Defending champion Venus Williams and first-time qualifier Victoria Azarenka secured berths at the prestigious Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Qatar.

"Qualifying for the year-end tournament is always a goal I set for myself at the beginning of the season and I am excited to have an opportunity yet again to compete with the best players in the world," said the world No.3 Williams, who has qualified for the ninth time in her career.

The world No.9 Azarenka said: "Winning my first Tour title and reaching the Top 10 for the first time in my career has really made my year and I couldn’t think of a better place to finish it than in Doha. Having an opportunity to travel to the year-end Championships is an accomplishment I am very proud of."

As the top eight singles players of the season are competing at the season-ending Championships, and as five have already qualified (Dinara Safina, Serena Williams, Elena Dementieva, Caroline Wozniacki and Svetlana Kuznetsova), there is just one more berth left to fill.

Additional info: Venus Williams has also qualified for the doubles competition at the 2009 Sony Ericsson Championships. (source: On the Baseline)

Jelena Jankovic and Victoria Azarenka were the only Top 8 seeds not to have fallen in the first two rounds of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo and on Wednesday they went through to the quarterfinals. Maria Sharapova also advanced to the last eight.

The seventh-seeded Jankovic won her third-round match when Elena Vesnina retired with a left thigh injury while trailing 6-1 3-0. The eighth-seeded Azarenka beat Lucie Safarova 7-5 6-4 in the last match of the day.

The 2005 Toray Pan Pacific Open champion Sharapova once again played a three-setter against fellow Russian Alisa Kleybanova, fighting back from a first-set loss to win 2-6 6-2 6-2. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

After having an amazing comeback to professional tennis at Cincinnati, Kim Clijsters has continued her winning ways.

Last week at the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open, former No.1 Clijsters had defeated two Top 20 players and one Top 10 player (Marion Bartoli, Patty Schnyder and Svetlana Kuznetsova), before being stopped by current No.1 Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals.

Today at the Rogers Cup, Safina was upset in the second round, while Clijsters’ comeback keeps rolling as the Belgian defeated qualifier Elena Baltacha in the opening round and has now upset ninth seed Victoria Azarenka 7-5 4-6 6-1 in the second round.

Clijsters’ next test will be last weekend's champion Jelena Jankovic, seeded fifth, who beat Patty Schnyder 7-5 6-4 to advance to the third round. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Loud screams of some women’s tennis players have been irritating their opponents, as well as a large portion of tennis fans, and the WTA chief Larry Scott has finally decided to consider that constant problem.

"There are rules in place," said Scott. "There are hindrance rules. Chair umpires are empowered to issue warnings, point penalties if there is a feeling that it's gamesmanship affecting play.

"But I don't think we're at that point of sort of changing the instructions to the chair umpires. It's just being monitored a little bit more closely right now. I haven't had players come to me in my six years as head of the WTA to say this is a competition issue. At least up 'til now, it has been more of an issue about the presentation of the sport, and it hasn't really been a competition issue."

Famous grunter herself, Victoria Azarenka, stood before all of those that can’t play without producing noise.

"People can do whatever they want but I hope they can respect all the players who grunt, which are about 70 percent of the whole tour," said Azarenka, who has just reached the fourth round of Wimbledon by beating Sorana Cirstea.

"I have been doing it since I was 10 years old. I wasn't really strong and that was what helped me to accelerate more, to put more power to the ball. I cannot change it, that's what helps me to play. I have to keep going with the thing that helps me play."

I have to say that I don’t find grunters annoying; they don’t distract me as a spectator. However, I have to use this opportunity to proclaim Michelle Larcher De Brito the queen of them all! (sources: ESPN, Reuters; photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic was quickly defeated by Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round of Roland Garros.

The ninth-seeded Azarenka stormed through the first set, breaking the eighth-seeded Ivanovic in the third and seventh games, and the Belorussian continued the trend up until leading 4-0 in the second set by winning seven games in a row. Then Ivanovic gave some resistance, but all her tries were short lived and she said goodbye on Azarenka’s first match point.

Azarenka's next opponent will be top seed Dinara Safina, who is still on fire, losing just one game to Aravane Rezai to advance to the last eight. Can it be more impressive? The last year’s finalist Safina lost only five games en route to the quarterfinals. (photo: Stephane Martinache)