World No.3 Jelena Jankovic was too weak to defeat motivated Anna Chakvetadze Thursday at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid. The Russian won 6-4 0-6 6-3 and secured her place in the semifinals (next to Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, and Ana Ivanovic). My overall impression was that Chakvetadze was determined and motivated, while Jankovic looked tired and burned out.

After winning the opening set, Chakvetadze slept through the next seven games. The 20-year-old Russian entered the second set too relaxed, and quickly saw herself in a situation of being a break down in a decider. But from then on, things started to change. Jankovic permitted Chakvetadze to break back and revive her powerful game. In the third game of the final set, you could smell the end of Jankovic; revived Chakvetadze won her service game, and since then the Serb started being inferior and had to fight hard to stay in the match. But Chakvetadze was unstoppable! When Chakvetadze served for the match, Jankovic had her last chance — the Serb evened to 30-30, after an exhausting but fantastic defense. Still, Jankovic wasn’t strong enough to fight the motivated Russian and had to say goodbye to the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Championships.

It’s sad that Jelena Jankovic, a player with such a great year, couldn’t collect enough energy to finish the season playing as well as she's capable of. (photo via Getty Images)

Serena Williams was forced to retire from her first match at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Championships because of a left knee injury. Having lost the opening set 4-6, Williams shook hands with Chakvetadze, and left the court in tears.

The Russian was sad that she won the match in this way, but the triumph is very important to her since it keeps her in competition for the semifinals (Chakvetadze lost her first match at the WTA Championships to defending champion Justine Henin).

I still don't know if Serena will be able to quickly recover from the injury and continue to compete at the season-ending Championships, but if not, Marion Bartoli will take her place as she is the first alternate. (photo via Getty Images)

Sixth-seeded Patty Schnyder needed only 39 minutes to crush top-seeded Anna Chakvetadze 6-1, 6-0 Friday and reach the semifinals of the Generali Ladies Linz.

Look at these facts: Chakvetadze made 24 unforced errors, scored only six points on her opponent’s serve, and she won her only serving game after facing two break points! No wonder the Russian described the Linz Open quarterfinal as her worst match of the year.

Chakvetadze is now withdrawing from an event next week in Quebec in order to prepare for the season-ending Championships in Madrid but her confidence is low.

"Now I'm already thinking if it's a good thing that I qualify for there because with this kind of game I don't know what I'm going to do there," Chakvetadze told reporters.

In the semifinals Patty Schnyder will face third-seeded Marion Bartoli, who defeated Julia Vakulenko in the quarterfinals. Second seed Daniela Hantuchova also reached the semis, and will play against either Nicole Vaidisova or Dinara Safina. (sources: ESPN, Reuters)

World number seven Anna Chakvetadze is the sixth player to qualify for the season-ending Championships, which will take place in Madrid, Spain from November 6-11. This great achievement was expected from the Russian taking into account her fantastic 2007 season in which she won four singles titles (Hobart, 's-Hertogenbosch, Cincinnati, Stanford).

“I’m so excited to play in my first Sony Ericsson Championships,” said Chakvetadze. “I love the beautiful city of Madrid and I’m hoping to perform very well. This has been an amazing year for me, having reached the Top 5 in the world, and I am looking forward to finishing strongly in Madrid.”

Two more players can qualify for the Sony Ericsson Championships and join Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, Serena Williams, and Anna Chakvetadze. Those two players will probably be Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova. (photo via WTA Tour)

Third seed Anna Chakvetadze succumbed to fellow Muscovite Dinara Safina 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 at the $1.34 million Kremlin Cup on Thursday. Chakvetadze’s defeat is just a continuation of a series of upsets at the Moscow tournament.

World No.6 Chakvetadze held two set points in the first set tiebreak and couldn’t convert them. In the second, set she saved two match points, but eventually fell to the world No.17.

Safina heads into Friday's quarterfinals against another countrywoman, Vera Zvonareva, who is working to regain her former high standing on the tour. (source: Women Who Serve, photo via The Anna Chakvetadze website)

Anna Chakvetadze and Svetlana Kuznetsova scored singles victories for favorite Russia and gave their team a 2-0 lead over holders Italy in the 2007 Fed Cup by BNP Paribas final.

Chakvetadze earned a hard-fought 6-4 4-6 6-4 victory over Francesca Schiavone, while Kuznetsova completely dominated Mara Santangelo 6-1, 6-2.

Russia needs just one more point to secure a Fed Cup title. However, there are three matches left, which are to take place during this weekend:

Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) vs. Francesca Schiavone (ITA)
Anna Chakvetadze (RUS) vs. Mara Santangelo (ITA)
Nadia Petrova/Elena Vesnina (RUS) vs. Mara Santangelo/Roberta Vinci (ITA)

(source: On the Baseline)

It was a funny moment when Anna Chakvetadze’s long plait got caught in her racket in the Bank of the West Classic final against Sania Mirza of India. The Russian lost the point because of the incident, but that didn’t stop her to win the tournament. If you haven’t seen how this happened, take a look at this video.

(via Tennis Planet)

Two Russians, Anna Chakvetadze and Svetlana Kuznetsova have accompanied Justine Henin in the 2007 US Open semifinals.

Sixth-seeded Chakvetadze reached her first Grand Slam semis with a 6-4 6-1 triumph over eighteenth-seeded Shahar Peer, the first woman from Israel to play in the U.S. Open quarterfinals.

Chakvetadze’s next opponent is fourth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova, who advanced to the final four with a confident 6-1 6-4 victory over Hungarian rising star Agnes Szavay.

In the all-Russian semifinal, Kuznetsova is the favorite, but Chakvetadze is definitely not an easy opponent. After all, she couldn't have won four titles this season if she hadn't been in top form.

The last women's quarterfinal was scheduled for Wednesday night, with two-time Open champion Venus Williams playing third-seeded Jelena Jankovic.

Sixth seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia advanced to the US Open quarter-final with a victory over 16-year-old Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-1 7-5 on Monday.

World No. 43 Paszek fought off a match point with Chakvetadze serving at 5-4 in the second set and broke to make it 5-5. The 20-year-old Russian broke right back and held serve to claim victory in 78 minutes on Arthur Ashe Stadium court. Read more »

In the quarterfinals of the Acura Classic in San Diego third seed Anna Chakvetadze earned the biggest win of her career with a 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 victory over the reigning Wimbledon champion Venus Williams.

Williams looked sure to put Chakvetadze away, but she double-faulted on match point and was not the same afterwards. Read more »