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)