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 »

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)

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)

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)

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)

The world's sixth-ranked player Anna Chakvetadze was robbed in her Moscow house on Tuesday, and now, as the time passes, we’re getting new information. Nina from Tennis Info Blog extracted a number of details from the Russian press.

The most shocking thing is that, according to Tvoii Den, the robbers told the tennis star: "Keep playing, we will be back!" What?

According to Anna and her family, the thieves were speaking Russian with Moldavian accent. It was obvious that they were very familiar with the house. There is a suspicion that the former construction workers of the house were involved, but no official information has been released on this yet.

Despite the horrible situation, Chavetadze is not intending to leave Russia. Also, she doesn't want to change her plans regarding tennis and is expected to travel to Sydney and compete in the Medibank International.

Oh my God, I still haven’t recovered from the scandal regarding supposed marriage plans of Nicole Vaidisova and Radek Stepanek, and now I hear that Anna Chakvetadze was robbed! It’s difficult to process so much shocking news in such a short period. Anyway, to get to the point — masked robbers broke into Anna Chakvetadze’s house in southwest Moscow early on Tuesday and stole money and valuables worth about five million rubles, or roughly $202,000. Luckily, Anna escaped unharmed. Read more »

It has been confirmed today — Maria Sharapova and Anna Chakvetadze are scheduled to play an exhibition match on December 30 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The tickets will probably cost from about $150 up to a few thousand dollars!

Sharapova will arrive in Singapore two days prior to the match because of a few public appearances she is supposed to make.

Anna Chakvetadze was named the Female Tennis Player of 2007 yesterday at the National Tennis Awards ceremony in Russia, while the winning Russia Fed Cup team won the Team of 2007 award.

Read more »

World No.6 Maria Sharapova defeated Russian compatriot Anna Chakvetadze 6-2 6-2 on Saturday at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid.

World No.7 Chakvetadze started the match well, winning her first service game and even having a break point on Sharapova’s serve. However, Sharapova won the game with a fantastic second serve to even the score to 1-1. Since then, the 20-year-old Sharapova broke her opponent twice and took a 4-1 lead. This vividly demotivated Chakvetadze, and it became clear that the first set was over for her.

The second set was a continuation of a desperate situation for Anna Chakvetadze. Sharapova had an opportunity to break her opponent in the first game of the set! And what happened…Chakvetadze gave away her first service game by foot faulting and then making her second double fault. Chances of Chakvetadze bringing back her mental strength and hope then became minimal.

In this match, Sharapova obviously showed much better tennis than Chakvetadze, but Chakvetadze could have increased her chances only if she had converted some of five break points she had.

Even though she lost this semifinal, Anna Chakvetadze can be very satisfied with what she has achieved, both at the tournament in Madrid and in 2007 season.