Top two seeds will meet in the final of the Qatar Airways Tournament of Champions Sofia – No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and No.2 Nadia Petrova.

The first to advance was Wozniacki, with a 6-4 6-1 victory over home-supported Tsvetana Pironkova. From 4-4 in the first set, Wozniacki won seven straight games and closed the match two games later. By virtue of this win, on Monday, November 5th, Wozniacki will start her 174th week in the Top 10, which is the sixth most of all active WTA players. The Dane used to be No.1 for 67 weeks and of all active players only Serena Williams is ahead of her with 123 weeks (below are Victoria Azarenka with 36 weeks, Maria Sharapova 21, Jelena Jankovic 18, Ana Ivanovic 12, Venus Williams 11). 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)

After winning her biggest career title last week in Tokyo, 30-year-old Nadia Petrova assured us that big tennis goals are still ahead of her, but the following week she’s ran out of steam against home favorite Li Na at the China Open and lost 6-1 6-2 in the second round, her first loss to the Chinese in their seven meetings. Besides the tough opponent that Li is, fatigue and a slight leg injury took the better of Petrova.

Petrova’s Tokyo final opponent, seed No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska in Beijing, who was defending her title in Tokyo last week and is doing the same this week, advanced to the third round with a 6-2 6-3 win over Zhang Shuai.

Seeds No.1 Victoria Azarenka, No.5 Angelique Kerber, No.9 Marion Bartoli and No.10 Caroline Wozniacki all advanced, while No.8 Samantha Stosur lost to Julia Goerges 7-6(2) 4-6 7-5. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

For the first time in her long career Nadia Petrova beat three Top 10 players in one tournament and won her 12th and most valuable WTA title by ousting Agnieszka Radwanska in the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

To make the victory even bigger, Petrova not only overcame tough matches (a three-hour battle against Petra Martic in the third round, a 6-4 4-1 deficit against Sara Errani in the quarterfinals, Grand Slam champion Samantha Stosur in the semis, and finally world No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska), but also a nagging back injury that forced her to withdraw from Seoul last week.

After storming through the first set in the title match against defending champion Radwanska 6-0, Petrova felt flat and lost the second set 6-1. At 4-3 for Petrova in the third set, Radwanska was 40-30 up on her serve, but two double faults cost her the game and soon after the match. Final score: 6-0 1-6 6-3.

The 30-year-old Petrova started her professional career 13 years ago, in 1999, but she still has the drive and ambition for greater heights:

There are a few players who have won Grand Slams after 30, and I feel like I don't want to walk away from tennis without accomplishing the same.

(source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Nadia Petrova reached the Toray Pan Pacific Open final by overpowering Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-2. Petrova's first serve percentage was just 36%, but she hit nine aces and won 17 of 20 points on her first serve. Moreover, she faced no break points until the last game of the match when she saved all the three. Stosur, who made a string of unforced errors, had to take a medical timeout due to an abdominal injury.

Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska joined Petrova in the final with a rapid 6-1 6-1 win over Angelique Kerber. The third-seeded Radwanska was in absolute charge of the semifinal against one of the most solid players of the season, recording 20 winners to just four unforced errors. Kerber, fifth seed in Tokyo, is actually the most prolific WTA player this year when it comes to the number of match wins (58), but her 34 unforced errors made her disappear against Radwanska. Read more »