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 »

Share This

Top seed Russian Anna Chakvetadze beat home favorite and former world number one Amelie Mauresmo 3-6 6-3 6-3 to reach the Open Gaz de France semifinals where she will face another Frenchwoman, Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli.

The victory is Chakvetadze’s first in four meetings against Mauresmo. The two-time Grand Slam champion Mauresmo won the Parisian tournament in 2001 and 2006 and was the runner-up in 1999, 2003 and 2005. We’re still waiting for her to start making such good results again after a disappointing season 2007 which ruined her confidence.

After the tough and more than two hours long quarterfinal, world number seven Chakvetadze is tired and said it won't be easy to recover and enter the semifinal clash against third seed Bartoli really fresh. Chakvetadze and Bartoli have met only once so far, that was in Luxembourg last year, and Bartoli won in three sets.

In the other semifinal, Hungarian Agnes Szavay and Russian Elena Dementieva will face each other. (photo via Getty Images)

Share This

Seed No.27 Maria Kirilenko defeated sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze 6-7, 6-1, 6-2 in the third round of the Australian Open.

Robbery-affected Chakvetadze won the opening set in a thrilling tie-breaker. But Kirilenko ignored the fact that her opponent had a fantastic 28-1 win-loss record in Grand Slams after taking the first set, and got her way to victory even though Chakvetadze saved four match points.

BTW: Are you too in love with Maria Kirilenko’s outfit? It’s part of the Spring line from Adidas by Stella McCartney. (photo via Getty Images)

Share This

There was a lot of talk about the exhibition match between Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze. Weeks before the match everybody was talking about it, Singapore went crazy for Maria. So, now that it’s over, what are people’s impressions? Fellow tennis blogger Nawin attended the event, and his impressions are mixed. I will just sum up what he said in his review, for his detailed story accompanied with photos visit Regentville Tennis Blog.

Nawin is happy that Singapore, after a long time, got the opportunity to welcome two high-profile tennis players. However, he hopes that this was just the beginning of big events organized in Singapore. He’s disappointed because the organization was bad, and the ball boys and girls were slow and uncoordinated. Also, the umpire had to do most of the work because line judges were unsure of the calls. As the match progressed, Maria and Anna clearly became frustrated with this.

Oops, I almost forgot: Maria Sharapova beat Anna Chakvetadze 6-0, 7-6(10). (photo via Sharapova’s website)

Share This

Anna Chakvetadze still suffers consequences of the recent robbery of her Moscow house. Chakvetadze’s hands were tied so tightly by the burglars that she still has problems with her left hand.

Russia Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpischev explained to newspaper Sovietskiy Sport:

"Anna has problems with her left hand — she almost cannot feel her fingers, because during the attack her hands were tied very tightly with some ropes."

He added that Anna has started practicing, but she has not fully recovered, and is hence undergoing acupuncture with a Chinese expert.

Tarpischev also noted that the whole ordeal left Anna quite traumatized, and she doesn’t want to stay at home. No wonder! Especially if you consider that the robbers have promised to come back!

Reminder: Chakvetadze is scheduled to play an exhibition match with fellow Russian Maria Sharapova on December 30 in Singapore. (via Tennis Info Blog)

Share This