Venus Williams defended her Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships crown by beating Victoria Azarenka of Belorussia 6-3 7-5 in the final.

The third-seeded Williams benefited from the sole break of Azarenka’s serve in the seventh game to take the first set 6-3. The American continued well and with a 3-1 lead in the second set she seemed to be cruising to victory. However, the fourth-seeded Azarenka then won three successive games. Still, Williams later broke again to establish a 6-5 lead and held her serve to win the tournament.

World No.5 Venus Williams currently possesses the largest number of WTA singles titles among active women’s tennis players. She has now won her 42th, while Justine Henin comes in second with 41.

Last year in Dubai Williams defended the rights of Shahar Peer, the Israeli who was not given a visa to come to the UAE, and this year the American seven-time Grand Slam champion had the honor of beating that same Shahar Peer in the semifinals and later even claiming second straight title at the $2-million tournament. It's also worth mentioning that Peer will return to the Top 20. (photo via Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships)

Venus Williams reached the final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships by defeating surprise semifinalist Shahar Peer in the modest surroundings of Court Two, the court of choice because of safety reasons.

Third-seeded Williams defeated Peer 6-1 6-4 amid tight security that surrounded the Israeli all week. Even though Peer’s appearance in Dubai had to be accompanied by her being kept separate from other players, she enjoyed one of the most successful tournaments of her career.

"It was a different experience but a nice one," said world No.22 Peer who upset three seeds on her way to the semis. "I'm sure I will remember this tournament for the rest of my life."

Reigning champion Venus Williams will play fourth seed Victoria Azarenka in the final, as the Belorussian defeated seed No.7 Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3 6-4 in the final four. Williams and Azarenka have met only once so far – two years ago at the Beijing Olympics and the American won that match. (photo by our reader Bobby)

Serbian former world No.1 tennis player Jelena Jankovic has decided to move to Dubai and make it her home base.

"I love so many things about this place," said the world No.8 who has lost in the third round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championship this week. "The people are good and the place is lovely as I can step out anytime and practice."

Does anyone know what happened to JJ's dream house in San Diego? I remember the talks about her building it, but I haven't heard of it being finished or anything, and now she's moving to Dubai. (source: ESPN via Forty Deuce)

Israel’s Shahar Peer has continued to advance at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, thus seriously testing the tournaments safety measures. The player that wasn’t even allowed to compete in Dubai last year has now reached the semifinals and will play none other than defending champion and top seed Venus Williams, who raised her voice the most about Peer’s visa denial in 2009.

The first Israeli woman ever to compete in the United Arab Emirates led seed No.8 Li Na 7-5 3-0 when the Chinese player retired with a back injury in the quarterfinals. So far at the tournament the 22-year-old Peer has played only on limited-access outside courts at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships and that will remain the case for her semifinal. It could be interesting for you to check out insider blog of Shahar Peer’s coach Pablo Giacopelli highlighting his trainee’s run at the $2-million Dubai event.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion Williams reached the semifinals by a solid 6-3 6-4 win over Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who had defeated the American in their last two matches in the end of the last season, at Tokyo and Beijing.

The other semifinal will feature Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska. Fourth seed Azarenka routed No.12 seed Vera Zvonareva 6-1 6-3 to reach the final four. Seventh seed Radwanska ended the run of qualifier Regina Kulikova after battling for two hours and 17 minutes to win 3-6 6-4 6-3. (photo: Assaf Yekuel)

Unseeded Shahar Peer of Israel, who wasn’t even allowed to play at last year’s Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships due to visa denial, upset top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the third round of the tournament.

The world No.22 Peer beat seed No.13 Yanina Wickmayer in the first round, then last year's finalist Virginie Razzano in the second round, and has today defeated Wozniacki 6-2 7-5. Wozniacki, top-seeded at an event of this size for the first time in her career, faced break points in all of her 10 service games and was broken eight times. In the end she showed a lot of resistance, but Peer finally closed it out on her fourth match point.

Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also lost today. Her conqueror was world No.99 and fellow Russian Regina Kulikova, who had never before defeated a Top 30 player. After three hours and 16 minutes qualifier Kulikova, known as a marathon woman because one of her matches is the second longest women’s singles match in the Open Era, upset Kuznetsova 5-7 7-6(2) 6-4.

Third seed and reigning champion Venus Williams is the highest seed left in the $2,000,000 tournament. The American saw off Belorussian Olga Govortsova 7-5 6-0 in the third round.

Besides Wozniacki and Kuznetsova, three seeds fell in the third round on Wednesday: seed No.11 Marion Bartoli, No.6 Jelena Jankovic, and No.10 Flavia Pennetta. However, the three of them lost to other seeded players: No.8 Li Na, No.12 Vera Zvonareva and No.7 Agnieszka Radwanska. (photo: angela n.)