Top two seeds at the Brussels Open had a rest in the quarterfinal after their difficult second round wins. No.1 seed Caroline Wozniacki played only two full games when her opponent, Yanina Wickmayer, retired with a low back injury. Second seed Vera Zvonareva won the first ten games and lost only one game in her match-up with Alexandra Dulgheru.

Seed No.3 Francesca Schiavone defeated Ayumi Morita 6-2 6-3 in the quarterfinals and will play the top-ranked Wozniacki in the semis. It will be an interesting encounter ahead of the French Open, as even though the Dane won their last three encounters, it was Schiavone who was victorious in their only match on clay and it was last year at the French Open.

As for Zvonareva, she will play Peng Shuai in the semifinals, to whom she hasn’t lost in their seven meetings. The eighth-seeded Peng defeated Sofia Arvidsson in the quarters and reached her fourth semifinal of the season. (photo: sr_cranks)

Top two seeds at the inaugural Premier-level tournament of the Brussels Open, Caroline Wozniacki and Vera Zvonareva, both advanced to the quarterfinals, but not without considerable effort.

Zvonareva found herself 6-2 3-2 down against Galina Voskoboeva, before rallying back to beat the Kazakh qualifier 2-6 6-4 6-3. The Russian said she needed some time to get accustomed to the new court and new atmosphere, while her opponent got that sort of preparation during qualifying.

As for the world No.1 Wozniacki, she rallied from a break down in both sets to defeat American Varvara Lepchenko 6-4 7-6(5) on the fifth match point. In their only previous meeting, which was also on clay, Wozniacki was much more productive, defeating Lepchenko 6-3 6-1 in Madrid in 2009. Read more »

World No.18 Petra Kvitova, one of the players deserving special attention at the upcoming French Open, convincingly defeated second seed Vera Zvonareva in the third round of the $4.5 million Mutua Madrid Open.

Russia's Zvonareva scored two aces to Kvitova’s none, and had a better first serve percentage, but it was Kvitova who won more points, both on her first and second serves (20% better than Zvonareva on the second serve), and also, Kvitova saved seven of eight break points, while Zvonareva saved just two of six. Final score 6-1 6-4.

It was a bad day for many Russians at the Madrid Open. Dinara Safina fell to Julia Goerges 6-4 4-6 6-4 in the second round and Alisa Kleybanova fell to Roberta Vinci 6-2 6-2. Let’s see what Maria Sharapova will do against Dominika Cibulkova, their match is currently in progress.

Seventh seed Jelena Jankovic lost to Lucie Safarova 6-4 4-6 7-5, also in the second round, while sixth seed Li Na scored a 6-1 6-4 victory over Iveta Benesova. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

This is a guest post by our faithful reader, Marine, who has recently started a tennis blog herself. I thought it would be nice to present her writing skills and invite you to read Tennis Notebook.

Tennis is a sport which is never short of drama. When the pressure is on, it gets pretty emotional out there and there are some players who "let it out of their system" a bit more than others. So, here is my chart of top 5 WTA drama queens. Let’s see if you agree with my choice .

1. Vera Zvonareva

Vera has got two enemies to fight on the court: her opponents and her emotions. Unfortunately, sometimes the emotions win. And when she loses control she loses it big time. Her on-court antics can really spice up the action: throwing and breaking rackets, crying, shouting at herself… it’s all there and sometimes not only that. It’s not hard to imagine how terrible she must feel after such a loss of self-control. To calm down Vera often hides her face under a towel during the changeovers.

2. Serena Williams

Serena considers the court to be her little kingdom and she likes to be treated like a queen. If officials do not play along they will bear the consequences. Her ugly outburst at 2009 US Open was a hot topic in tennis world for months and most probably will be one of the things she will remembered for after her career is over.

3. Jelena Jankovic

JJ is a different version of a drama queen. No thrown or broken rackets or tears. She likes to complain to authorities instead. If things go wrong her debates with umpires often become pretty heated and sometimes she ends up fighting a little war of words. JJ keeps officials on their toes, that’s for sure.

4. Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova

There is not a lot that people know about this player. However since her match in Paris Open she has started to make a name for herself because of her tantrums. "Let it out and you’ll play better" seems to be her personal motto and therefore after losing an important point she tends to shout at herself. If that doesn’t work her coach is next…

5. Ana Ivanovic

After her great victory at Roland Garros something went very wrong. Her mental strength and confidence started to disappear and on the court her emotions often got better of her. The consequences of that were quite dire. Her performance got worse, she started to fall down the rankings and some people in tennis world have lost confidence in her abilities. Fortunately for Ana, she picked herself up just in time. Anyway, sometimes it is easy to spot she still finds it hard to control her emotions when on the court. (photos: sr_cranks, WTA Tour, © Neal Trousdale)

The semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Open are shaping up. By defeating Agnieszka Radwanska on Wednesday, Vera Zvonareva became the third Miami semifinalist this year, and her opponent in the final four will be either Kim Clijsters or Victoria Azarenka.

In the match against ninth-seeded Radwanska, Zvonareva double faulted at 4-5, 30-all in the first set to give the Pole a set point. However, she saved it with an ace and won three games to win the set. The second set was easier for the Russian, who has a chance to return to No.2 ranking, and she advanced to the semis with a 7-5 6-3 victory.

The other semifinal will feature Andrea Petkovic, who toughed it out against Jelena Jankovic, and Maria Sharapova, who had her fair share of hard time against Alexandra Dulgheru in the quarterfinal match that lasted almost three and a half hours. (source: WTA Tour, photo: sr_cranks)

Player parties provide a perfect venue for players to get in touch with their glamorous side (if they have one) and the blue red carpet on Tuesday night at the Paris Theater in Miami was one of the best such occasions.

Let's start with my favorites. Russian Anna Kournikova simply knows what to wear and how to work it, while her countrywoman Vera Zvonareva looks very pretty in a romantic purple dress.

Although I've been in the mood for floral prints lately, Anastasia Plavyuchenkova's dress is too much for my taste. Maria Sharapova is still faithful to her vintage-oriented style. Read more »

World No.3 Vera Zvonareva won her first title in over a year (the period in which she lost five finals!), after defeating top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the final of the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open. They both played great tennis, but it was Zvonareva who always had a slight edge, which was increasingly frustrating Wozniacki, a bit of a favorite who had lost just 9 games en route to the championship match.

Even though the match could have easily gone either way, the first big moment approaching victory to Zvonareva's side was when Wozniacki had three successive chances to break the Russian and even the score to 4-4. The Dane wasted them all and Zvonareva capitalized on her 5-3 lead to soon take the first set.

In the second set there was a crucial fifth game, on Wozniacki's serve, at 2-2. There were eight deuces and well over 10 minutes of play, and Zvonareva came out as the winner of that one. More tense games followed and until the end the winner was not apparent, but Zvonareva maintained her high level of tennis and kept her nerve – even when she had to let go of an apparent match point, because she didn't have a challenge to challenge a wrong call from a line judge.

Final score: 6-4 6-4. As for the money finalists took home: Zvonareva's share is $111,000, while Wozniacki's is almost twice less, $60,000.

Wozniacki will remain No.1, but this defeat will surely stay in her head. On the other hand, congrats to Zvonareva for wonderful performance and result in Doha. It was really nice to see her jumping, all smiles.

I have to use this opportunity of congratulating people to do a rather awkward thing – congratulate myself. Women's Tennis Blog was visited by 35,326 people yesterday!

And last but not least, I'd like to give a special thanks to Johan Rivera, a professional photographer based in Qatar, who was sending me loads of fresh and awesome pics from the tournament!

Second seed Vera Zvonareva won an entertaining three-set Qatar Ladies Opensemifinal against fifth seed Jelena Jankovic, in which the winner was uncertain until the last moment.

The beginning of the match was very misleading - just as at 40-0 it seemed that Jankovic would confidently win her first service game and give great resistance in the match, Zvonareva won five straight points and broke the Serb. The set finished pretty much as miserably for Jankovic, as she lost it win only one game won.

The situation prepared Jankovic's fans for a meltdown, but Jankovic offered a surprise, slowly coming back, and bit by bit outweighing her downs with ups, she won the second set 6-2. Read more »

Semifinals of the Qatar Ladies Open in Doha will feature a clash of two potentially weak players – Vera Zvonareva may be tired from her 3 hours and 10 minutes long battle against Daniela Hantuchova in the quarterfinals and Jelena Jankovic who sustained a left knee injury in her quarterfinal.

Zvonareva avenged her defeat to Hantuchova in the recent semifinals of the PTT Pataya Open, but not before an exhausting 7-5 6-7(5) 7-5 match. The second-seeded Zvonareva, who hit 48 winners to Hantuchova’s 29, rallied from 5-3 down in the deciding set. Hantuchova committed a total of 57 unforced errors. Read more »

Tsvetana Pironkova, Dominika Cibulkova, Vera Zvonareva, Daniela Hantuchova and Jelena Jankovic took part in a photo shoot for Oriflame in Tokyo and I’d say it was a success. They all look great individually, but also as a group. Plus, it's nice to see Vera taking the spotlight.

Haha fellow blogger Forty Deuce has a sharp eye, Cibulkova taller than Hantuchova? In real life Cibulkova is 20 cm shorter, that’s about 7.9 inches!