Victoria Azarenka has become the second Belorussian player to enter the Top 10 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings, after Natasha Zvereva in the 1980s.

The 19-year-old Azarenka reached the semifinals at the BNP Paribas Open in singles, while in doubles she won the title with Russian Vera Zvonareva, who was the eventual singles champion. These results enabled Azarenka to become a Top 10 singles player for the first time. Simultaneously, winning her second doubles title of the year, Azarenka climbed from No.18 to No.10 in doubles.

The Belorussian is the only teenage player within the Top 10. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

After claiming the 2009 Indian Wells doubles title with Victoria Azarenka, Vera Zvonareva went on to win in singles too, defeating defending champion Ana Ivanovic 7-6(5) 6-2 in the Sunday’s final.

The fifth-seeded Ivanovic started both sets with a 2-0 lead. In the first set Zvonareva won four games in a row to give herself a 4-2 lead, then Ivanovic came back and was even close to taking the first set, but lost in the tiebreak, while in the second the fourth-seeded Zvonareva won all the games after Ivanovic’s initial lead.

Russia's Zvonareva has won her ninth career singles title on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, and second this season.

Zvonareva is projected to replace Venus Williams at the No.5 spot when the rankings are released on Monday. Ivanovic will remain world No.7. (photo via Yahoo)

Ana Ivanovic is now one step away from defending her Indian Wells title, but she will have to overcome red-hot Vera Zvonareva.

The fourth-seeded Zvonareva reached the final by beating doubles partner Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-3. The Russian didn’t drop serve once during the semifinal, and broke the eighth-seeded Azarenka a total of three times.

"It wasn't much of an experience. It was just a wasted match," Azarenka said. "I didn't play the game I needed to play. It was only unforced errors for me. Vera played well, but I didn't do even 10% of my game."

Despite the loss, Azarenka is projected to debut in the Top 10 when the new rankings are released on Monday.

Ivanovic, the fifth seed, put an end to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s dream run, defeating the unseeded 17-year-old 6-2 6-3. Pavlyuchenkova scored her first two Top 10 wins at this year’s Indian Wells by upsetting Jelena Jankovic and Agnieszka Radwanska, but couldn’t get past the defending champion.

The eighth career meeting between Zvonareva and Ivanovic is scheduled for Sunday. (source and photos: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic reached the semifinals of the BNP Paribas Open without playing, as her opponent Sybille Bammer withdrew before their match due to a left shoulder injury.

Serbian fifth seed Ivanovic will next meet Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.  The Russian teenager upset seventh-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 7-6(8) 6-4 in the quarters and reached her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour semifinal. The world No.42 Pavlyuchenkova, who had eliminated second seed Jelena Jankovic in the second round, saved two set points down 6-5 and 7-6 in the tiebreak to take the all-important opening set.

The first career meeting of Ivanovic and Pavlyuchenkova, as well as the other semifinal featuring No.4 seed Vera Zvonareva and No.8 seed Victoria Azarenka, will take place on Friday. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: ivanovic-ana.com)

Dinara Safina had a chance of overtaking Serena Williams’ No.1 ranking. Had Safina reached the finals at Indian Wells she would have climbed to the top of the rankings, but the Russian lost to Victoria Azarenka 6-7 6-1 6-3 in the quarterfinals.

Safina is aware that the ranking will come with improved game, and she believes the key is to return her aggressiveness on court.

I'm not thinking about this [the ranking] because if it comes, it comes. If I play like this, definitely it will not come. I played three rounds before and I was struggling with every player that I'm playing. With everyone I played, they were either serving for the set, or had set points. I have to finally start playing my game, because I'm not playing it. I just want for the next tournament (in Miami next week) to finally play my game and play like I've been playing like last year. Since Australia, I'm playing defensive, and it's not me. I just want to play aggressive.

(source: Reuters, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Defending champion Ana Ivanovic beat Argentina's Gisela Dulko 6-3 6-3 to advance at the BNP Paribas Open.

The Serbian fifth seed didn’t score a too convincing victory, but was good enough to advance to the fourth round where she’ll face Italian 12th seed Flavia Pennetta.

"When it was very close on both sets I stepped up a little bit more and I just went for my shots and followed my instincts. I played really well," Ivanovic told reporters.

Ivanovic’s new coach, Craig Kardon, is definitely helping her game.

"I had lots of doubts about my game in the past six months," said the world No.7. "So finally I feel like I have strategy and also a plan in place again. It gives me a lot of security and confidence." (source: Reuters, photo: ivanovic-ana.com)

A reader suggested an interesting article from Los Angeles Times, which analyzes how much Serena and Venus Williams are compromising because of not entering the BNP Paribas Open, and also how much Maria Sharapova is missing for playing doubles only. Here we’ll focus on world No.1 Serena Williams only.

The annual prize money is increased from $63.6 to $84.4 million. The Top 10 players who participate in all four premier tournaments, one of which is the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, will share a bonus pool, worth $1.9 million. Player with season-ending No.1 ranking will earn $400,000.

However, if you don't play in one of the four events, for whatever reason, you get no money and no ranking points. Plus, you will be fined for skipping the tournament unless you participate in a tour-mandated public relations event. Were Serena Williams to skip her makeup duty, she will be fined $75,000.

Here’s how LA Times sums it up mathematically:

If Serena finishes No. 1, her first loss would be the $400,000 from the bonus pool. If she decides to ignore the makeup appearance, that would be another $75,000. By not playing, she misses a chance at first-place money here of $700,000. Were she to team with Venus and win the doubles, that would be $118,500, her half of $237,000. That's $1,293,500.

Then, there are endorsements. One WTA official speculated that Serena's Nike contract, just as one example, "might have as much as two million dollars of incentive money for ending up No. 1." Winning at Indian Wells is worth 1,000 ranking points. Serena, who now leads No.2 Dinara Safina by 422, gets zero.

So, conceivably, Serena's rejection of Indian Wells could have cost her more than $3 million, or about 13% of her career tennis winnings of $23 million.

Well, it's great when you have so much money to lose. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Jelena Jankovic’s bad results are becoming worrying. We know she’s struggling to bring her form back, but this latest second-round loss at the BNP Paribas Open is only deepening the despair.

The second-seeded Jankovic was upset by young Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4 6-4. The 17-year-old Pavlyuchenkova, ranked 42th in the world, scored her first Top 10 victory.

"Last year I finished No.1 in the world and I was playing great tennis, especially at the end of the year. This year I'm not the same player," Jankovic said. "I'm struggling to find my game and the confidence on the court. She played well. Obviously she was the better player. But I'm not at my level."

Third seed Elena Dementieva was also stunned, but her loss is much less worrying than Jankovic’s. Dementieva has won two WTA titles this year and overall has been amazing in 2009, so we can understand her tiredness.

Dementieva was erratic and hit 14 double faults before falling to qualifier Petra Cetkovska 7-6(2) 2-6 6-1 in the second round of Indian Wells.

"That was probably my worst match in a long time," Dementieva said. "Every time you lose you're trying to learn something. I feel I shouldn't have come here because I played a lot of matches at the beginning of the year, and I probably needed more time off to recover."

Ana Ivanovic didn’t suffer the same faith as Jankovic and Dementieva. After losing the first three games of the match, the fifth seed won 12 of the next 16 games and beat Belarusian qualifier Anastasiya Yakimova, 6-4 6-3. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)