spaniard Laura Pous Tio 6-3 6-2. The 192nd-ranked qualifier broke the world No.48 Medina Garrigues seven times en route to victory and will next play No. 7 seed Iveta Benesova of the Czech Republic.

The top-seeded Suarez Navarro withdrew from her second-round match while leading 6-5 in the first set against Anne Keothavong. The reason for the Spaniard’s withdrawal was an ankle injury. Keothavong’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be Alize Cornet, who advanced with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Arantxa Parra Santonja.

The tournament, played on red clay, is the only WTA Tour event in Africa. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)