Has the No.1 jinx already transferred to Serena Williams? Just one round after securing to be ranked No.1 in the next week’s rankings the American lost to Nadia Petrova 6-4 3-6 7-6(5).

The 13th-seeded Petrova and second-seeded Williams each won a set of their third-round match and in the decider they both held serve until tiebreak, having each faced only one break point in that final set. Petrova raced to a 5-0 lead in the tiebreak and although Williams showed resistance the Russian managed to close it out.

Before this encounter, Petrova had defeated Williams only once in their seven previous meetings. (photo courtesy of Women Who Serve)

On Tuesday Maria Sharapova had played a three-hour match against ninth seed Victoria Azarenka and recovered from a 5-2 down in the third set to win the match. That marathon took its toll, and to the delight of the home crowd China's Peng Shuai followed up her upset of defending champion Jelena Jankovic in the second round with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Maria Sharapova in the third.

World No.53 Peng got to lead 6-2 5-2 against Sharapova, and although the Russian almost pulled off one of her trademark comebacks, closing to 6-2 5-4 and getting to deuce, there was no more fuel in her tank and she fell on Peng's third match point.

"My energy level was not where it should have been … there've been occasions where I've been able to fight back, today was just not one of those days unfortunately," said the world No.15 Sharapova, who claimed her first title since returning from injury in Tokyo last weekend.

"She played really solid and really aggressive and did all the right things to win the match." (source: Reuters, photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

World No.2 Serena Williams is guaranteed to return to the top of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings, having defeated Ekatarina Makarova in the second round of the China Open.

Serena had one condition to fulfill in order to overtake Dinara Safina – to go further at the China Open than the Russian. It proved to be an easy task as Safina lost in the second round to No.226-ranked Zhang Shuai, who became the lowest-ranked player ever to defeat a world No.1.

Here’s you can watch an interview with Serena Williams after her 6-3 6-2 victory over Makarova.

Safina is spending her 25th week at No.1. Williams will take her place next Monday and begin her 73rd career week as a top-ranked player. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Top seed Dinara Safina and third seed Venus Williams lost in the second round of the China Open, with the Russian making history, in a bad way though.

The world No.1 Safina, who is currently spending her 25th week on top of the rankings, lost to No.226-ranked Zhang Shuai 7-5 7-6(5), which is the biggest on-paper upset in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history. Ouch!

Zhang is now the lowest-ranked player ever to beat a reigning No.1, bettering the No.188 ranking held by Julie Coin as she upset Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 US Open.

The 20-year-old Zhang has won 12 ITF titles, but has never before this week’s China Open won a main draw match on Tour.

"It's very disappointing, I'd like to take a break now. I'm very upset with myself," said Safina, who had an early break in both sets and a set point in the second set.

Last week Safina also lost in the second round of a tournament, falling to 132nd-ranked Chang Kai-Chen at the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

In addition, Safina will lose the No.1 ranking to Serena Williams, if Serena wins her match against Ekaterina Makarova on Tuesday.

The other upset of the day happened when world No.39 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova scored her second straight win over Venus Williams. The 18-year-old Pavlyuchenkova defeated the seven-time Grand Slam champion last week at the Toray Pan Pacific Open, and today at the China Open the Russian took out the world No.3 American with a score 3-6 6-1 6-4, in the second round as well. (via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Jean-Sebastien Marceau)

Serena Williams has another chance to overtake Dinara Safina at the top of the rankings. The one who goes further at the ongoing China Open will be No.1 after the tournament.

Both the No.1 Safina and the No.2 Williams progressed to the second round of the $4.5-million, Premier-level event. Safina defeated Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-4, while Williams followed with a 7-5 6-4 victory over Kaia Kanepi.

If Serena doesn’t do it this time, I think it would be fair for her and the rest of the world to completely stop discussing Dinara and her top ranking. Am I right? (photos: our reader Jacob)

Former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic has ended her unsuccessful 2009 season, withdrawing from the China Open due to an upper respiratory tract infection. Ana talks about the season behind her and here are some parts of her latest diary entry.

I guess having to withdraw from Beijing is an appropriate ending to a very disappointing season.

I have gone through a lot of training and physical changes over the past few months, which have mostly remained private until now… My body is quite fragile at the moment, because I over-trained during the first part of the year. This was, I think, what caused me to have many small injuries this season.

Instead of being patient and accepting that my best form was almost impossible due to physical limitations, I was always over-thinking things, and I never dealt with it very well.

On the positive side, I am still No.11 in the world. I have no clue how I am ranked so highly, but to look on the bright side, I can't play any worse than I did this year and I'm still in the top 20!

Despite my disappointments there is not a single doubt in my mind that I will reach the top again and win Grand Slams.

(photo: Ralf Reinecke)

World No.12 Anna Chakvetadze took some time away from the courts during her visit to Beijing for the China Open to learn something about the country’s imperial past. The Russian visited the Forbidden City which consists of 800 buildings. Enjoy the short video with Anna Chakvetadze!

Eighth-seeded Chakvetadze fell in the second round of the China Open to Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-2.

Seed number one Jelena Jankovic won her second title of the 2008 season with a 6-3 6-2 victory over fourth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova at the China Open in Beijing.

The 23-year-old Kuznetsova failed to win her first title of the year. The Russian has lost ten of her last eleven singles finals. She lost all her finals since the beginning of 2007, except for the one in New Haven last August. Kuznetsova was defeated in five finals in 2007 and five so far in 2008.

Jankovic, who was a runner-up last year at the China Open, collected $95,500 with today’s victory at the Tier II event. Being the finalist, Kuznetsova earned $51,000. (photo via Yahoo)

Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Zheng Jie in a tight two-setter to set up a clash with top seed Jelena Jankovic in the final of the $600,000 China Open in Beijing.

The Russian fourth seed, last week's runner-up in Tokyo, defeated Chinese crowd favorite Zheng Jie 7-6 (3) 7-5. Wimbledon semifinalist Zheng reached the final four with a triumph over second-seeded Ana Ivanovic.

Kuznetsova leads Jankovic 4-2 in their head-to-head. This year they have met twice, in Dubai and Tokyo, and both times the Russian was victorious.

The 2008 China Open titlist will earn $95,500. (photo: Getty Images)

Well, well, this seems to be more than just a rumor. Men’s tennis player Fernando Verdasco from Spain, ranked 15th in the world, seems to be in love with women’s tennis beauty Ana Ivanovic. Read more »