Past week featured three $235,000 WTA events and we got two first-time titlists and one player who defended her title.

At the WTA Brasil Tennis Cup in Florianopolis, world No.75 Monica Niculescu survived a triple match point in the first round against Anabel Medina Garrigues and another marathon, 6-2 4-6 6-4, in the final against Olga Puchkova, who had taken out top seed Venus Williams in the semis, to win her first title in her third final, after two finals in Luxembourg in the last two years.

At the BMW Malaysian Open in Kuala Lumpur, Czech Karolina Pliskova, who had never been past the quarterfinals, after four straight-set victories battled back from a set down in the final to beat Bethanie Mattek Sands, who had taken out second seed and defending champion Hsieh Su-Wei and No.3 seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Final score: 1-6 7-5 6-3. Pliskova is now in the Top 100 for the first time.

At the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL in Acapulco, defending champion and top seed Sara Errani won the first eight games of the match and fought through the next eight to beat second seed Carla Suarez Navarro 6-0 6-4. The win is the Italian’s 18th this year and puts her on the WTA pedestal for the most wins this season, ahead of Agnieszka Radwanska who has 17. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Rain was constantly messing up the schedule of the BMW Malaysian Open, including the final matches of the tournament, when Petra Martic was forced to play both her semifinal and final in one day. The Croatian had no energy to complete the title match and Hsieh Su-Wei from Chinese Taipei won her first WTA title when her opponent retired in the third set, at 2-6 7-5 4-1.

Not only that Martic played two matches in one day, but her semifinal against second seed Jelena Jankovic lasted more than three hours and finished with the score 6-7(5) 7-5 7-6(5), with Martic saving a match point on the way. In addition, the final against the unseeded Hsieh was taken to the third set as well, and Martic retired after an hour and 45 minutes. It was Martic who won the first set 6-2 and led 4-2 in the second, before tiredness took its toll.

En route to the Kuala Lumpur title, Hsieh defeated Anne Keothavong in the first round, Casey Dellacqua in the second, then had a walkover when top seed Agnieszka Radwanska withdrew, then beat Eleni Daniilidou and in the end Petra Martic succumbed to exhaustion.

The Malaysian Open final was the first WTA title match for both Martic and Hsieh. The 26-year-old Hsieh, ranked 123rd, had only two semifinals before this one, one more than ten years ago, in 2001, and one recently at Pattaya. However, in doubles she won eight WTA titles and was ranked as high as No.9. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Jelena Jankovic, second seed and wildcard at the BMW Malaysian Open, is into the semifinals of the Kuala Lumpur tournament without even a drop of sweat, as her opponent Ayumi Morita granted her a walkover due to a right shoulder injury. Another lucky circumstance for Jankovic is that the event’s top seed Agnieszka Radwanska is also out, with a right elbow injury.

However, it was not all an easy road for the Serb in Malaysia. In the first round against Caroline Garcia of France, Jankovic played for almost three hours, saving a set point in the first set tiebreak and three match points in the third set to finally win 7-6(7) 4-6 7-6(2). And all that happened on Jankovic’s 27th birthday.

Petra Martic of Croatia will be Jankovic’s opponent in the semifinals. We already know one finalist – Hsieh Su-Wei advanced to the title match with a 6-0 4-6 6-1 win over Eleni Daniilidou. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

Yesterday world No.5 Agnieszka Radwanska won two matches in straight sets and advanced to the quarterfinals of the BMW Malaysian Open, which was only days after her title run in Dubai, but it seems that too much play did put a pressure on the Pole's body and she handed a walkover to her quarterfinal opponent, Hsieh Su-Wei. The reason behind the top seed's withdrawal is a right elbow injury. (photo: Johan Rivera)

Agnieszka Radwanska, enjoying her career-high No.5 ranking earned over the weekend by clinching the Dubai trophy, rushed to Kuala Lumpur to play the BMW Malaysian Open, but rain interfered so much that the Pole finished her first round match two days later than the encounter was scheduled, and right afterwards she played and won her second round.

The 22-year-old Radwanska beat Akgul Amanmuradova 6-2 6-4 on Thursday, while the match started on Wednesday and was supposed to start on Tuesday. Later on Thursday the top-seeded Pole met Karolina Pliskova and defeated her as well, 6-4 6-4.

In the quarterfinals of the $220,000 Malaysian Open Radwanska's opponent will be Taiwanese qualifier Su-Wei Hsieh.

Defending champion at the tournament was seventh-seeded Jelena Dokic, but she lost today, in the second round to Olivia Rogowska 3-6 6-4 7-6(2). (photo: Johan Rivera)