Vera Zvonareva must be devastated after her final round-robin match in the Red Group of the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. The Russian won the first set against Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1 and after losing the second with 20 unforced errors committed (that's five games!) and starting the third by dropping serve, she rebroke her opponent and established a 3-1 lead and 5-3 lead. However, the decider consisted of Radwanska's series of games and Zvonareva's series of games and after ten games and three match points wasted by Zvonareva they were 5-all. Then Zvonareva lost her serve again and in the final game Radwanska took her opportunity and won the match 1-6 6-2 7-5.

Zvonareva lost her opening match of the tournament to mighty Petra Kvitova 6-2 6-4, but the following day defeated world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 4-6 6-3. As for Radwanska, she lost her first match to Caroline Wozniacki, and tomorrow she will face Petra Kvitova. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Vera Zvonareva worked her way to the victory over Caroline Wozniacki in the last match of the second day of the WTA Championships which finished close to midnight local time. Despite the loss, Wozniacki is now certain to stay No.1 when the year-end rankings are released, as Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament.

Zvonareva raced to a 4-0 lead and soon after to victory in the first set by taking the last, eighth game of the set to love. Zvonareva hit 18 winners to Wozniacki's only three, and nine unforced errors to Wozniacki's five. Read more »

The first match of the Istanbul WTA Championships came to a close and tournament debutante Petra Kvitova routed Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-4 in an hour and 25 minutes. Zvonareva was a runner-up to Venus Williams at this event in 2008, when it was played in Doha.

From four breaks and 2-2 in the first set of this Red Group clash, the 21-year-old Kvitova took six straight games to win the first and go 2-0 up in the second. Kvitova was soon leading 4-1, but Zvonareva managed to level at 4-4 and distance Kvitova from victory. However, Zvonareva handed Kvitova an easy break and soon after the Czech won.

The Wimbledon champion Kvitova has a chance of ending the year ranked No.1, but that depends both on her and on the outside circumstances. The Czech would have to win the Istanbul title and current world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, last year's WTA Championships finalist, would have to lose her round-robin matches. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

The 2011 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul start tomorrow, not affected by the devastating earthquake that killed around 270 people in Turkey. Players and the Tour expressed their condolences, but their job is calling them to focus on the big task ahead.

Since only the most successful eight players of the season are in the competition, it is not entirely reasonable to talk about the toughness of the draw, but we can always speculate: is the world No.1 the favorite, or the most-established players, or the late season bloomers, or someone else? Let’s analyze the two round-robin groups.

RED GROUP: Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska

The tournament will start with the clash between Kvitova and Zvonareva. Kvitova is making her debut at the WTA Championships, but at this year’s Wimbledon she showed she doesn’t shy away at grand stages. Also, the Czech is fresh off a WTA title in Linz.

Another first-time qualifier, Agnieszka Radwanska, is also in action on the first day, against world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. Radwanska is the hottest player this fall, having won 11 of her last 12 matches, including Premier-level titles in Tokyo and Beijing. Zvonareva was runner-up in Tokyo, while Wozniacki had the worst results of the group this fall, losing in the third round of Tokyo and the quarterfinals of Beijing.

To give you a deeper insight into the mutual relationships of the players, here are their head-to-head statistics, with this year's records in brackets. Read more »

Vera Zvonareva and Samantha Stosur have occupied the sixth and seventh spot in the draw of the $4,900,000 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships, which means that only one more player can qualifier for the singles competition and that will be either Agnieszka Radwanska or Marion Bartoli.

In order for Bartoli to qualify, she would need to win both Osaka and Moscow and Radwanska would have to lose before the quarterfinals of Moscow. The player who doesn’t take the eighth spot will join Andrea Petkovic as an alternate.

This will be Zvonareva’s fifth time to play the elite year-end Championships, while Stosur played last year for the first time.

Besides the two new additions to the draw, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka and Li Na had already qualified.

For the past three years the prestigious event was held in Doha, and this year it will take place in Istanbul for the first time. The 2010 champion was Kim Clijsters, whose injuries have prevented her for playing since August. (photos: sr_cranks)

Vera Zvonareva is one of those quiet, low-key players, but that doesn't mean she's shy of taking her clothes off for the camera. The third-ranked Russian is actually the sole tennis player among 22 athletes featured in the new ESPN Body Issue.

You can see the photo as well as a behind-the-scenes video from the shoot at my blogging friend DeShawn Besabella's website.

Talking about Zvonareva posing, do you know of these pics  for her apparel sponsor K-Swiss? She may not be showing a lot of skin, but the photos are funnily weird. (photo: sr_cranks)

To reach the quarterfinals of the China Open in Beijing Ana Ivanovic showed her mastery of consistent aggressive tennis and good focus against third-ranked Vera Zvonareva and scored her first Top 5 victory since June 2008 when she beat fellow Serb, then world No.3, Jelena Jankovic in the semifinals en route to the French Open title.

In the 6-2 6-1 win over Zvonareva, Ivanovic hit 29 winners to Zvonareva's four.

In the first round Ivanovic blew away Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-1 6-1, then powered past Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 6-3, and now she's in the the quarterfinals where she will face either Sofia Arvidsson, who upset Wimledon champion Petra Kvitova, or Agnieszka Radwanska, who won the Tokyo Premier tournament last week. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Agnieszka Radwanska extended her perfect record against Vera Zvonareva in 2011 to 3-0 (overall it's 3-2) by winning the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open for her sixth career title and her second Premier-level title of the season (for the first one, in Carlsbad in August, Radwanska also defeated Zvonareva).

The ninth-seeded Radwanska started nervously, losing the first two games of the match and facing a point for 0-3. Then the Pole woke up and won eight of the following nine games for a 6-3 2-0 lead. Zvonareva, seed No.4, was never able to produce a sufficient comeback, unlike in her astonishing victory over Petra Kvitova in the previous round, and Radwanska won 6-3 6-2. Zvonareva worsened her already poor win-loss record in career finals: 12-18. Read more »

Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska will meet in the final of the Premier-level Tokyo tournament. They are tied at 2-2 in head-to-head stats, but Radwanska won their last two matches and both were this summer (Carlsbad final and Toronto). On the other hand, Zvonareva, who will be No.2 in the world again if she wins the title, played 29 finals in her career, as opposed to Radwanska’s more modest seven.

The fourth-seeded Zvonareva clawed back from a 5-1 deficit in the first set against Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova and ended up winning the semifinal match in straight sets 7-6(2) 6-0. At those 5-1, it was Kvitova’s serve and the Czech had three set points. However, Zvonareva’s key to success was to focus on her game and not worry about the score:

I don't even remember being down 5-1 in the first set! I wasn't really thinking about it at all. I was just trying to find my rhythm – I couldn't find it in the beginning, and she was playing really well.

Despite the loss, Kvitova will make a Top 5 debut in the new rankings on Monday.

As for the semifinal between No.9 seed Agnieszka Radwanska and No.3 seed Victoria Azarenka, Radwanska first took the lead and looked to be close to a straight set victory at 6-3 4-2. However, Azarenka won four straight games and forced the third set. Still, Radwanska was the eventual winner, 6-3 4-6 6-2. (source: WTA Tour, photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Maria Sharapova came to Taiwan to play a charity exhibition match with fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva on Thursday. Sharapova had a glamorous arrival at the Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport, was welcomed by screaming fans, and finished her journey successfully – with a 6-3 6-4 victory over Zvonareva at the Taipei Arena.

Both the players are now traveling to Tokyo for the $2,050,000 Toray Pan Pacific Open where Sharapova is seeded second and Zvonareva fourth. Sharapova has won the tournament two times, in 2005 and 2009.

E!News' TV presenter Marijana Rancic made a week-long profile of Sharapova during the US Open. She interviewed the Russian about fashion, especially her collections with Cole Haan and Nike, about her fiancé Sasha Vujacic (Maria revealed she'd prefer a small wedding), about the popularity of her Facebook page, there is a mention of Sharapova's and Novak Djokovic's cooperation on the famous Head commercial, and a walk through Sharapova's favorite places in New York City. (source: Maria Sharapova's official website)