Agnieszka Radwanska ignored her heavily taped shoulder injury and defeated top seed Vera Zvonareva in the final of the Mercury Insurance Open 6-3 6-4 without dropping serve.

"Everything was working. Even though I had two really tough matches in the quarters and semifinals, I played very well today," said the third-seeded Pole who played from all over the court and mixed up her groundstrokes.

Zvonareva was on a nine-match winning streak with her Baku Cup title, but in the final against Radwanska her footwork wasn't good enough and she blames it for her 28 unforced errors.

The last time Radwanska played a WTA final was also at the Mercury Insurance Open, last year when she finished runner-up to Svetlana Kuznetsova. The 2011 Carlsbad title is Radwanska’s second Premier-level victory and her fifth WTA title.

En route to the trophy the 22-year-old Radwanska defeated Elena Baltacha, Christina McHale, Daniela Hantuchova, Andrea Petkovic, and finally Vera Zvonareva. The prize money for winning is $111,000. (photo via WTA Tour)

Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska went through their semifinal matches, Radwanska for the second year in a row, but it was not without drama.

You know that Radwanska has had a shoulder injury, so she was not in a favorable position, but even more bizarrely, her opponent, Andrea Petkovic had to rush away from the court to vomit at 0-40 down in the fifth game of the second set. Petkovic won the first set, but the bad lunch she said she had had gave Radwanska an advantage and the Pole advanced to the final with a 4-6 6-0 6-4 victory.

Top-seeded Zvonareva, who won the Baku Cup in Azerbaijan last week, lost a tough first set against Ana Ivanovic and needed seven set points to close the second set. In the third the Russian had a 5-1 lead when Ivanovic won three straight games.  After that Zvonareva finally finished the match. Our reader John Bolan, who is at the tournament, is reporting that the crucial factor in Ivanovic's loss was the bad fall which injured her knee. Final score: 5-7 6-4 6-4.

Ana Ivanovic squeezed in the company of Top 3 seeds – Vera Zvonareva, Andrea Petkovic, Agnieszka Radwanska - in the semifinals of the Mercury Insurance Open.

After starting with a 4-1 deficit against fourth-seeded Peng Shuai, Ivanovic won 11 of the next 13 games and finished the match by winning the last 14 points. Final score: 6-4 6-2. Her next opponent will be top seed Vera Zvonareva who, as expected, had a tough test against Sabine Lisicki. In a marathon third set which lasted more than an hour, Zvonareva saved 7 of 8 break points and finally defeated Lisicki 6-3 3-6 6-4 on the fifth match point.

Injured Agnieszka Radwanska recovered from a bagel in the first set and defeated Daniela Hantuchova 0-6 6-4 6-4. In the semifinals she will play Andrea Petkovic who took out first time WTA quarterfinalist Sloane Stephens 6-2 6-1. (photos courtesy of John Bolan)

Top seed Vera Zvonareva advanced to the quarterfinals of the Mercury Insurance Open, as did all the other seeded players in action on Thursday.

The world No.3 surged from a 2-3 deficit in the first set and won ten straight games to defeat Vera Dushevina 6-3 6-0. Zvonareva considers every opponent a challenge, but her next one is especially so. In the quarterfinals Zvonareva will play Sabine Lisicki, who has won 17 of her last 19 matches – the German played the semifinals of Stanford and Wimbledon, and won the title in Birmingham. Zvonareva leads their head-to-head 2-0. And one more thing when we're talking about Lisicki, if you haven't read it yet, do check out our recent in-depth analysis of the German's game.

Quarterfinal pairs (seedings in brackets): Vera Zvonareva (1) vs. Sabine Lisicki (12), Peng Shuai (4) vs. Ana Ivanovic (5), Daniela Hantuchova (8) vs. Agnieszka Radwanska (3), Sloane Stephens vs. Andrea Petkovic (2). (photo: sr_cranks)

Last week at Stanford Ana Ivanovic played her first match since Wimbledon and her first since partnering with coach Nigel Sears and lost to Ayumi Morita 6-3 7-5. Ivanovic blamed nerves for the early loss and said she was trying to impress her new coach.

At her very next tournament Ivanovic's opening match happened to be against the same opponent and the 23-year-old didn't repeat the disappointment. She came back from 5-0 down in the second set to advance to the third round of the Mercury Insurance Open. It was the first time in Ivanovic's career that she has done so. Let's also mention that Ivanovic's comeback took place after her on-court consultations with Sears. Final score: 6-1 7-6(5).

Alberta Brianti will be Ivanovic's opponent in the third round. Brianti upset tenth-seeded Flavia Pennetta in the first round. (photo: sr_cranks)

Svetlana Kuznetsova choked for the first time in her life and blew four match points in the second set tiebreak (two of those with double faults), but still the Russian managed to defeat fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska and win the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego. Final score: 6-4 6-7(7) 6-3.

"My knees were shaking and I couldn't push on my serve and now I know why people double fault on match points," said the unseeded Kuznetsova who wasted leads of 4-0 and 6-3 in the tiebreak.

"She's a great player, a top player," said the world No.10 Radwanska. "Now, she's lost some points and she's behind me [in the rankings]. But in the important moments, she was better."

Both Kuznetsova and Radwanska were playing their first final since Beijing in October, when Kuznetsova beat Radwanska 6-2 6-4. By winning her first title in 10 months, Kuznetsova is projected to rise from No.21 to No.14 in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings.

The victory at the Mercury Insurance Open came at the perfect time for Kuznetsova, just ahead of the US Open, the Grand Slam she won in 2004. (source: Reuters, photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Flavia Pennetta eliminated second seed Samantha Stosur from the Mercury Insurance Open and reached the semifinals with a 6-4 6-3 victory. All the top three seeds are out of the tournament now: Jelena Jankovic, Samantha Stosur and Vera Zvonareva.

The world No. 15 Pennetta has never lost to Stosur in their three career meetings, but it’s her first Top 10 victory since last year’s US Open. Stosur is ranked fifth.

During the quarterfinal of the Mercury Insurance Open, Stosur hit no aces and served five double faults, compared to Pennetta’s eight aces and only one double fault. Also, Pennetta had 19 winners and Stosur 12.

The Italian’s opponent in the semis will be Svetlana Kuznetsova. The Russian ended the hopes of qualifier Coco Vandeweghe, who upset third seed Vera Zvonareva in the second round. Kuznetsova beat Vandeweghe 7-5 6-2. (photo by John Bolan)

World No.10 Agnieszka Radwanska took some time off from tennis at the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego and practiced golf hits. She easily managed to hit the target – that is if it was photographer’s head.

Radwanska, seeded fourth at the tournament, defeated former world No.1 Dinara Safina in the second round and will play Shahar Peer in the quarterfinals.

American Coco Vandeweghe stunned third seed Vera Zvonareva in the second round of the Mercury Insurance Open in San Diego, even though the Russian world No.9 dominated the first set and lead by a break early in the second and third sets. Final score: 2-6 7-5 6-4.

The 18-year-old Vandeweghe, ranked 205th in the world, has recorded only her third victory on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and it’s already a Top 10 one. Her second main draw win on the Tour came in the first round of the San Diego tournament, against Argentina’s Gisela Dulko.

In the quarterfinals of the $700,000 Mercury Insurance Open Vandeweghe will play another Russian, two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who toughed it out against Sara Errani 6-1 6-7(5) 7-5 in the second round. (photos by John Bolan)

Top seed Jelena Jankovic lost in straight sets in the second round of the Mercury Insurance Open to Alisa Kleybanova, despite leading 4-0 in the first set. Jankovic even had three set points at 5-3, but Kleybanova won eight straight games to take the score to 7-5 4-0 and eventually win the match 7-5 6-2.

The second-ranked Jankovic said she was afraid to run a lot because it was just her first match since injuring her left ankle in Portoroz two weeks ago. The world No.28 Kleybanova defeated Jankovic two times in 2009 and now leads their head-to-head record 3-2.

The 21-year-old Russian, who won her first WTA title in Kuala Lumpur in February, has reached only her third quarterfinal of the season. (photo: John Bolan)