Comeback player Maria Sharapova, who definitely spiced up this Roland Garros, was defeated in the quarterfinals by Slovakian seed No.20 Dominika Cibulkova 6-0 6-2. The favorite for the title, top seed Dinara Safina, advanced to the semifinals, and her next opponent will be Cibulkova.

It’s fair to say Sharapova has gone further than expected, having in mind she reached the quarterfinals with only three competitive singles matches played in nine and a half months prior to Roland Garros. On her way to the final four on her least favorite surface, Sharapova beat seed No.11 Nadia Petrova and seed No.25 Li Na.

The former world No.1 Sharapova was close to being double bageled by Cibulkova in the quarterfinals, but the Russian broke Cibulkova’s serve at 5-0, even though Cibulkova had a match point. Then Sharapova impressively won the following game, and when Cibulkova served for the match again, Sharapova gave more resistance, by saving three match points in that game. However, she was defeated on the fifth.

In the first quarterfinal of the day, top seed Dinara Safina lost her first set at the 2009 French Open to ninth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who took out defending champion Ana Ivanovic in the fourth round. However, despite opening her quarterfinal by losing the opening set in just 23 minutes, the dominant Russian won the match 1-6 6-4 6-2.

I simply have to point out the spectacular stats of Safina's first four rounds: the world No.1 won four sets at love, dropped only five games, and her average match time was just 59 minutes. (photos: Stephane Martinache)

Victoria Azarenka, Dominika Cibulkova, Alona Bondarenko and Anna Chakvetadze appear in this month’s French edition of FHM, an international monthly men's lifestyle magazine.

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Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova and Dominik Hrbaty won the 2009 Hopman Cup with victory over the Russian brother-sister team of Dinara Safina and Marat Safin in Perth on Friday.

Russia had been the favorites to win the mixed team event since world No.3 Dinara Safina and No.29 Marat Safin were ranked much higher than their respective singles opponents. However, not everything goes in accordance with the ranking.

World number 19 Cibulkova beat Safina 6-7(3) 6-1 6-4 for the first time, while world number 250 Hrbaty edged out the two-time Grand Slam champion Safin 6-7(5) 7-5 7-6(3).

The Slovak Republic have won their third Hopman Cup title. (sources: Reuters, Hompan Cup)

Slovakian world No.1 Dominika Cibulkova won the Women's Tennis Player Award 2008 in her home country.

The 19th-ranked Cibulkova was accompanied by her boyfriend, Austrian tennis player Jurgen Melzer. The last time we saw the couple was when they were together in Maldives. (via womenstennisphotos.co.cc)

It seems Slovak world No.19 Dominika Cibulkova totally overcame ex-boyfriend Gael Monfils.

The 19-year-old WTA player hooked up with another tennis player, Jurgen Melzer, probably during the US Open where they played mixed doubles together, and now we have a hot update – photos of Cibulkova and Melzer having fun in Maldives. Read more »

I’m reading that Slovakian world No.20 Dominika Cibulkova is dating Austrian tennis player Jurgen Melzer, ranked 35th in the world. When did the 19-year-old Dominika end her relationship with Gael Monfils? I have no idea.

Anyway, Cibulkova and Melzer might have hooked up during the US Open, where they teamed up for mixed doubles.

Melzer is something of a lady-killer on the Tour, as he previously dated Anastasia Myskina and Nicole Vaidisova. (laola1 via WTA Hotties)

Our series of photos of women’s tennis stars when they were kids continues with Dominika Cibulkova, currently the 20th-ranked player in the world. Enjoy! Read more »

This hurts! Still no winning streak for former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic. The Serb suffered yet another early loss, this time to Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.

The fourth-seeded Ivanovic had a first round bye, and was upset 3-6 6-2 7-6 (4) right away in the second round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, falling to the world No.20 Cibulkova.

To make things worse, Ivanovic had two match points in the 10th game of the deciding set, but failed to convert them.

More bad news for Ana's fans: At the 2008 Kremlin Cup, Ivanovic played her first doubles match in tournament play since June 2007. On Wednesday, after her singles defeat, she also lost in the doubles competition, paired with Italy's Francesca Schiavone. They were beaten 6-2 4-6 10-7 by top seeds and world No.1s Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the quarterfinals. (via Ana Ivanovic's website, photo: ivanovic-ana.com)

Women’s tennis stars Agnes Szavay, Dominika Cibulkova, and Caroline Wozniacki modeled new Bluetooth watches that can be used to control a mobile phone. The watches were unveiled on Wednesday by Sony Ericsson. Read more »

World No.20 Dominika Cibulkova defeated former No.1 Amelie Mauresmo in the first round of two successive tournaments.

The 19-year-old Slovak ended Mauresmo’s stay at the recent Toray Pan Pacific Open in the first round already, coming back from a first-set bagel and saving four match points. Today, Cibulkova repeated the upset in the first round of the China Open in Beijing taking the Frenchwoman out 3-6 6-4 6-3. (photo: cibulkova-dominika.com)