After falling in the second round of the Brisbane International, Petra Kvitova won just two games against Dominika Cibulkova in the first round of the Apia International Sydney, 6-1 6-1. Cibulkova is always a threat and she is a deserving world No.15, but these two early losses of the eighth-ranked Kvitova do put a big question mark above her fans' heads. In the defeat to Cibulkova, Kvitova recorded 35 unforced errors. After the match, when asked what went wrong, Kvitova said that everything went wrong and that she played very badly.

Did Kvitova enter the slump zone or is this just a phase she'll get out of in time? Last year she played the Sydney semifinals and followed up with a semifinal at the Australian Open.

Caroline Wozniacki also opened the season with a shock loss, to Ksenia Pervak in the first round of Brisbane, but in Sydney she recorded a comfortable 6-2 6-1 victory over Urszula Radwanska in the opening round. The freshly-engaged Maria Kirilenko is also through, with a 7-5 6-2 win over Olivia Rogowska. (via Women Who Serve and WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

On December 31st, 2012, ice hockey player Alex Ovechkin happily announced on Twitter an engagement to his girlfriend Maria Kirilenko, one of the most beautiful women's tennis players. I am not surprised that Alex broke the news on Twitter, he has always been very eager to share his love and support of Maria on the social network. Read more »

Top three seeds were in action on Day 2 of the Tournament of Champions in Sofia and all the three won their round-robin matches.

Seed No.1 Caroline Wozniacki yesterday eased past Hsieh Su-Wei and today she had another straightforward victory, 6-3 6-1 against Roberta Vinci, to whom she lost last year at the Rogers Cup 6-4 7-5, despite having multiple set points in the second set. At the the 2011 Rogers Cup Wozniacki was not only defending her title, at the time she was ranked No.1.

The world No.11 Dane now has a chance to get back in the Top 10. To achieve that she needs to either win the Tournament of Champions title or reach the final undefeated. Tomorrow Wozniacki plays her last round-robin match in the Serdika Group, against Daniela Hantuchova, who lost to Roberta Vinci yesterday.

In the Sredets Group, seed No.2 Nadia Petrova and seed No.3 Maria Kirilenko, doubles partners who have just this weekend clinched the huge WTA Championships title, both won their singles matches in Sofia, defeating Zheng Jie 6-3 6-3 and home darling Tsvetana Pironkova 6-1 6-4 respectively, and on Thursday they will face each other in the opening match of the day.

Roberta Vinci vs. Hsieh Su-Wei is the third and last match on the Day 3 schedule. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki breezed past qualifier Caroline Garcia 6-2 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the KDB Korea Open in Seoul. Her previous victory at the tournament was also confident, 6-1 6-2 against Arantxa Rus, which is a nice recovery for the Dane after her first-round loss at the US Open. Next for Wozniacki is seventh seed Klara Zakopalova, who beat Magdalena Rybarikova 6-1 7-6(6).

Maria Kirilenko, the 2008 Seoul champion and second seed this year, retired yesterday at 1-all in the first set against Korean wildcard Lee So-Ra due to a left back injury. Fourth seed Nadia Petrova also fell victim to a back injury, withdrawing today before her second-round encounter with the newlywed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez. The Spaniard is defending her Seoul title this week, but last time she entered the tournament ranked 36th, while now she’s No.93 – at the end of 2011 she had a knee surgery and this season she joined the circuit in May due to right thigh injuries. (via WTA Tour, photo: sr_cranks)

Petra Kvitova is the one taking Caroline Wozniacki's throne at the $637,000 New Haven Open at Yale. In the final against Maria Kirilenko (against whom Wozniacki retired in the previous round), after saving set points in both sets, Kvitova won the title that used to be Wozniacki's in the past four years.

Six service breaks in the first set led it to a marathon tiebreak in which Kvitova fended off her first set point and after working her way to victory in the first set, the Czech fell 2-5 in the second set and Kirileko again earned a set point. However, Kvitova had no room for discouragement and won all the remaining games to win the match 7-6(9) 7-5.

After a first-round bye, the second-seeded Kvitova defeated Nicole Gibbs, then eighth seed Lucie Safarova, fourth-seed Sara Errani in the semifinals, and finally the seventh-seeded Maria Kirilenko.

Just 12 days ago Kvitova won the $2,168,400 Rogers Cup, then reached the semifinals of the 2,168,400 Western & Southern Open, thus becoming the US Open Series winner, and then went on to win New Haven – notice, all the three are Premier-level tournaments. At the US Open Kvitova is seeded fifth and Polona Hercog is her first opponent. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)