In their first meeting in almost four years, second seed Dominika Cibulkova defeated good friend and top seed Marion Bartoli 6-1 7-5 in the final of the Mercury Insurance Open for her second WTA title and second Premier one.

Before their encounter in the final, Bartoli said:

Dominika and I love to practice with each other. We've practiced many times. We have been best friends since so many years now. It's obviously a final, so we're going to try our best to win, but it's great to play against your best friend, because even if you lose, you're happy for them.

After losing the first game of the match, Cibulkova won the next six to win the first set, while in the second she was trailing 4-1 before taking six of the next seven games and winning the match to add the Carlsbad title to her last year's Moscow.  Read more »

According to our records, about four and a half years ago Jelena Jankovic started building a house of her dreams in San Diego County, more precisely in Rancho Santa Fe, according to Wikipedia "regularly first or second on the list of highest income communities in the United States with at least 1,000 households." Now we have information that the 20,000 foot mansion in the exclusive community is undergoing the finishing touches and the luxury-loving tennis star will soon move in, probably by the end of the year.

The huge house has eight bedrooms, a ten-car garage, gym, pool, tennis court, theater and sauna, probably among other things, and JJ is actually going to enjoy it fully only when she retires, since now she's constantly on the road. However, only in career prize money Jankovic has earned $13,114,142 so far. You have to spend it somewhere and the Serb considers real estate the best investment.

Playing the nearby Mercury Insurance Open, Jankovic had the opportunity to visit the property that's currently mostly managed by her father Veselin. At the tournament JJ is the third seed and in the Thursday's second round she fought off 20 break opportunities to edge Melinda Czink 2-6 6-4 6-4. Her quarterfinal opponent is set to be Chan Jan-yung. (source: Tennis.com, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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)