Semifinals of the Qatar Ladies Open in Doha will feature a clash of two potentially weak players – Vera Zvonareva may be tired from her 3 hours and 10 minutes long battle against Daniela Hantuchova in the quarterfinals and Jelena Jankovic who sustained a left knee injury in her quarterfinal.

Zvonareva avenged her defeat to Hantuchova in the recent semifinals of the PTT Pataya Open, but not before an exhausting 7-5 6-7(5) 7-5 match. The second-seeded Zvonareva, who hit 48 winners to Hantuchova’s 29, rallied from 5-3 down in the deciding set. Hantuchova committed a total of 57 unforced errors. Read more »

Daniela Hantuchova is building up on her Pattaya Open title of two weeks ago, recording her second Top 10 win of the month with a 4-6 6-1 6-2 upset of world No.9 Victoria Azarenka in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open. En route to winning the Pattaya Open, Hantuchova's first throphy in almost four years, the Slovakian defeated third-ranked Vera Zvonareva.

Hantuchova actually followed up her title run in Thailand with a first-round loss to Anna Chakvetadze in Dubai, but today against the sixth-seeded Azarenka, despite losing the marathon 68-minute first set, Hantuchova rebounded and capitalized on Azarenka’s errors to win the next two sets with ease. Also, Hantuchova hit nine aces, compared to Azarenka’s zero. Final score: 4-6 6-1 6-2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova fell to 0-3 in Dubai finals over the weekend and now she lost in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open to seed No.8 Shahar Peer, 6-2 6-4.

As you’re expecting from me, I’ll give special attention to Serbian players’ performance. As expected, fifth seed Jelena Jankovic defeated wildcard Fatma Al Nabhani, 6-1 6-3. The 19-year-old Al Nabhani is Oman’s only ranked player. She’s world No.426. Unfortunately, Bojana Jovanovski lost to wildcard Sania Mirza, 6-2 7-5. I was really hoping Jovanovski would manage to defeat Mirza, especially because she scored some big victories to enter the draw, over the well-known players of Kateryna Bondarenko and Urszula Radwanska.

Other players victorious on Tuesday in Doha include: Flavia Pennetta, Dominika Cibulkova, Peng Shuai, Vera Dushevina and Klara Zakopalova. (photos: Johan Rivera)

Tsvetana Pironkova, Dominika Cibulkova, Vera Zvonareva, Daniela Hantuchova and Jelena Jankovic took part in a photo shoot for Oriflame in Tokyo and I’d say it was a success. They all look great individually, but also as a group. Plus, it's nice to see Vera taking the spotlight.

Haha fellow blogger Forty Deuce has a sharp eye, Cibulkova taller than Hantuchova? In real life Cibulkova is 20 cm shorter, that’s about 7.9 inches!

Both Daniela Hantuchova and Petra Kvitova, who won last week's tournaments of Pattaya and Paris, were defeated in the first round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

Kvitova may have beaten current world No.1 Kim Clijsters just two days ago, but she felt slow and tired in her first round in the United Arab Emirates and lost to qualifier Ayumi Morita 7-6(2) 7-6(3). Having won the Brisbane and Paris tournaments in 2011, Kvitova has today suffered only her second loss of the season in which she ascended 20 spots in the rankings. The Czech is currently at a career-high of No.14.

Hantuchova was also feeling physically exhausted, so much that at moments she couldn't keep track of the score. Former world No.5 Anna Chakvetadze, whose days of tennis glory are growing distant, made it to the second round of Dubai with a 6-1 6-3 victory over Hantuchova. It's Chakvetadze's second first-round win in four attempts this season.

Besides the 14th-seeded Kvitova, the only other seed to lose on Tuesday was No.13 seed Ana Ivanovic, who is now enjoying the benefits of being coachless. Patty Schnyder defeated Ivanovic 4-6 7-6(2) 6-2. Another Serb also lost in three sets in the first round, wildcard Bojana Jovanovski to Yanina Wickmayer, 7-5 3-6 6-2. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.32 Daniela Hantuchova followed her upset of top seed and twice defending champion Vera Zvonareva, with a convincing 6-0 6-2 victory over Sara Errani in the PTT Pattaya Open final. The fourth-seeded Hantuchova converted six of her 13 opportunities to break the Italian and clinched her first title in almost four years.

Hantuchova’s previous singles trophies include Indian Wells 2002 and 2007, and her latest prior to today’s in Thailand, Linz 2007.

As for the 44th-ranked Errani, she won two WTA titles in 2008 (Palermo and Portoroz), and this is the third final she has lost. (photo AP via Yahoo)