The International-level title in Luxembourg may not be a milestone in Venus Williams' career who had won 43 titles before the tournament, including seven Grand Slams, but in the circumstances of her injuries the past two years, the Sjogren's syndrome diagnosis and the title drought dating back to February 2010, the former world No.1 can be delighted with a comeback to the winner's circle.

To win her 44th career title, Venus beat Belinda Bencic in the first round, ninth seed Mona Barthel in the second, in the quarterfinals took out top seed Roberta Vinci, the only seed left at the tournament at that stage, fought for more than two and a half hours against Andrea Petkovic in the semis and finally beat Monica Niculescu, whose only two WTA finals came in Luxembourg and last year she was defeated by Victoria Azarenka in the title match.

Venus beat Niculescu 6-2 6-3, but the scoreline suggests an easier match than it really was. Venus had to stay focused and return the persistent shots of Niculescu for one hour and 23 minutes. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Both this week's tournaments are at the semifinal stage, and while at the Premier-level Moscow we're having three of the top four seeds in the semis, the International-level Luxembourg had only the top seed in the quarterfinals and now she's out too.

Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki, both in the shaky career periods, or in Ivanovic's case sort of an era, have made a nice progress to the big Moscow semifinals. The third-seeded Wozniacki took out defending champion Dominika Cibulkova, but only after serving for the match twice in the second set and both times getting broken at love to finally win in the third set, 6-2 6-7(1) 6-1. Wozniacki's semifinal opponent will be fellow Scandinavian Sofia Arvidsson, who had eliminated seed No.2 Marion Bartoli and now Maria Kirilenko, the only representative of Russia left in the draw, 6-3 6-3.

The other semifinal pairing is top seed Samantha Stosur vs. fourth seed Ana Ivanovic, in their first clash since 2009. Stosur beat Klara Zakopalova 6-1 6-3 in the quarterfinals, while Ivanovic beat fellow Serbian Vesna Dolonc 6-4 6-1 in their first career meeting. Read more »

At the Premier-level Kremlin Cup all the seeded players that were in action on Thursday moved into the quarterfinals in straight sets, wrapping up the second round. No.1 seed Samantha Stosur survived her first match of the tournament and tightly went past Alize Cornet 7-6(6) 7-5. Fourth seed Ana Ivanovic beat Russian qualifier Valeria Solovieva 6-1 6-4 and an interesting meeting is awaiting her with a new compatriot, Russian-born Vesna Dolonc who became Serbian in spring and has now reached her biggest career quarterfinal by winning all the games from 1-all in the first set against Simona Halep for a 6-1 6-0 victory. The encounter will be their first. Seventh seed Maria Kirilenko defeated Yaroslava Shvedova 7-5 6-4, after trailing 1-5 in the opening set.

Kremlin Cup quarterfinal matches: Samantha Stosur (1) vs. Klara Zakopalova, Ana Ivanovic (4) vs. Vesna Dolonc, Dominika Cibulkova (5) vs. Caroline Wozniacki (3) and Maria Kirilenko (7) vs. Sofia Arvidsson. Read more »

While the action is still heating up in Moscow, where top seeds are enjoying their first-round byes, the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open is in full swing.

Top seed and 2010 Luxembourg champion Roberta Vinci came through with a bizarre victory over Olga Govortsova, bageling the Belarusian in the first and third sets, but getting crushed in between. In the two sets Vinci won, Govortsova won six and nine points on her serve, while in the second set of the match Govortsova converted all three of her break opportunities and we got the score 6-0 2-6 6-0. Vinci is world No.15 in singles, while in doubles she's a fresh No.1, as of this week.

Second seed Julia Goerges stormed past Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-2 6-1, hitting nine aces and losing just nine points in eight service games. It's a perfect revenge for Goerges, who has recently suffered an agonizing 1-6 7-6(5) 6-2 loss to the Spaniard in Seoul, after being a set and a break up. Read more »

It was not meant to be that we get two first-time WTA titlists this weekend – Dominika Cibulkova did it, Monica Niculescu did not, and instead world No.3 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus comfortably won her eighth career title and third this year, after Miami and Marbella.

The top-seeded Azarenka had a straightforward 6-2 6-2 victory over Niculescu in final of the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open, but she had strategy prepared for the Romanian:

Monica has a unique game, a really different style. You really have to dig deep and be patient against her, but you also have to be aggressive. If you stand there and just dig the balls back, she can beat you. So I just tried to stay aggressive and fight for every point and I'm happy how it turned out.

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