Israel’s Shahar Peer has continued to advance at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, thus seriously testing the tournaments safety measures. The player that wasn’t even allowed to compete in Dubai last year has now reached the semifinals and will play none other than defending champion and top seed Venus Williams, who raised her voice the most about Peer’s visa denial in 2009.

The first Israeli woman ever to compete in the United Arab Emirates led seed No.8 Li Na 7-5 3-0 when the Chinese player retired with a back injury in the quarterfinals. So far at the tournament the 22-year-old Peer has played only on limited-access outside courts at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships and that will remain the case for her semifinal. It could be interesting for you to check out insider blog of Shahar Peer’s coach Pablo Giacopelli highlighting his trainee’s run at the $2-million Dubai event.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams reached the semifinals by a solid 6-3 6-4 win over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who had defeated the American in their last two matches in the end of the last season, at Tokyo and Beijing.

The other semifinal will feature Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska. Fourth seed Azarenka routed No.12 seed Vera Zvonareva 6-1 6-3 to reach the final four. Seventh seed Radwanska ended the run of qualifier Regina Kulikova after battling for two hours and 17 minutes to win 3-6 6-4 6-3. (photo: Assaf Yekuel)

Unseeded Shahar Peer of Israel, who wasn’t even allowed to play at last year’s Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships due to visa denial, upset top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the third round of the tournament.

The world No.22 Peer beat seed No.13 Yanina Wickmayer in the first round, then last year's finalist Virginie Razzano in the second round, and has today defeated Wozniacki 6-2 7-5. Wozniacki, top-seeded at an event of this size for the first time in her career, faced break points in all of her 10 service games and was broken eight times. In the end she showed a lot of resistance, but Peer finally closed it out on her fourth match point.

Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also lost today. Her conqueror was world No.99 and fellow Russian Regina Kulikova, who had never before defeated a Top 30 player. After three hours and 16 minutes qualifier Kulikova, known as a marathon woman because one of her matches is the second longest women’s singles match in the Open Era, upset Kuznetsova 5-7 7-6(2) 6-4.

Third seed and reigning champion Venus Williams is the highest seed left in the $2,000,000 tournament. The American saw off Belorussian Olga Govortsova 7-5 6-0 in the third round.

Besides Wozniacki and Kuznetsova, three seeds fell in the third round on Wednesday: seed No.11 Marion Bartoli, No.6 Jelena Jankovic, and No.10 Flavia Pennetta. However, the three of them lost to other seeded players: No.8 Li Na, No.12 Vera Zvonareva and No.7 Agnieszka Radwanska. (photo: angela n.)

Ana Ivanovic will not be able to play the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships because of tendonitis in her shoulder.

The world No.23 had been aware of the injury for quite some time, but she aggravated it during the last week’s doubles match in the Fed Cup.

"I'm very frustrated about this. I've had so many small injuries these past few months and this is another," said Ivanovic, who can’t serve because of the pain in her shoulder.

The doctors have told Ivanovic that she should be fine in 10 days or so. (source: Ana Ivanovic's official website, photo: chascow)

World No.2 Dinara Safina still hasn't recovered from the back injury which has been bothering her for months, and the 23-year-old Russian will skip the $2,000,000 Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships which starts next week.

Because of the same injury, Safina withdrew from last year's Sony Ericsson Championships and this season's Australian Open.

Safina is hoping to return to competition in March, to play the $4.5-million BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. (source: Dinara Safina's official website, photo by chascow)

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour staged its second "Iconic" photo shoot during the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, and big tennis names such as Serena Williams, Dinara Safina, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Daniela Hantuchova glammed up to be photographed by world-renowned Lorenzo Aguis.

In the following behind-the-scenes video you can see the players posing and commenting on how they felt about modeling.

Sixth seed Venus Williams won her 40th career Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title with a 6-4 6-2 win over unseeded Virginie Razzano in the final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

Dating back to the 2007 season, Williams has won seven of her last eight finals appearances, and that sole final she lost was to Razzano at the 2007 Japan Open. Razzano then defeated Williams in three sets, by saving as much as three match points in the second set tiebreak. Today’s Williams’ victory could therefore be seen as a nice revenge.

Venus Williams, currently ranked 6th, will move back to the world’s Top 5, for the first time since August 2003.

Despite the loss, the world No.58 Razzano can be more than satisfied with her success at the tournament, since she experienced the best week of her career. Her victory over world No.2 Dinara Safina was her first victory over a Top 5 player; and then a few days later came a win over world No.5 Vera Zvonareva, which was the longest match of the tournament.

"I have to congratulate Virginie on such a great week – she beat so many Top 10 players and just played so well today. She really had a better week than I did," Williams said.

By reaching the finals Razzano is projected to move into the Top 40. (photo via Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships)

The United Arab Emirates denied Israeli player Shahar Peer a visa last week, so she wasn’t able to compete in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships. The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour has taken action in reference to Shahar Peer, Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Dubai Tournament to mend the situation and prevent it from happening again.

Here’s what, Larry Scott, Chairman & CEO of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, stated:

The actions taken today are intended to redress the wrongs suffered by Shahar Peer, who was victimized by an unjust policy of discrimination by the UAE. These actions are also intended to send a clear message that our Tour will not tolerate discrimination of any kind and that we will never allow this situation to happen again, in UAE or elsewhere. Thanks to the courage of Shahar, and all those individuals and organizations – including her fellow players – that supported her, the UAE has changed their policy and another barrier of discrimination has fallen.

Sony Ericsson WTA Tour actions in reference to Shahar Peer, Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Dubai Tournament:

• Shahar Peer Ranking Points: The awarding of 130 ranking points to Shahar Peer – an amount equal to the points that she earned during the same week in 2008 that she was unable to defend this past week in Dubai.

• Shahar Peer Prize Money: The awarding of US$44,250 to Shahar Peer – an amount equal to the average prize money that she earned per tournament (singles and doubles) in 2008. Read more »

Sixth seed Venus Williams advanced to the final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships with a three-set victory over sister Serena. Venus beat Serena 6-1 2-6 7-6 after winning a third set tiebreak 7-3.

The world No.1 and top seed Serena Williams was the first player to take a set off Venus Williams this year in Dubai. Winning the 19th meeting with her sister, Venus now leads their all-time series 10-9.

By reaching the semifinals, Venus Williams is projected to move into the Top 5 for the first time since the week of August 25, 2003.

In the title match of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, Venus will play a surprise finalist Virginie Razzano, who advanced by defeating Kaia Kanepi in the semifinals. Interestingly, the last time Razzano played Venus Williams, she saved three match points and won. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

World No.58 Virginie Razzano reached the biggest final of her career with a 6-1 6-2 victory over No.16 seed Kaia Kanepi at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.

The 25-year-old Razzano, who put out world number two Dinara Safina in the second round and followed up with fifth seed Vera Zvonareva, will relax with her boyfriend, a nice dinner and a glass of beer the night before facing Serena or Venus Williams for the title in Dubai.

The Frenchwoman has never played Serena and is 1-2 against Venus, having beaten the older Williams sister in three sets the last time they played, which was in 2007.

Razzano would like to play Serena this time: "Maybe it would be fun to try the new one. I've never played Serena so let's see who it would be." (source: M & C, photo: danlamouette)

Virginie Razzano, Kaia Kanepi, Venus Williams and Serena Williams reached the semifinals of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships on Thursday.

France’s Virginie Razzano, who upset world No.2 Dinara Safina in the second round, defeated fifth seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva 7-6(7) 7-5 to advance to the final four where she’ll face Estonian Kaia Kanepi.

Seed No.16 Kanepi is expected to become the first Estonian to break into the world's top 20 after following up her victory over Jelena Jankovic by ending qualifier Elena Vesnina’s run in Dubai, defeating her 6-3 7-5.

Sixth seed Venus Williams went past seed No.4 Elena Dementieva 6-3 6-3, while Venus’ younger sister Serena, ranked 1st in the world, beat Ana Ivanovic 6-4 6-4 in the last quarterfinal. Ivanovic leveled at 2-2 after being two games down in the first set, and was even leading 3-0 in the second, but Serena bettered the Serb to set up a semifinal with sister Venus. (photos: Stephane Martinache, Arijit Basak, danlamouette, Ralf Reinecke)