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.

Despite losing her first ever final, the 34th-ranked Niculescu can be more than satisfied, as the Luxembourg title match came after her first Premier-level semifinal in the beginning of October in Beijing where she defeated a local favorite, Top 10 player Li Na. This is the best month in her career and she is excited about next year, having analysed her improvement on videotaped matches.

To go all the way to the trophy and the prize of $37,000 Azarenka defeated Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-2 6-4 in the first round, Alberta Brianti 6-0 6-1 in the second round, Iveta Benesova 6-3 6-2 in the quarterfinals, sixth seed Julia Goerges 6-3 6-3 in the semis, and eventually Niculescu. As you can see, Azarenka never lost a set all week, and she didn't lose more than six games in a match.

Azarenka will now head to Istanbul, at the most prestigious stage for women's tennis. The other seven players are already in Turkey, all dressed up.

Additional info: Together with Venus Williams, Azarenka will play the Tennis Pon de Rock exhibition in Barbados on December 10-11. (photo: sr_cranks)

In the mentioned interview Ivanovic stated she would continue to play despite the inflammation in her back, which had probably been present for some time but became evident during the China Open. The Serb said she would exercise caution with the injury and we can assume she didn't change her mind about traveling to Bali after today's loss to the 93rd-ranked Keothavong.

Britain's Keothavong recorded her biggest victory in terms of opponent's ranking by beating the former world No.1 Ivanovic, currently world No.23. The peculiarity of their encounter, their first career meeting, was also that Ivanovic's new coach, Nigel Sears, used to coach Keothavong. The Brit was open about the situation:

It felt a little weird too seeing someone who has helped me so much with my tennis over the years sitting in the opposition's box.

Sears was also discussed in the mentioned interview. Ivanovic has been satisfied with their collaboration, and they are working on improving her game with more structure and consistence. Her goal in 2012 will be to get back to Top 10 and win another Grand Slam. (via Beyond the Baseline, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Unseeded Roberta Vinci broke seed No.8 and just one spot higher ranked Julia Goerges early in both sets and won the final of the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open 6-3 6-4, despite Goerges’ eight aces.

The crucial match for the world No.45 Vinci was in the second round against Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, when Vinci was very close to losing, but won the third-set tiebreaker 7-2. Goerges was the one who upset seed No.4 Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals.

Vinci’s first two titles came on clay, in Bogota and Barcelona. Goerges has one WTA singles title, the 2010 Bad Gastein. (via WTA Tour)

Ana Ivanovic's career is constantly going up and down, with longer down periods though. The 2008 French Open champion's revival suffered another setback as she lost in the quarterfinals of the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open.

It was in exactly an hour that fourth-seeded Ivanovic lost 6-3 6-1 to eighth seed Julia Goerges, whom she defeated last week en route to the Generali Ladies Linz title.

Nevertheless, Ivanovic will enjoy the fact that in these two weeks she achieved her longest winning streak in straight set matches - with seven successive straight set victories. In addition, she is projected to move from No.26 to No.24 in the rankings. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

The season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha have already lost two of the elite eighth singles qualifiers, Serena and Venus Williams, and two other, Jelena Jankovic and Elena Dementieva, are suffering fitness scares just a week before the $4.55 million tournament.

At the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, top seed Jankovic lost her opener to 268th-ranked Kazakh qualifier Zarina Diyas with a 6-1 6-2 score. The 2008 Kremlin Cup champion Jankovic complained of illness and difficult breathing and said she had been on antibiotics for about a week. In addition, Jankovic told the media she is soon to have a left eye surgery (she is just going to have something taken out from her eye).

The other tournament played this week is taking place in Luxembourg and it lost its top seed as well, as Dementieva retired ahead of her second round match against Polona Hercog. The reason for Dementieva’s withdrawal was an inflammation on her right foot.

All we and Doha can hope for is that the players recover in time and that the tournament doesn’t become the one of injured and tired stars. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Timea Bacsinszky

The 70th ranked Bacsinszky, unseeded in Luxembourg, wasn’t the favorite in the final. She was playing sixth seed Lisicki, ranked 42 places ahead of her in the rankings, who won Charleston and played Wimbledon quarterfinals this season.

In the semifinals, the 20-year-old Bacsinszky upset new member of the Top 20 Yanina Wickmayer.

Before this week's BGL Luxembourg Open, Bacsinszky's best career results on the Tour were four semifinals, two last year and two earlier this year.

Additional info: Bacsinszky launched her official website on Sunday. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Second seed Jankovic, who failed to defend her Kremlin Cup title, said she wasn’t saving herself for Doha which starts October 27, rather, she simply couldn’t cope with Kleybanova at the time.

Russian Kleybanova will take on Olga Govortsova in the semifinals.

At the BGL Luxembourg Open, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova lost her quarterfinal match against Shahar Peer of Israel in straight sets, 6-2 7-6(4).  Peer’s next opponent will be sixth seed Sabine Lisicki. In the quarters, the German defeated Patty Schnyder, who had taken out the 2009 US Open champion and five-time titlist in Luxembourg Kim Clijsters in the previous round. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Defending champion Jelena Jankovic moved into the second round of the Kremlin Cup by beating Yaroslava Shvedova 6-4 5-7 6-1. Kim Clijsters also won her opening-round match on Tuesday, defeating Meghann Shaughnessy 6-2 6-2 at the BGL Luxembourg Open.

Shvedova had upset Jankovic in the second round of the US Open in September, but the Serb avenged the defeat by winning five successive games in the third set to defeat the Kazakh in Moscow. Jankovic’s next opponent will be Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic.

At the BGL Luxembourg Open, the other tournament played this week, second seed Kim Clijsters won her eighth straight singles match and the first one since capturing the 2009 US Open title. It’s worth noting that the Belgian is a five-time champion of the Luxembourg tournament.

Reminder: At the Kremlin Cup, the second-seeded Jankovic is competing with Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska for the remaining spot in Doha. (photos via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

"You don't feel great after you've lost 7-6 in the third, but Elena has had a great tournament and played a great match today, and really deserved to win here," said Wozniacki after losing 2-6 6-4 7-6(4). "I knew it was going to be tough. I was fighting for every point. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to win the match today. But she played great."

The 27-year-old Russian also won her only other meeting with the Danish teenager, beating her on en route to winning gold medal at the Beijing Olympics.

With Dementieva winning her 11th career title, Wozniacki failed to win her fourth one.

BTW: Last season Ana Ivanovic was the winner of the FORTIS Championships Luxembourg, but this year the Serb played at Linz instead, and won the title today. (source: Sports Network, photo via Yahoo)

Second seed Chakvetadze finally scored victory, defeating world No.83 Mathilde Johansson 64 76(4) in the first round of the Luxembourg event.

Since losing in the final of New Haven in August, the 12th-ranked Chakvetadze has had a string of early losses, four times in the first round (US Open, Tokyo, Moscow and Zürich) and once in the second round (Beijing).

Chakvetadze will next face either 14-year-old British prodigy Laura Robson or Iveta Benesova against whom she scored the before-mentioned first-round win in Beijing. (via WTA Tour, photo: chakvetadze-anna.com)