Tenth seed Maria Sharapova wasted three match points as clouds were approaching Cincinnati and didn’t manage to be faster than the rain, so her final against fourth seed Kim Clijsters got suspended at 6-2 5-3 with Clijsters serving on deuce. You know how these rain delays can bring a turnaround and that's exactly what happened. When play resumed, Clijsters took charge, won three successive games, soon after the tiebreak 7-4 and the deciding set 6-2. The victory slipped through Sharapova's fingers and on top of everything she even needed a medical timeout for her ankle. Final score: 2-6 7-6(4) 6-2.

The world No.7 Clijsters has become the first WTA player this year to win three titles: Brisbane, Miami, and now Cincinnati. The Belgian improved to 4-0 in finals since her comeback and is now 38-17 in career finals.

En route to the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open title Clijsters defeated Dinara Safina in the second round, Christina McHale in the third, seed No.11 Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals, Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals, and finally the three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova.

By winning the Cincinnati title Clijsters earned $350,000, while Sharapova earned $175,000 as runner-up. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Ana Ivanovic’s promising return to form in Cincinnati was making all the headlines and unbelievably all the hope of her resurgence got a bitter tone as the Serb retired injured from her semifinal against Kim Clijsters after playing just three games. We could have expected a meltdown, nerves, bad play, or whatever, but an injury! No way!

Ivanovic was trailing 2-1 when she made a return and hurt her ankle. She then received treatment and got back to the court, but couldn’t continue with the match. Nevertheless, the world No.62 Ivanovic will return to the Top 40 in the new rankings, but if the injury turns out to be serious she could well slip again. I hope the future will be favorable to Ana.

Clijsters’ opponent in the final will be the winner of the match between Maria Sharapova and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Elena Dementieva lost in the second round of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open to fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while Kim Clijsters avenged her 2009 Cincinnati loss to Dinara Safina and progressed to the third round. Both Dementieva and Clijsters were playing their opening matches.

The third-seeded Dementeiva claimed to have been affected by the humid weather in the days prior to Wednesday’s rain and simply couldn’t get into the game. Pavlyuchenkova, titlist at the Istanbul Cup last week, won 6-1 6-3 and will next play seed No.13 Shahar Peer.

In a battle of two former world No.1s, fourth seed Kim Clijsters beat Dinara Safina 7-5 6-2. Clijsters started her last year’s return to professional tennis at this very tournament and, interestingly, Safina was the one who ended her Cincinnati campaign in the quarterfinals, with quite a similar score: 6-2 7-5.

Maria Sharapova cruised past Andrea Petkovic 6-3 6-1 in the second round, while Vera Zvonareva survived the encounter with Maria Kirilenko, eventually winning 7-5 2-6 7-6(2). Second seed Caroline Wozniacki had no trouble defeating Sybille Bammer 6-0 6-2. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Thanks to Jim from KEF Media I had another opportunity to interview Lindsay Davenport, even though I was on vacation at the time. I prepared some questions and Jim forwarded one of them to Lindsay and added one question of his own.

My question was the following: "Kim Clijsters had a historic victory last year at the US Open, what do you think her prospects are this time?" The other question is regarding the importance of the US Open Series in getting players ready for the US Open. Listen to what Lindsay had to say.

Once again, thanks Lindsay and Jim for cooperating with me!

World No.1 Serena Williams won the 2010 ESPY award for the Best Female Tennis Player. Her competition in the category were sister Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters. Serena was also nominated for the Best Female Athlete alongside Lindsey Vonn (Skiing), Maya Moore (NCAA Basketball) and Diana Taurasi (WNBA) but the award went to Lindsey Vonn.

Kim Clijsters won the 2010 ESPY award for the Best Comeback Athlete for her magnificent run to the 2009 US Open title. The Belgian was unranked at the time and played only her third tournament after a two-year break and a child birth. After the title she propelled to No.19 in the rankings.

Venus Williams stayed short of the ESPY award, but she got another one – the Phenomenal Woman of the Year Award – at the event held in downtown Los Angeles at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel at 500 S. Grand Avenue. The theme of the event was "Saluting Women who Change the Game". (photos: Ralf Reinecke, Twenty90seven)