Vera Zvonareva and Maria Sharapova will face each other in an all-Russian final at the Qatar Total Open in Doha on Sunday. Unseeded Zvonareva reached her second final of the year with a 3-6 6-3 6-3 win over China's Na Li, while Sharapova avenged her tough 2007 US Open loss to Agnieszka Radwanska with a 6-4 6-3 victory over the Polish teenager.

To win the semifinal match against China's Na Li, world No.27 Zvonareva battled back from a break down in both the second and third sets. Zvonareva, who has won five titles in Tier III events, will tomorrow play the biggest final of her career. Read more »

Today is the 23rd birthday of Vera Zvonareva, Russian female tennis player currently ranked 28th in the world. I will use her birthday as an opportunity to take a look at her career achievements.

She has won five WTA Tour singles titles (2006 – Birmingham, Cincinnati; 2005 – Memphis; 2004 – Memphis; 2003 – Bol) and four WTA Tour doubles titles (2006 – US Open, Auckland, 2005 – Berlin, 2004 – Moscow). Her highest-ever ranking was number nine, in both singles and doubles.

This season: The first few months were quite satisfying. I will point out some of her best results in 2007: she reached Auckland final, fourth round at the Australian Open, and Indian Wells quarterfinals. But then, in April, left wrist injury occurred and she had to retire from her Charleston semifinal match. Zvonareva was sidelined by the injury all the way until the US Open.

Latest result: As No.27 seed Vera Zvonareva lost in the third round of the US Open to Serena Williams. (source: WTA Tour)

World No. 19 Vera Zvonareva pulled out of Wimbledon on Monday after failing to recover from a left wrist injury which bothered her for months and forced her to miss the French Open.

The 23-year-old Russian has not played since retiring while trailing Dinara Safina in the semifinals of the Family Circle Cup in April.

Zvonareva will be replaced by Canada’s Aleksandra Wozniak who lost in the first round at the Australian Open and French Open this year.

Other players that have previously withdrawn from the grass-court grand slam are the 2004 French Open champion Anastasia Myskina, world No. 63 Zheng Jie and world No. 124 Romina Oprandi.

The Williams sisters, the 2000 and 2002 Wimbledon doubles champions, have been given a late wildcard into the doubles draw after Britain's Amanda Elliott and Katie O'Brien withdrew due to Elliott’s wrist injury. (via Reuters, Yahoo!Sports)

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.