Unbeatable Serena Williams recorded her fifteenth match win in a row at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston and her third straight title at the tournament (having previously won it in 2008 and 2012 and not playing in between), by bouncing back from the loss of the first set and beating resurgent Jelena Jankovic in this year's final.

After surviving a game longer than 10 minutes and holding for 2-2 in the first set, Jankovic broke Serena at love and with great defense, precise shots and good serving she managed to steal the set from the powerful Serena, converting both the break opportunities she earned. The momentum then shifted big time, though, as Serena stormed through the second set. Jankovic sort of stopped the surge in the beginning of the third set, holding her serve in the opening game, but two on-the-line winners earned Serena a break in the third game and little by little and on the third match point, she marched on to the title and the $125,000 check. It's crucial to note that in the third set of the encounter, Jankovic had been on the court during the tournament more than twice as long as Serena.

It's redundant to say much about Serena. She's such a force in women's tennis right now that her titles are not even news. The 2013 Charleston title is the 49th in her career and third this season (after Brisbane and Miami). As for JJ, she can be proud of following up her Miami semifinals with the final in Charleston in which she even managed to take a set off Serena. In her post-match speech, Jankovic was satisfied and smiling and said that next time she can only hope that Serena will play a bit worse. True, that's the only way anyone can beat her. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

On a rainy day in Charleston, that allowed the completion of only half of the third-round matches, ninth seed Jelena Jankovic advanced to the quarterfinals with a comfortable 6-0 6-4 victory over Jessica Pegula, which came after two tight matches (almost three hours against Melanie Oudin in the first round and two match points saved in the second round against Caroline Garcia). The former world No.1 Jankovic is enjoying a revival of form these weeks, having now won 12 of her last 14 matches, which includes the title in Bogota and Miami semifinals.

In the Charleston quarterfinals Jankovic will play Eugenie Bouchard, who didn’t have to complete her third-round match, as third seed Samantha Stosur retired with a calf injury while trailing 1-6 0-2.

Another quarterfinal that was set on Thursday was also half determined without play, as Andrea Petkovic gave a walkover due to a calf injury to second seed Caroline Wozniacki, who will face Stefanie Voegele, the player who upset tenth seed Julia Goerges, 3-6 6-1 6-3.

The schedule on Friday will be very packed, as the remaining third-round matches and all the quarterfinals are set to take place. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

At the Family Circle Cup, after a dramatic 6-4 5-7 6-4 first-round victory over Melanie Oudin, in which Jelena Jankovic fell down and almost broke her back or her leg when her foot got stuck in the clay to finally win in a just five minutes less than three hours, on her fifth match point, having saved 17 of 22 break points in the match, the ninth-seeded Serb played another three-setter, this time against Caroline Garcia of France. There was another fall on clay for JJ and two match points against her, before she, after losing the first set 5-7, squeezed through the second-set tiebreak 12-10, and won the third set 6-3. Next for Jankovic will be Jessica Pegula, who upset eighth seed Mona Barthel 7-6(4) 6-1 to reach the third round.

In other Wednesday’s second-round matches, the highest seed in action, No.2 Caroline Wozniacki, lost just nine points in seven service games to defeat Silvia Soler-Espinosa 6-1 6-1 and will next play Andrea Petkovic. Third seed Samantha Stosur saved all five break points to beat Marina Erakovic 6-1 6-2 and is awaiting Eugene Bouchard, who eliminated friend Laura Robson in the second round. Besides the 16th-seeded Robson, the only other seed that lost on Wednesday was Sabine Lisicki, who fell to Mallory Burdette 3-6 7-6(5) 7-5. Venus Williams, Lucie Safarova and Julia Goerges also advanced. (via Women Who Serve)

A month ago, numerous reputable news sources reported that Russian Nadia Petrova was in the process of obtaining the US citizenship. The Russian lives in Florida, and we all believed what we read. During last week's Family Circle Cup in Charleston, straight from the horse's month we heard that the reports were not based on facts. Here's what Petrova said at the tournament after her victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the third round.

Interviewer: Nadia, I understand you've applied to be a citizen of this country?

Nadia Petrova: Citizen, no. I just applied for a green card. That's all. I don't even have it. So I don't know what people talk about it.

The 29-year-old Petrova confirmed that she will continue to reside in Florida. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Fifth seed Serena Williams was ruthless in the Family Circle Cup final against ninth seed Lucie Safarova, ousting the Czech 6-0 6-1 in 58 minutes to win her landmark 40th WTA title.

Williams was equally merciless against second-seeded Sam Stosur in yesterday's semi, beating the Australian 6-1 6-1. Let me remind you, Williams' last final prior to Charleston was the 2011 US Open, which she lost to Stosur 6-2 6-3.

Beware of Serena! Her performance at Charleston was awe-inspiring and she won the title whilst losing just 15 games all week. In addition, now she'll move from No.10 to No.9 in the rankings, and in the upcoming weeks she doesn't have points to defend until the grasscourt season, and nothing substantial to defend until the summer hardcourt season.

The Charleston title makes Serena only the third active played to win 40 or more WTA titles – Venus Williams has won 43 and Kim Clijsters 41. (photo: Neal Trousdale)

Who would have thought that the the losers of both the semifinals of a Premier-level tournament in Charleston would together win a total of only two games! In the first semifinal second-seeded Samantha Stosur lost to Serena Williams 6-1 6-1 in less than an hour, while in the next semi Lucie Safarova double bageled Polona Hercog in an hour and four minutes.

Hercog took out Kimiko Date-Krumm in the first round, Varvara Lepchenko in the second, seed No.3 Marion Bartoli in the third, seed No.14 Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals, but 31 unforced error in the final four against Safarova dragged the Slovenian to defeat. According to the Eurosport commentator, this is  the fourth time a played lost 6-0 6-0 this year.

Serena Williams and Lucie Safarova have played each other four times, and the American won all those encounters. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Two Williams sisters was too big a chunk for Sam Stosur to swallow. The Australian seed No.2 was solid and precise yesterday against Venus in the quarterfinals of Charleston, but the younger Williams was merciless, cutting today's semifinal short by a routine 6-1 6-1 victory in 59 minutes.

Maybe Stosur was exhausted from the two three-setters she played on Friday, but whatever the reason may be, the 2008 Charleston champion Serena held her serve throughout the match, hit 7 aces to Stosur's 3, 29 winners to Stosur's 7, while committing only 6 unforced errors more, 15 to 9.

Serena's opponent in the final will be the winner of the match between Polona Hercog and Lucie Safarova, which is currently in progress. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

In all the four previous meetings of Venus Williams and Samantha Stosur, Williams was the winner in straight sets, while Stosur's maximum was to win four games in a set, which happened only on one occasion. Today in the quarterfinals of the Family Circle Cup, Stosur quickly equaled those four games in a set, and then straightforwardly won the opening set, before working her way to a 6-3 4-6 6-3 victory in two hours and 41 mintutes. Stosur's triumph means that there will be no all-Williams showdown in the semis.

The victory is even bigger for Stosur as she played another match today before the quarterfinal, another three-setter, against Galina Voskoboeva, which was continued from 4-2 15-0 in the first set. Stosur won 6-3 4-6 6-2 in two hours and two minutes.

Stosur pretty comfortably won the first set against Williams, by breaking the American in the sixth game, for 4-2, and not having any break points against herself in the entire set. Read more »