When the Western and Southern Financial Women's Open began, Jelena Jankovic was probably the last person I would tip off to win the title. And even through the tournament, I didn’t pay much attention to Jankovic because I thought she would crash to like whichever opponent. Thank you JJ for awaking my expectations!

After going through a spectacular semifinal against fourth-seeded Elena Dementieva, fifth-ranked Jankovic upset world number one Dinara Safina 6-4 6-2 to win her second title of the season. One early break of Safina’s serve was enough to ensure the first set for Jankovic. The fifth-seeded Serb started the second set with a 3-0 lead, then Safina won the next two games, but that was it for the Russian in this final.

Jankovic started the season ranked number one, but has been having major problems to find the form that took her to the top. Now we have a strong reason to believe that another good era of Jankovic’s career is rising. (photo via BBC)

World No.1 Dinara Safina of Russia ended Flavia Pennetta’s 15-match winning streak in just 56 minutes, defeating the Italian 6-2 6-0 in the semifinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open.

Pennetta, who will on Monday become the first Italian Top 10 women's tennis player, looked a little bit worn-out playing against Safina who was on fire, hitting winner after winner. Safina retained her perfect record against Pennetta, having won all their seven meetings.

In her eighth final of the 2009 season Safina will face the winner of the semifinal between fourth seed Elena Dementieva and fifth seed Jelena Jankovic. (photo: Life.com)

Wildcard Kim Clijsters had defeated three Top 20 players en route to the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open before Russian world No.1 Dinara Safina ended the Belgian's fairytale comeback run. Final score: 6-2 7-5.

Clijsters defeated Marion Bartoli in the first round, Patty Schnyder in the second and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third, which were her first three matches after a more than two-year-long break, but top-seeded Safina stopped the former world No.1 Clijsters from progressing further by winning only the second time in their eight encounters.

"I really felt today that Dinara played some of her best tennis that I've seen," said Clijsters, whose return after a child birth has proved to be more than promising. "I think by far that's the best she's ever played against me."

Safina will next play world No.12 Flavia Pennetta, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova in the quarterfinals one day after upsetting Venus Williams. By reaching the semis, Pennetta will have the honor of becoming the first Italian Top 10 tennis player.

The other semifinal pair will feature Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva and Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic. Dementieva defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-1, while Jankovic lost only three games in the match against Sybille Bammer, who upset Serena Williams in the previous round. (source: ESPN, photo via Life.com)

Dinara Safina is constantly attacked for being a world number one without winning a Grand Slam (the most brutal attacker is Serena Williams, in my opinion) and her brother Marat, the winner of two Grand Slam titles, is defending his hard-working younger sister.

Here are just some excerpts from Marat's recent interview:

She spends so much time on court.  I think she is more professional than all the players together.

Nobody believed that she going to be top 10 even two, three years ago. So look where she is right now.

So it’s a little bit ?? it gets tough on her.  But she’s there.  She’s fighting.  She’s trying.  I’m really proud of her that she can stand, and I tell everybody to **** off basically in every press conference.  I would do this way, but unfortunately she’s very polite to you guys.

And the best comment:

Q.  Now that you stopped, what about coaching her?

MARAT SAFIN:  Oh, you want me to hang myself?  (laughter.)

Safina reached the top of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings April 20, when she and Marat became the only brother-sister duo to have been No.1 in professional tennis. (photo via Life.com)

China's Zheng Jie recorded one of the biggest wins of her career by beating world No.1 Dinara Safina 7-5 4-6 6-4 at the $700,000 2009 LA Women’s Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife.

The 23nd-ranked Zheng had beaten a world No.1 before – Ana Ivanovic in the third round of last year's Wimbledon – but had never beaten Safina.

"She’s a good player and it’s tough to play her," said Safina after the third-round defeat. "In this match I didn’t do the right things. I should have played better. Today, she took her chances and beat me."

Zheng, the 14th seed, will next face Australian 13th seed Samantha Stosur, who dominated current world No.11 Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-2 in the third round. Stosur has scored her sixth win over a Top 15 opponent this year. Also, she has defeated former top-ranked players in consecutive weeks, having beaten Serena Williams in the Stanford quarterfinals.

World No.61 Maria Sharapova, after upsetting third seed Victoria Azarenka in the previous round, rebounded from a slow first-set start for the second straight day and defeated Alona Bondarenko 4-6 6-0 6-3. In the quarterfinals, Sharapova will face Poland's Urszula Radwanska, who got a walkover from No.12 seed Li Na due to a right knee injury. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

World number one Dinara Safina is the first player to qualify for this year’s Sony Ericsson Championships.

Safina, who has reached the top of the rankings on April 20 and has not left the position since, will make her second appearance at the Sony Ericsson Championships, having qualified for the event last year.

The prestigious season-ending tournament will be held in Doha, Qatar, for the second tennis season in a row. The world’s Top 8 singles players and Top 4 doubles teams from the 2009 season will fight for a share of the prize money of $4.45 million. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Two WTA events finished on Sunday and our weekend winners are world number one Dinara Safina, as it was highly expected, and 21-year-old Andrea Petkovic.

From what the scoreboard was showing, the final at the Banka Koper Slovenia Open was not as simple for Safina as her road to the final, but the match finished in her favor as she overcame fifth seed Sara Errani 6-7(5) 6-1 7-5.

In the first set both players took each other’s serve four times, and the set was decided in a tiebreak. The second was more straightforwardly won by Safina, while the third brought the thrill again. In the end Safina won the see-saw decider and closed out victory in 2 hours and 53 minutes to solidify her number one position in the rankings with her third WTA title in 2009.

World No.98 Andrea Petkovic of Germany claimed her first WTA Tour title, beating Ioana Raluca Olaru of Romania 6-2 6-3 at the NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies. Petkovic has won eight ITF titles, but had never before played a WTA quarterfinal.

In the title match against another first-time WTA finalist, who upset top seed Alize Cornet in the semis, Petkovic raced into a 5-0 lead before winning the opening set, and with one break up won the second set. (photos via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

World No.1 Dinara Safina, top seed at the Banka Koper Slovenia Open, has reached her seventh final of the year, while top seed at the NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies, world No.28 Alize Cornet, suffered an upset in the semifinals.

Safina defeated 107th-ranked Alberta Brianti 6-4 6-3 without much difficulty. The 29-year-old Brianti was playing her first WTA Tour semifinal.

The Russian will next face fifth seed Sara Errani of Italy, who beat Stefanie Voegele 6-1 6-2 to advance to the final. Safina and Errani have met only once so far, this year in Stuttgart, and Safina won that encounter 6-0 6-1.

In the other WTA event taking place this week, NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies, top-seeded Alize Cornet fell to Romania's world No.66 Ioana Raluca Olaru 3-6 7-5 6-3. The 20-year-old Olaru has thus reached her first WTA Tour final and in the title match she will meet another first-time WTA finalist 21-year-old German Andrea Petkovic, ranked 98th. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Everything is going smooth for world No.1 Dinara Safina at the Banka Koper Slovenia Open and it will be a surprise if she doesn't add $37,000 to her bank account.

The Russian has lost just ten games on her way to the semifinals, and her last victim was Maria Elena Camerin of Italy whom she defeated 6-3 6-0.

Safina’s next opponent will be Italian Alberta Brianti, ranked 106th in the world.

The only seed left in the draw, besides Safina of course, is fifth seed Sara Errani who progressed to the semifinals by beating Petra Martic 6-1 6-1. (photo: Tennis Channel)

World No.1 Dinara Safina cruised into the quarterfinals of the Banka Koper Slovenia Open by beating qualifier Ksenia Pervak 6-1 6-2 in one hour and 17 minutes.

The 157th-ranked Pervak converted only one of her six break points, while Safina broke her fellow Russian five times in seven chances at the International-level event.

Safina will next face either Marina Elena Camerin or seventh-seeded Vera Dushevina, who are at the moment playing the deciding set.

Speaking about Safina, I would like to mention it here too (yesterday I pointed it out on my Twitter profile), that Dinara Safina, according to some a non-deserving top-ranked player, is leading world No.2 Serena Williams by 2012 ranking points, and world No.3 Venus Williams by 3904. It’s a very significant lead, you have to admit! (photo: Stephane Martinache)