Never before had Caroline Wozniacki won a match at either the Tokyo or Beijing tournament, but this year the Dane won both in back-to-back weeks, earning the No.1 ranking on the way.

The final of the China Open in Beijing was postponed to Monday due to rain and top-seeded Wozniacki continued to consolidate her new top ranking by defeating the new No.3 and US Open and Wimbledon finalist Vera Zvonareva 6-3 3-6 6-3. One break in the beginning of the deciding set gave Wozniacki a 2-0 lead and she held her serve and didn’t even give Zvonareva break opportunities until the winner’s trophy was hers. The China Open title earned Wozniacki 1000 points, as well as $775,500, which means she’s earned more than a million in prize money in two weeks.

The 20-year-old Wozniacki doesn’t seem afraid of success: "Everything is working for me at the moment. I've got to believe I can beat anyone. I feel in great shape and now I'm really looking forward to Doha."

Wozniacki has now won six Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles in 2010 and is the leader in the number of titles this season. Kim Clijsters follows her with four titles. Wozniacki is also leading other players in the number of matches won this season with 59. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Now we know half of eight players who will compete in the singles competition of the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, the tournament which will mark the end of the women’s tennis season.

Caroline Wozniacki was the first to qualify at the end of last month, and shortly after Vera Zvonareva, Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters joined. Williams and Clijsters have both won the tournament twice.

Russia’s Vera Zvonareva earned her place in the Sony Ericsson Championships thanks to her great 2010 season which featured back-to-back finals appearances in Grand Slams (Wimbledon and US Open), two Premier-level finals (Charleston and Montreal), title at the PTT Pattaya Open, and the achievement of reaching the career-high ranking of No.4 where she stands now. Zvonareva will make her third consecutive trip to Doha, which will be her fourth appearance at the prestigious season-ending event.

American world No.1 Serena Williams will have a chance to defend her title in Doha. It will be her seventh appearance at the WTA Championships. In 2010 Williams won two of the four greatest tennis tournaments – Australian Open and Wimbledon, and was a runner-up in Sydney.

Another Grand Slam winner qualified together with Williams, Belgian Kim Clijsters, who added the third US Open title to her resume this year. Clijsters hasn’t lost a final this year, and besides winning the US Open she won Brisbane, Miami, and Cincinnati. (photos: © Neal Trousdale, Emmett Anderson)

Many of you may have noticed that Kim Clijsters has fallen in the rankings, from No.3 to No.5, right after winning the US Open. On the other hand, the loser of the final Vera Zvonareva is now ranked higher, having risen from No.8 to No.4. Forty Deuce provided us with a wonderful insight into how this has happened and how it is actually perfectly fair and legitimate.

The rankings measure performance over the past 365 days, not just the current year and apparently not your whole career. Clijsters has had a better 2010 season than Zvonareva and it shows in the Race points, which sum up your points from the ongoing tennis season, that is from 2010 only. In the Race Clijsters is at No.3 ranked one spot higher than Zvonareva.

However, when we look at the last 365 days, Zvonareva has had better results. For example, Clijsters won the 2009 US Open and didn't play for the rest of the season, while Zvonareva earned some points in that period. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Kim Clijsters made last year’s US Open one of the most interesting ones as she won the title playing only her third tournament after a three-year-long break from tennis. The 27-year-old Belgian has now put icing on the cake by defending her title in the shortest women's final since officials started keeping track of match times in 1980 and the most one-sided final in 34 years, since Chris Evert demolished Evonne Goolagong in 1976.

The second-seeded Clijsters defeated Russian Vera Zvonareva, No.7 seed, 6-2 6-1 in just 60 minutes, without dropping even one service game. The match started with consistent play from both players as the score went to 2-2, but from then on Clijsters won seven straight games and barely looked back. Clijsters, who won her third US Open title, had words of consolation for Zvonareva who easily lost her second straight Grand Slam final: "Vera just keep it going, it will happen." Read more »

Top seed and last year’s runner-up Caroline Wozniacki was confidently progressing at the US Open, losing just 17 games en route to the semifinals, but her first Top 10 opponent at the tournament, seventh seed Vera Zvonareva, defeated her 6-4 6-3 and ended her 13-match winning streak.

The loss may have cost Wozniacki the number one ranking, a million-dollar US Open series bonus and of course a first Grand Slam title.

And that’s not all, Wozniacki will probably have to deal with proving herself again. It’s true that she displayed stunning form in her first five matches, but all the opponents were unseeded except for Maria Sharapova, who is not in her prime time.

"Most things were going in. I had chances, and I don't know, I made some mistakes today that I usually don't do," said the 20-year-old Wozniacki, who significantly increased her number of unforced errors, to 31, compared to previous matches.

"Yeah, it was a tough day for me in the office."

Zvonareva has reached the title match of a second straight Grand Slam, having played the Wimbledon final against Serena Williams. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Vera Zvonareva has joined Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the US Open with a 6-3 7-5 victory over Kaia Kanepi in the round of eight. Both Zvonareva and Kanepi were making their first appearance at that stage of the US Open.

The seventh-seeded Zvonareva attributed the win in the windy conditions in Arthur Ashe Stadium to her ability to find the right balance between "keeping the ball in play and going for your shots", as she said. Kanepi was apparently far from that balance, as she made 60 unforced.

In the beginning of the match the players traded breaks to make it 1-1, and in those first two games they made 12 unforced errors and only one winner. The final statistics of the match show a total of 88 unforced errors and only 28 winners, 18 scored by seed No.31 Kanepi.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki or Dominika Cibulkova will be Zvonareva’s opponent in the semifinals. (source: ESPN, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Rich from Down the Line has been busy visiting the pre-US Open events in New York, and the latest one he attended was the Taste of Tennis sponsored by BNP Paribas, where tennis stars joined a number of the world's top chefs for great food, a few cooking lessons and lots of partying all to benefit the New York Junior Tennis League.

Women’s tennis players spotted at the event were Victoria Azarenka, Christina McHale, Sorana Cirstea, Sabine Lisicki, Vera Zvonareva and Kim Clijsters. Rich interviewed most of them about tennis and food and we’re expecting him to share the video soon.

Update: As promised, here are Rich's interviews. Really professional, he did a great job.

The New York Times Magazine used various forms of media to show how power has changed women’s tennis. The feature including an article by Michael Kimmelman, extraordinary photos and awesome short slow motion videos by Dewey Nicks has attracted a lot of positive attention in the tennis world, so make sure to check it out.

The article mentions a number of women’s tennis players and their stories, the expansion of the WTA to the Chinese market, the increase in prize money and equal pay at Grand Slams, the difficulties tour pros (or "independent contractors" as Stacey Allaster, CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, likes to call them) can face in earning a living, the influence of Serena and Venus Williams, etc.

The slideshow and videos include Serena Willams, Jelena Jankovic, Kim Clijsters, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur and Vera Zvonareva. I love how Dementieva's grace accompanies the delicate music of the video. Also, it's a nice surprise to see Sam looking like a ballet dancer. (via Down the Line)

American Coco Vandeweghe stunned third seed Vera Zvonareva in the second round of the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego, even though the Russian world No.9 dominated the first set and lead by a break early in the second and third sets. Final score: 2-6 7-5 6-4.

The 18-year-old Vandeweghe, ranked 205th in the world, has recorded only her third victory on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and it’s already a Top 10 one. Her second main draw win on the Tour came in the first round of the San Diego tournament, against Argentina’s Gisela Dulko.

In the quarterfinals of the $700,000 Mercury Insurance Open Vandeweghe will play another Russian, two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who toughed it out against Sara Errani 6-1 6-7(5) 7-5 in the second round. (photos by John Bolan)

Serena Williams didn’t waste much sweat at this year’s Wimbledon to defend her title, win her 13th Grand Slam singles crown and her fourth at the grass court major.

The world No.1 and top seed reached the final with all straight-set victories (over Michelle Larcher De Brito, Anna Chakvetadze, Dominika Cibulkova, seed No.16 Maria Sharapova, seed No.9 Li Na and Petra Kvitova). In the championships match she kept the momentum, and absolutely unchallenged by first-time Grand Slam finalist Vera Zvonareva stormed to a 6-3 6-2 victory.

The first set of the final went with serve until the eighth game when Zvonareva’s nerves and weakness surfaced, reflected in a double fault, the Russian’s first and sole double fault of the set. Williams, of course, didn’t miss her chance, broke Zvonareva's serve and soon after won the whole set. The second set ended even faster, in just 31 minutes, with Williams clearly on her way to victory. The American faced no break points throughout the championships match and hit nine aces, bringing her total of aces at Wimbledon 2010 to 89.

Zvonareva can be sad for not bringing more to the final, but the sole fact of playing at that stage of a Grand Slam is an achievement of its own, having in mind all the career-threatening injuries she has overcome. In addition, Zvonareva will get back to Top 10 in the world rankings, precisely to No.9, and a prize of half a million pounds is not a bad consolation as well.

Serena has yet again proved that all the other players on the Tour are way behind her. In addition, she has passed legend Billie Jean King in overall majors won. (photos via Yahoo)