It's not just a dream, Ana Ivanovic followed up her 6-1 6-3 victory over Elena Vesnina in the first round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia with another straight sets victory, 6-4 6-4 against ninth seed Victoria Azarenka.

This is the most noteworthy Ivanovic’s win this season, and actually her best result in who knows how many months. In fact, Ivanovic’s website states that it is her first victory over a Top 10 player in some 20 months. In addition, with the triumph over Azarenka in Rome the 22-year-old recorded her first two successive straight sets wins since June 2009.

Alright, enough with the comparison with things Ana would like to forget. Will the win over Viktoria prove to be a positive turning point for the continuation of Ana’s career? I certainly hope so, but the pressure is the last thing Ana needs, especially having in mind that another Top 10 player, sixth seed Elena Dementieva, is awaiting in the third round. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.1 Serena Williams received a wildcard for the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and played and won her first match since claiming her fifth Australian Open title back in January. Serena had a first-round bye in Rome and in the second round the American defeated Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland 7-6(2) 6-1, despite the long period without competitive tennis due to the knee injury.

The 20-year-old Bacsinszky was in command during the opening set, first with a 4-1 lead and then with a 5-3 lead. Bacsinszky even had three set points in the tenth game. However, Williams leveled at 5-5, and then forced a tiebreak which she won 7-2. That was pretty much the end of Bacsinszky.

Williams was victorious at the Italian Open in 2002 and followed it with her only Roland Garros title two weeks later.

Earlier in the day, Serena’s sister Venus took out another Swiss player from the tournament, world No.45 Patty Schynder. (photo: sr_cranks)

The 1999 Rome champion Venus Williams cruised to the third round of this year’s tournament with a 6-2 6-2 victory over Patty Schnyder. The fourth-ranked Williams, who had a bye in the first round, was playing her first match since a decisive loss to Kim Clijsters in the Sony Ericsson Open final in the beginning of March. The reason for Williams’ layoff was a knee problem, but the time out didn’t prevent the American from extending her career record against Schynder to 10-0.

Defending champion Dinara Safina, seeded third, is still under the radar because of her back injury and the fact that her second-round match in Rome was only her third since January. The Russian world No.3 came back from 4-0 down to level to 4-4 in the first set against Romanian world No.43 Alexandra Dulgheru, before quickly losing the initiative and the set. Safina managed to win the topsy-turvy second set in the tiebreak, before crushing in the decider. Final score: 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1.

I would like to mention one more result: seed No.7 Jelena Jankovic defeated good friend Bethanie Mattek-Sands 6-3 3-6 6-1 in the second round. (photos: sr_cranks)

Prior to her first match at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia Ana Ivanovic had lost nine of her last 11 matches, so the victory in the first round of the clay-court tournament in Rome is kind of a relief. Plus, it’s not just any kind of victory. The former world No.1 Ivanovic defeated Elena Vesnina of Russia, who is at No.32 ranked 26 spots higher than the Serb. And that’s not all, Ivanovic won in straight sets 6-1 6-3. And the icing on the cake is that Ivanovic's serve wasn’t broken at all during the encounter with Vesnina, even better, she didn’t even face break points.

It was the first career meeting between Ivanovic and Vesnina. Vesnina was a semifinalist in Ponte Vedra four weeks ago, and had won five of her last seven matches before losing to Ivanovic.

Ivanovic's opponent in the second round will be ninth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belorussia. They have played only once so far, last year at the French Open, and Azarenka won in straight sets. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Maria Kirilenko defeated fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 3-6 6-4 in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

After failing to defend her title at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix last week, and losing in the second round already, Kuznetsova continued with another early exit, in the same round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, the tournament at which she played the final last year. On top of that, the Internazionali BNL d’Italia is a key warm-up event for the French Open, which Kuznetsova won last season.

The fifth-seeded Kuznetsova lost her serve in the first game of today's match against unseeded Kirilenko and surrendered the first set because of many unforced errors. Kuznetsova won the second set and in the decider fought back from 4-1 down to level, but then dropped serve and let the match slip in the last game.

The world No.5 Kuznetsova hasn’t played one quarterfinal whole season. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

World No.1 Dinara Safina claimed her first title since climbing to the top of the rankings with a 6-3 6-2 victory over fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia in Rome.

Safina has won her first singles title in 2009, playing her fourth final of the season. Last week Safina and Kuznetsova faced each other in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix final, but Kuznetsova then won 6-4 6-3. It was Kuznetsova’s first title in seven final appearances and first trophy since 2007. Oops, her curse in title matches may be back already.

The world No.8 Kuznetsova is projected to climb to No.7 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Rankings for the week of May 11, 2009, while Safina will remain No.1.

Winning the Internazionali BNL d’Italia, Safina has won €620,000. Runner-up Kuznetsova has earned €310,000. (photos by our reader Elisa)

Magnificent Dinara Safina beat magnificent Venus Williams 6-7(3) 6-3 6-4 in a powerful battle of two hard-hitters and one of the best matches of the season, to reach the final of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia. The semifinal lasted three hours and nine minutes, and I believe that tells enough.

The fourth-seeded Williams won the first set after a one hour and 10 minutes long fight. Safina had come back from a break down to level at 5-5, but lost in the tiebreak (isn’t it horrible when a player recovers from a bad situation only to lose in a tiebreak?). Nevertheless, Safina took the match to the third set. The decider was full of breaks, with Williams always coming back from behind, but as I said, always coming back, Safina never kept the lead for long. Finally, at 5-4 Safina was serving for the match and after saving some break points, the Russian world No.1 finally converted her third match point to beat the American.

It’s a real joy to watch Safina play when she has consistency, and against a great opponent such as Venus Williams, there’s nothing more you can ask for.

In-form Svetlana Kuznetsova, who ended her title drought in Stuttgart last week, reached her second consecutive final by defeating sixth seed Victoria Azarenka 6-2 6-4 in the semifinals. The seventh-seeded Kuznetsova will be Safina’s opponent in an all-Russian final in Rome.

As for world No.5 Venus Williams, she will retake the No.3 ranking on May 11. She hasn't been ranked that high in six years. (photos: Tennis Channel)

Quarterfinal matches were taking place today in Rome, and most notably, top seed and world No.1 Dinara Safina survived one more three-setter, while finally-noticeable Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated two-time defending champion Jelena Jankovic.

World No.48 Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez had scored victories over Amelie Mauresmo, seed No.11 Marion Bartoli and seed No.8 Nadia Petrova prior to meeting Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals. The 26-year-old Spaniard even took the first set from Safina, and had a 3-1 lead in the second, but the master of recovery won the match 4-6 6-3 6-0.

Safina will play fourth seed Venus Williams in the semifinals. Williams advanced with her first two-setter at the tournament, beating tenth seed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1 6-2.

Seventh-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova has been in the shadow for quite some time, but her shiny days are back as last week she won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, and now she has reached the Internazionali BNL d’Italia semifinals taking out third seed Jelena Jankovic 6-1 7-6(3). After winning the first set, the Russian came through a nervy second-set tie break to avenge her defeat in the 2007 final.

Kuznetsova’s next opponent will be sixth seed Victoria Azarenka, who beat Kaia Kanepi 7-6(5) 6-3. (photo: Tennis Channel)

Ana Ivanovic’s preparations for the defense of her French Open title suffered a setback as she was defeated 6-1 3-6 6-4 by Agnieszka Radwanska in the third round. Interestingly, the Serb was leading 4-0 in the third set, but the tenth-seeded Radwanska won six games in a row to advance to the quarterfinals.

World number one and top seed Dinara Safina almost joined Ivanovic in saying goodbye to Rome, but she fought back from a double break down in the third set to beat Chinese 14th seed Zheng Jie 5-7 6-1 7-6 (3) in a thrilling third-round match.

Third seed Jelena Jankovic, who is aiming for her third consecutive Internazionali BNL d'Italia title, felt good on the court and was leading 6-1 1-0 when her opponent Kateryna Bondarenko retired with illness.

Svetlana Kuznetsova is continuing her good period with a 6-3 3-6 6-0 victory over Flavia Pennetta, while Patty Schnyder, who upset self-proclaimed world No.1 Serena Williams in the previous round, fell to seed No.16 Kaia Kanepi 6-3 6-0. Victoria Azarenka advanced by beating Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-2. Also, notice that world No.48 Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, who upset No.11 seed Marion Bartoli in the second round, today defeated No.8 seed Nadia Petrova 6-4 6-7(5) 6-4. The last to join the quarterfinals was Venus Williams who defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6-0 6-7(8) 6-4.

Quarterfinal pairs: Safina vs. Petrova, V. Williams vs. A. Radwanska, Kuznetsova vs. Jankovic, Azarenka vs. Kanepi. (photo: Tennis Channel)

Serena Williams, who on Monday stated that she was the real No.1 and not Dinara Safina, suffered a 6-2 2-6 6-1 defeat by Patty Schnyder in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia.

The world No.20 Schnyder was upset by Sabine Lisicki in the first round of Stuttgart last week, but this week in Rome she managed to keep her record on clay against Serena Williams perfect and improved it to 3-0.

The match between "the best in the world", as Williams called herself on Monday, and Patty Schynder was postponed until 11pm because of rain.

The world number two Williams has now lost her last three matches (Miami final, Marbella first round, and this latest one in Rome) – only the second time this has happened in her career. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)