Internazionali BNL d'Italia is the most prestigious clay-court tournament after Roland Garros. It is a Tier I event with the prize money of $1,340,000.

Amelie Mauresmo of France is seeded at the top. She is the 2004 and 2005 winner, and in 2000, 2001 and 2003 she was in the final. Although world No. 4 has only recently returned to tennis, after a break caused by her appendix operation, she is still one of the favorites to take the trophy.

Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova hasn't had a very satisfying year — she was a runner-up three times (in Doha, Indian Wells, and last week in Berlin). Still, without doubt, she has a potential to make Rome her first title of 2007.

World No. 5 Jelena Jankovic is definitely in good form. The Serbian has already collected two titles in 2007– Auckland and Charleston. We can expect a lot from her.

Although Serena Williams hasn't played since the Fed Cup first round in April, the 2002 champion, this year seeded 8th, is certainly someone we can't discount. She has been superb this season winning the Australian Open and Sony Ericsson Open. What more can you ask for?

Nadia Petrova of Russia is seeded fifth. She won three consecutive titles on clay last year. Her compatriot Dinara Safina, seeded sixth, reached the final on clay in Charleston, as well as last year in Rome when she was defeated by Martina Hingis.

Other players making up the top 8 seeds are Nicole Vaidisova and Anna Chakvetadze. We expect some good action from them as well.

We should also mention No. 12th seed Ana Ivanovic of Serbia who won a tournament in Berlin a few days ago and entered the top 10 for the first time in her career. In Rome's quarterfinals we might have a chance to watch a re-run of Berlin's final with Kuznetsova.

Maria Sharapova and Martina Hingis won't play this year because of injuries, while world No.1 Justine Henin didn't enter. (via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

In Berlin quarterfinal Jelena Jankovic continued her tradition of winning the opening set against Justine Henin, and eventually coming out as a loser. So far, they have played five times, and four times Jelena won the first set; still, all the five times she lost the match!

In Saturday's quarterfinal Jelena was so close to victory — in the third set she had a 4-0 lead. Henin seemed disturbed, you could see her watching anxiously at her coach. However, she managed to recover and win six consecutive games to advance to the semis.

"I don't know how that could happen," said the Serbian.

"I thought I had everything under control and I am really upset, I was so close to beating her. It was slippery out there and I didn't feel safe on the court.

"But it was all my own mistake that I lost, I wasted all my chances to win." (Source: BBC Sport)

How often do injured players retire when closer to victory, and how often when they are losing? Which players are more likely to retire, and which stay in match even though they are losing?

Tennis Magazine, who did this research, took into account the top 20 players and calculated the proportion of times they retired when close to losing a match. The aim of their work was to determine which players retire when they see that defeat is near, which, as they believe, tells a lot about a person's attitude. So, matches where a player retired before the completion of the opening set, as well as those when a player withdrew while less than two games behind, were not included.

Some players are more prone to injuries, but you can see that some of them withdraw when they see that they can't win. It's evident that player's retirement affects the opponent as well as spectators. The opponent can't enjoy the victory as much, because things were left unfinished.

One of favorite WTA players, Kim Clijsters, had lots of injuries in her career, but retired while losing only once. Ana Ivanovic, Shahar Peer, Nicole Vaidisova and Martina Hingis have never left the match when behind.

On the other hand, an unbelieveable 11.4 % of Jelena Jankovic's defeats are retirements while losing, which is more than one in every nine losses. Players following Jankovic are Serena Williams and Anna Chakvetadze.

A spokesperson for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, who saw the results of the research, said: "There is no evidence that WTA Tour players do anything other than compete their very best." However, John Lloyd, British Davis Cup captain and former Australian Open finalist, claims that "really good champions don't feel they're going to lose until the last point, so they never throw in the towel."

I don't really agree with the view that players who are prone to retiring while losing are players with worse attitude and not real champions. It shows a certain part of their character, but it doesn't make them worse people, or worse players. They are simply like that (it's normal to lose interest when you see you have no chance to win), and after all, it's not forbidden to withdraw while behind.

(more at Tennis Magazine website)

Second seed Jelena Jankovic beat fourth seed Dinara Safina 6-2, 6-2 in Sunday final of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina. This is the first Tier I final for Jankovic, and her biggest victory so far.

Strong wind made this match difficult for both players. "The wind was so strong and the balls were going all over the place," Jankovic said after the match. Her opponent agreed: "It was so windy that it was tough to play our game. It was going everywhere. It was difficult to serve, like you're tossing the ball, and the ball just goes … flying in front or like, wherever."

The Serbian reached the final by defeating Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) in a long and uncertain match. The Russian player had an easier way to the final; her semifinal opponent, Vera Zvonareva, retired because of wrist injury, while her opponent in the quarterfinal, Tatiana Golovin, withdraw at the end of the first set due to injured ankle.

Today, Both Jankovic and Safina jumped two spots at the WTA rankings. Jankovic was world No.9 and today she is No.7. One year younger Dinara Safina moved from No.12 to No.10.

(source: ESPN)

With this title Jankovic accompanies Serena Williams and Justine Henin as players who have won two titles in 2007. Serena won the Australian Open and the Sony Ericsson Open; Justine has titles from Dubai Duty Free Women's Open and Qatar Total Open. Jelena won Auckland in January and now she has Charleston trophy too.

Ninth seed Vera Zvonareva retired from the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup at the moment fellow Russian Dinara Safina, seeded four, lead 6-3, 0-1. Zvonareva had to give up the match due to wrist injury. Actually, both players had problems with wrists which forced them to withdraw from their doubles matches, so that they could focus on the singles.

Dinara Safina, ranked No. 12, meets world No. 9 Jelena Jankovic in the final of Charleston. Earlier today, Jankovic defeated Venus Williams 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5).

So far, Safina and Jankovic have played only once, in Paris, on hardcourt; Jankovic retired from the match, and Safina won 6-3, 0-1.

What a match! Two hours and thirty minutes of uncertainty! Venus Williams and Jelena Jankovic both played very well at the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup, but somebody had to come out as a winner, and it was a player from Serbia. Jankovic overwhelmed Williams 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5). A five-time Grand Slam champion won the first set 6-3. The second set was particularly interesting — first six games were all breaks. The one to end that series was second seed Jelena Jankovic who managed to take the lead, and eventually win the second set. However, the third set was also thrilling, especially the tie break. The tension was great. Jelena's match point added even more nervousness — it was debatable whether it was out or not.

I can mention that this is the second time Jelena wins the tie break when she plays Venus; last time it was at Wimbledon when she won 10-8.

Both Jelena Jankovic and Venus Williams will be ranked higher on Monday. Jelena, world No. 9, will be ranked No. 7; Venus, who is currently world No. 29, will jump to No. 22.

Jankovic's opponent in the final will be a Russian player, either ninth seed Vera Zvonareva or fourth seed Dinara Safina whose match is currently in progress.

Unseeded Venus Williams upset Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 7-5 to reach the final four of the Family Circle Cup. There, she will meet second seed Jelena Jankovic who defeated Katarina Srebotnik 6-2, 6-0. Soon, we will know the names of the other two players who will meet in the semifinals of this $1,3 million tournament.

Second seed Jelena Jankovic and sixth seed Ana Ivanovic will face each other in the fight for semifinals of the Bausch and Lomb Championships. They both needed less than one hour to defeat their opponents in the third round. Jankovic crushed Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine in straight sets 6-2, 6-0, while Ivanovic easily beat world No. 43 Nathalie Dechy 6-1, 6-1.

In their matches Ivanovic leads 2:1 — Ivanovic overwhelmed Jankovic in Zurich and Tokyo, while Jankovic won in Los Angeles. I personally think that Jankovic has slightly higher chances to take the victory. We'll see the result on Friday.

Second seed Jelena Jankovic beat No. 86 Iveta Benesova 6-1, 6-2 at the Bausch & Lomb Championships. Jankovic improved her play from the last year when she failed to make it out of the second round. The 22-year-old will face Alona Bondarenko in the third round of the tournament. In their head-to-head statistics Jelena leads 3-0. However, they have never played against each other on clay.