Ana Ivanovic secured her second win at the 2007 Sony Ericsson Championships with a 6-2 7-6 (9) victory over Daniela Hantuchova.

The 20-year-old Ivanovic almost won the first set 6-0, but the Slovakian broke Ivanovic at 5-0, and prolonged the set. The second set was much more dramatic, there were many very long games and not to mention the tie-break! Hantuchova was a break down for the first part of the second set, but managed to even the result to 4-all. The hard-serving Serb later broke the Slovakian for a 6-5 lead, but Hantuchova didn’t give up and took the match to a tie-break. Ivanovic eventually won the long tie-break in which both the players had multiple match/set points. (photo via Getty Images)

Venus Williams, originally in seventh place in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships points standing, has been forced to withdraw. Williams suffered dizziness during the US Open earlier this year and has been told by doctors not to play in the November 6-11 Madrid event.

As you know, only eight singles players can compete for a share of the $3-million prize purse at the world’s richest annual women's sporting event. Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Ana Ivanovic, Serena Williams and Anna Chakvetadze had qualified before. In my previous post I wrote that Maria Sharapova didn’t qualify because Daniela Hantuchova won the Generali Ladies Linz title, but now that Venus Williams has pulled out of the tournament, both the Russian and the Slovakian will play in Madrid.

This will be Sharapova’s fourth and Hantuchova’s second appearance in singles at the Sony Ericsson Championships. Sharapova was a champion at the event in 2004 and has been a semifinalist each of the last two years.

Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova won the 2007 Generali Ladies Linz with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Swiss Patty Schnyder on Sunday.

Second-seeded Hantuchova was 4-2 down in the first set, but then won five games in a row to win the set and take a lead in the second. Sixth-seeded Schnyder lost her serve again at 2-1 in the second set and then missed two chances to break back. Hantuchova held her serve and finished off the match on her second match point on Schnyder's serve.

With the Linz title Hantuchova collected enough points to take the eighth and last spot in the race to the Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid. This means that Maria Sharapova hasn’t qualified for the prestigious event this year, since she’ll be ranked ninth in the race to the season-ending WTA Championships.

Being 2007 Linz champion, Hantuchova earned $88,265. (via Yahoo!)

Second-seeded Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova and sixth-seeded Swiss Patty Schnyder will meet in the final of the Generali Ladies Linz on Sunday.

World No.10 Daniela Hantuchova stormed back from a third-set deficit and also saved a match point against fifth seed Nicole Vaidisova to win 2-6, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3) and advance to the Linz final. This was the first time Hantuchova defeated Vaidisova.

The Slovakian will seek her third career title on Sunday, and her second title of 2007 (after winning Indian Wells in March).

In the other semifinal match Patty Schnyder beat third seed Marion Bartoli of France 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. Bartoli came back twice from a break down in the first set, but Schnyder won the tie-break. At 5-1 in the second, Schnyder missed three match points on Bartoli's serve and was broken afterward, but then closed it out on her fourth match point as Bartoli hit a forehand wide.

The 17th-ranked Swiss hopes that on Sunday she will win her 11th career title, and the first one since 2005.

Hantuchova and Schnyder have met 16 times so far, and they are 8-8, but the Slovak won five of their last six matches. (photos via Yahoo!)

Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova became the fifth of eight seeds to leave the Zurich Open early (after Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Amelie Mauresmo, and Serena Williams). The seventh seeded Slovakian lost to Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3 6-3 in the second round. This means that Hantuchova’s chances of qualifying for the season-ending WTA Championships in Madrid are getting slimmer.

World number nine Hantuchova partly blames the cold for her loss: "I had a really hard time today trying to catch my breath in between points. I have been fighting a cold for the past few days and I really just had nothing left and became very tired out there." Read more »

World No.234 Lindsay Davenport defeated second seed Daniela Hantuchova 6-4 3-6 6-2 to win her fifty-second career singles title and become the lowest-ranked player to win a tournament this season. Congratulations!

The victory at the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali is one of the most unlikely title victories of Davenport’s career, since she was playing her first singles event in almost a year and had not known what to expect as she began her tentative comeback. The 31-year-old American had been ready to lose in the first round but instead beat world number three Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-finals. Read more »

Lindsay Davenport increased the grandeur of her comeback by beating Italian Sara Errani 6-1 6-3 in the Bali semi-finals and setting up a clash with second seed Daniela Hantuchova.

"It's such a great accomplishment to be in the final just three months after having my son and having major abdominal surgery," said the 31-year-old Davenport.

Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, ranked 12th in the world, advanced to the finals with a 7-5 6-1 win over Romanian qualifier Sorana Cirstea. (photo via Tennis Fairy)

Ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova was upset 6-4 3-6 6-1 by Ukrainian Julia Vakulenko, another shock in the first round of the US Open.

The Slovak made 32 unforced errors as she suffered her earliest exit at Flushing Meadows since she lost on her debut in 2001.

"I felt fine here," Hantuchova said. "I felt very good. Today was just one of those things that is hard to understand." Read more »

Click here to check out who are currently the most beautiful female athletes and vote for your favorites. At the moment, they are all in the first round, but then they can advance to so called “Sexy 16”, “Elite Eight”, “Fab Four”, “Women’s Final”, and in the end one of them will be named the “Hottest Athlete”.

Out of WTA players there are Maria Sharapova, Daniela Hantuchova, Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic, and Maria Kirilenko.

Everyone except Serena Williams was annoyed by today’s continual rain in Wimbledon. If there hadn’t been rain delay in the middle of her fourth round match against tenth seed Daniela Hantuchova, Serena would have had to say goodbye to Wimbledon. But since the rain gave her a much needed break, she was able to recover from her injury and come back to defeat the Slovakian 6-2, 6-7(2), 6-2.

After the former champion had sealed the victory she looked at the sky and blew a kiss in gratitude toward the weather.

Here’s what Williams said after her fantastic win: Read more »