The world No.1 Wozniacki survived a string of tough matches to reach the final for a chance to win her first Charleston title in three appearances (one of which was a runner-up finish in 2009 and last year’s hurtful injury retirement in the semifinals). On her first tournament on clay this year, Wozniacki survived Barbora Zahlavova Strycova in the third round after two tiebreaks, and followed it with another thriller, in the quarterfinals against Yanina Wickmayer. The Dane avoided an upset in the semis against Jelena Jankovic, beating the Serb 6-4 6-4, and in the title match she didn’t face much threat against surprise finalist Elena Vesnina and won 6-2 6-3.

Wozniacki has now added Charleston to her Dubai and Indian Wells 2011 titles. Her number of WTA titles now totals 15. As for the 56th-ranked Vesnina, the week will stay as a bright point in her career, she recorded upsets of Bethanie Mattek Sands, Julia Goerges, Peng Shuai, and most importantly, her first Top 5 win against Samantha Stosur.

In Spain, Victoria Azarenka continued her winning streak and followed her last week’s Sony Ericsson Open title with a title at the claycourt tournament of the Andalucia Tennis Experience. Her opponent in the final was a player which had not been expected to go that far. It was world No.138 Irina-Camelia Begu, who had lost in the first round in her only two previous WTA main draws and was a qualifier in Marbella. Still, the Romanian pulled off upsets over No.6 seed Klara Zakopalova and No.2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova. However, Azarenka ended her run and pretty easily defeated her 6-3 6-2 in the final.

Azarenka will make her Top 5 debut with this victory, while Begu will break into the Top 100. (photos: © Neal Trousdale, Tony)

All the quarterfinal matches at the Family Circle Cup have finished and we have our members of the final four: Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, Peng Shuai and Elena Vesnina.

World No.1 Wozniacki and 2007 Charleston champion Jankovic will clash in the first semifinal. The two high-profile players didn't go through the quarterfinals with the same amount of difficulty: Wozniacki came from behind in both the second and third set to beat sixth seed Yanina Wickmayer 4-6 6-4 6-4, while No.3 seed Jankovic rolled past 18-year-old American Christina McHale 6-2 6-0. Still, Jankovic stated that the match wasn’t as easy:

The score looked pretty easy today, but the match was a lot tougher. My opponent played really well. She has a great serve and a pretty big forehand. Maybe I was better on the important points, especially at the start of the match. I took two long games and from then on I had the momentum. But she plays very well and she's going to be a very good player in the future.

Jankovic leads Wozniacki 4-1 in head-to-heads, however, none of those meetings were played on clay. Also, it was Wozniacki who won their last match, and their only one this year.

The second semifinal will feature No.11 seed Peng Shuai and Elena Vesnina. Peng defeated Sania Mirza 2-6 6-2 6-2 in the quarterfinals, while Vesnina built on her third round upset over No.2 seed and defending champion Samantha Stosur with a 2-6 6-2 6-2 win over No.12 seed Julia Goerges. Peng and Vesnina have played each other five times, and Peng won 4 of those matches. (via WTA Tour, photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Second seed and last year's titlist Samantha Stosur crashed out of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, falling to unseeded Elena Vesnina 6-4 6-1 in the third round.

After a 4-2 lead in the first set, Stosur lost 10 of the next 11 games and the 56th-ranked Vesnina scored her first Top 10 victory since defeating Francesca Schiavone in Cincinnati last year. Vesnina said that the doubles title at the Premier-level Indian Wells with Sania Mirza lifted her confidence.

The 2010 French Open finalist Stosur had decided to skip Australia's upcoming Fed Cup tie against Ukraine to focus on the clay court warm-up for the Grand Slam. Well, her first WTA tournament on clay this season wasn't confidence-boosting.

Vesnina’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be No.12 seed Julia Goerges, who beat fifth seed Shahar Peer 6-2 6-3. Other Charleston quarterfinal pairs include (seeding is in brackets): Caroline Wozniacki (1) vs. Yanina Wickmayer (6), Jelena Jankovic (3) vs. Christina McHale, who upset tenth seed Daniela Hantuchova, and Peng Shuai (11) vs. Sania Mirza. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki had an easy second-round match at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, but the third round against the tricky opponent of Barbora Zahlavova Strycova was a big challenge for the Dane, who eventually prevailed with a 7-6(6) 7-6(9) score.

The match lasted more than two hours and a half. In the first set, despite establishing a 4-1 lead, Wozniacki played a tiebreak and saved a set point then. The second tiebreak was difficult too, as Wozniacki squandered four match points before defeating the 48th-ranked Zahlavova Strycova, seeded 15th at the Premier-level tournament.

Wozniacki's opponent in the quarterfinals will be sixth seed Yanina Wickmayer, who defeated Anna Tatishvili 6-4 7-5 in the third round. (via ESPN, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Top three seeds, Caroline Wozniacki, Samantha Stosur and Jelena Jankovic, were victorious in the second round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston.

Wozniacki faced no break points and won more than twice as many points as her 128th-ranked opponent, Irina Falconi, to win 6-1 6-1. Wozniacki played the final of Charleston in 2009, but last year's memories from the tournament are not pleasant, as the Dane injured her ankle in the semifinals and had to retire.

Defending champion Stosur defeated Patricia Mayr-Achleitner 6-1 6-2 in less than an hour, and Jankovic, also once a champion at Charleston, followed with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Tamira Paszek.

Jankovic said she was satisfied with her movement on clay and also took the spotlight to say a few words about her flowery Anta dress:

It's my new ANTA dress. I've been working with them for two or two and a half years now, and it's pretty cool. It's a nice color for spring and I have these flowers, so it's kind of like the spring blossom. I'm blossoming. I've gotten a lot of compliments for it, so I'm happy!

Wozniacki also sported a new fashion combination: the adidas by Stella McCartney orange tank and a pleated skirt. (via: WTA Tour, photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Russian world No.22 Nadia Petrova has been drawing a lot of attention with her Ellesse apparel – from her US Open stripes in more than all the colors of the rainbow, to the blue piece pictured above. The Ellesse designs are neither making Petrova look stylish and fashionable, nor flattering her figure in any way. The outfits look like a joke, and as ridiculous as they are, they look even more ridiculous on Petrova (Caroline Wozniacki would look somewhat better in them, for example, or maybe Jelena Jankovic).

Anyway, A Change of Ends chatted with Petrova at the All-Access Hour in Charleston and we learned that Petrova actually hates the clothes Ellesse prepares for her. The interview is hilarous!

Q. Recently you’ve made some pretty bold fash­ion choices on court. How much input…

A. Oh my god. That has noth­ing to do with me. Those are not my choices.

Q. That’s what I was won­der­ing, how much input do you have in your outfits?

A. This is what Ellesse sends me.

Q. So you don’t say, "this is what I want," you don’t meet with them? They just send them to you?

A. I don’t have a say. Um, I did actu­ally pro­vide them with some of my sketches because I know what really flat­ters my physique, my figure.

Q. Do you think they’ll take them into account?

A. Well they haven’t done it yet…and actu­ally this is my last year with them. So I don’t see why they would com­pro­mise. They do what they think are sell­ing in Japan and they are just send­ing it to me.

(photos: Johan Rivera, sydney-yokochin, sr_cranks)

"I feel so good whenever I come to Charleston, but I don't think I will be back as a player – maybe as a fan," said the 32-year-old Schnyder.

Fellow blogger, Diane, visits Charleston every year and here's how she explains the special love Charleston has for the Swiss player:

If you've never been to the Family Circle Cup, then it may be hard to appreciate how wild the crowd goes for Schnyder. Last year, there was quick, polite applause for Caroline Wozniacki when she beat Schnyder, then the crowd broke out in yells when Schnyder made her exit.

Interestingly, Scheepers lost to Schnyder last year in the first round of Charleston. Schnyder is still at the tournament, though, playing doubles with Shelby Rogers.

Schnyder's best results in Charleston were finals in 2002 and 2006. In 2002 she lost to Iva Majoli and in 2006 to Nadia Petrova. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

American Liezel Huber is now the only doubles player ranked No.1 on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. Huber had shared the top position with her doubles partner Cara Black of Zimbabwe since November 12, 2007, but for the first time since then, at the 2010 Family Circle Cup, the American played with another partner , and teamed up with Russian Nadia Petrova won the Charleston tournament. The points Huber won by taking the Family Circle Cup doubles title gave her the edge over Black, who is now ranked No.2.

Questions have been asked whether Huber and Black may have split up, but they are most likely still a team, although Huber would enjoy partnering with Petrova again.

"Cara and I are a team so I guess if there's the odd week we don't have a partner, we'll call each other or message each other," Huber said of Petrova. "It's been really fun." (via On the Baseline, photo: Stephane Martinache)

Samantha Stosur

Before we knew it the first set was over, the Australian won it in 18 minutes! The second set started in a similar fashion, with Stosur racing to a 3-0 lead. In the tenth game, Zvonareva woke up, won her first game, and soon followed it by winning two more games. However, the match remained in Stosur’s hands and she wrapped up victory on her first match point.

The fourth-seeded Stosur was a favorite on paper compared to the seventh-seeded Zvonareva. In addition, Stosur had entered the final leading their head-to-head series 4-2. However, Zvonareva had started the match with ten singles titles to her name, compared to Stosur’s one.

World No.11 Stosur earned $107,000 with the victory in the Family Circle Cup final, while world No.22 Zvonareva earned $55,500 for her runner-up position. (photo: sr_cranks)

The semifinal started off in favor of Zvonareva, who raced to a 3-0 lead. Last year’s Charleston finalist Wozniacki, after short consultations with her father, won her first game in the match, but shortly after, during one point in the seventh game, she fell and lay on the green clay in tears.  A medical timeout followed and even though Wozniacki returned to the court she very soon retired, at 5-2 in the first set.

The world No.2 Wozniacki should next play the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, if her injury heals in time.

Zvonareva's opponent in the final will be the winner of the match between Samantha Stosur and Daniela Hantuchova. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)