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.

Ivanovic started the match by losing only three points in the first four games and after winning the set the Serb held three points for a 3-0 lead in the second set. That was when Petrova's comeback started, Ivanovic was throwing herself to the ground in entertaining rallies and the Russian even had a set point at 5-4. However, Ivanovic held for 5-5 and finished off the match 6-1 7-5.

Medina Garrigues said she didn't have many retirement victories in her life, but in Bali all her victories in the eight-women field came via retirements. In the quarterfinals it was top seed Marion Bartoli pulling out with an ankle injury, and now in the semifinals Sabine Lisicki retired at 6-3 4-6 4-0 with a back injury. Lisicki took painkillers before the match and despite having great will to continue, after having treatment in the second set and taking the match to the decider, she ran out of gas and ended her participation in Bali. (photos: Robertus Pudyanto)

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."

Bartoli had to give up the match after two hours and 40 minutes of play, when Medina Garrigues was leading 4-6 7-6(7) 1-0, because of the injury the Frenchwoman sustained in the tiebreaker.

On one of Anabel’s dropshots I really felt my ankle blocked and my whole body went forward on it. It started to hurt a few seconds after and when I got the match point on my serve I really struggled to put any weight on my foot. Everything falls apart from there.

Ironically, this tournament has only a three-year-old history and Bartoli is leaving it injured for the second time. In the inaugural edition she handed the final to Aravane Rezai, while today she held two match points in the second-set tiebreak.

To sum up, the second semifinal pair is Anabel Medina Garrigues vs. Sabine Lisicki. The first semifinal pair was determined yesterday – Ana Ivanovic vs. Nadia Petrova. (photos: Robertus Pudyanto)

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.

Direct qualifiers (in brackets are the titles they won in 2011):

Marion Bartoli (Osaka)
Sabine Lisicki (Birmingham, Dallas)
Roberta Vinci (Barcelona, 's-Hertogenbosch, Budapest)
Daniela Hantuchova (Pattaya City)
Anabel Medina Garrigues (Estoril and Palermo)
Nadia Petrova (College Park)

Wildcards:

Ana Ivanovic
Peng Shuai

Ivanovic and Peng have not won titles this year. Ivanovic is defending champion in Bali, while Peng is the only player in the Top 20 who has not won a WTA title in her career.

Players have gathered in Bali and photographer Robertus Pudyanto caught some beach tennis action of Shuai and Hantuchova.

The Bali tournament in this format was first organized in 2009. This year it will take place from November 3 to November 6. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

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 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)

Spain’s No.3 seeds Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual have won their second consecutive French Open doubles title by beating 12th seeds Belorussian Victoria Azarenka and Russian Elena Vesnina 6-1 6-1.

Here’s what the doubles world No.6 Ruano Pascual said of her pairing with the doubles No.4 Medina Garrigues:

"We complete each other. She gives me the power I lack in my shots, and I give my strategic view."

The 35-year-old Ruano Pascual has now won her sixth French Open doubles title, and her tenth Grand Slam doubles title.

The Spaniards will split $435,000. (source: AP, photo via Yahoo)

Top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, who was aiming for her fourth Strasbourg title and third consecutive there, pulled out from the claycourt event due to a lower back injury.

Medina Garrigues lost the first set 6-4 to Kristina Barrois of Germany, and then withdrew from that second-round match. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

The world No.18 Medina Garrigues, last year’s runner-up at Fes, faced three match points earlier in the week, but in the final she lost just one game.

The world No.51 Makarova was trying to win her first WTA Tour title, but had her serve broken three times in each set.

Later this month Medina Garrigues will look for a third straight title at the clay-court tournament in Strasbourg. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Sixth-seeded Medina Garrigues faced eight break points in the first set, and fifth-seeded Srebotnik broke her twice to take early control. In the second set, both players lost serve three times, but Medina Garrigues was better in the tiebreaker. The Spaniard then absolutely dominated in the deciding set.

Medina Garrigues has eight career titles. The one she won on Saturday in Strasbourg is her first since winning that same tournament last year. (source: ESPN, photo via Yahoo)

Elena, the 13th-ranked player in the world, won the event when France's Aravane Rezai withdrew because of the knee injury she sustained in her semifinal match against Maria Sharapova. Dementieva lead 7-6 (7-5) 3-0 when Rezai retired. This is the Russian's first singles title in 2007, and she hopes that she will continue to play well next week at Roland Garros where she's seeded 13th.

At the Strasbourg International, the top seed Amelie Mauresmo was upset by the sixth seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4 4-6 6-4. This is Garrigues' seveth career title, and the first tournament win of the year. World No. 5 Mauresmo had been looking for a confidence boost ahead of Roland Garros, her home Grand Slam at which she has been unsuccessful so far — she has never made it past the last eight.