For the first time in five WTA finals against Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova managed to come out victorious and she's done it in style, with a confident 6-1 6-4 win at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart. Making her debut at the tournament, Sharapova, perfect on her serve, claimed her first title in 2012, 25th in career and fourth on clay.

Unlike Azarenka, who only in the fourth game didn't miss her first serve and actually scored a point on it, Sharapova had a 90% winning percentage on first serve after eight games of the match, while in the end that percentage was 84. Azarenka's winning on first serve was not bad eventually, 76%, but on the second serve it was only 22%.

Sharapova opened the match with a 3-0 lead, and the second break for 5-1 quickly determined Azarenka's faith. The second set was more close, but Sharapova's break in the seventh game provided her with the advantage which Azarenka was unable to overcome and Sharapova finished the match serving to love.

After a first round bye, the second-seeded Sharapova beat Alize Cornet, fifth seed Samantha Stosur, third seed Petra Kvitova, and finally the tournament's top seed, who claimed to be satisfied with her performance at the tournament despite the loss in the final. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Nine percent break point conversion rate, that's what best describes Petra Kvitova's performance in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix semifinal against Maria Sharapova. In the end, Sharapova won just two points more than her opponent and advanced to her fourth final of the season with a 6-4 7-6(3) victory.

Whether the Russian will win her first title of 2012 will be determined in the final against top seed Victoria Azarenka, who cruised past Agnieszka Radwanska 6-1 6-3, which is her fifth victory over the Pole this year (actually, Radwanska hasn't lost to anyone else this season).

In the first set, at 2-2 Sharapova led 40-0 on Kvitova's serve, and even though the Czech didn't give the game away easily, Sharapova used her fourth break opportunity to earn a crucial break of the set which she eventually won 6-4.

The second set was even steadier result-wise, as the first break of serve happened in the eleventh game. But what was frustrating for the third-seeded Kvitova was that she had eight break opportunities until 5-5, including a set point, while Sharapova had none, and after saving that set point and winning her service game, in the eleventh game Sharapova broke Kvitova's serve. It wasn't over, though. Serving for the match, the second-seeded Sharapova needed to fend off more break opportunities and Kvitova finally converted her 11th one to force a tiebreak. The momentum was Sharapova's still, and she ended Kvitova's 27 indoor match winning streak.

By the way, notice that the semifinals of Stuttgart featured the top four ranked players. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Maria Sharapova squeezed past Samantha Stosur in a gruelling Porsche Tennis Grand Prix quarterfinal, in a match that was long and steady, mostly going with serve, where nuances decided the advantageous player.

Sharapova and Stosur were both solid in the first set, Stosur a bit more, and despite wasting two break opportunities, one of which was a set point at 5-4, in the tiebreak Stosur completed the task and took the first set.

The second set continued to go with serve until 3-3 and finally in the 19th game of the match Stosur stopped the pattern and broke Sharapova. However, that proved not to be the turning point, as the always-determined Sharapova complicated the matters and the tournament organizer's schedule plans. The fifth-seeded Stosur was serving for the match at 5-4, but Sharapova broke to level 5-5 and then we had another tiebreak in which the second-seeded Russian came out as a winner, considerably prolonging the match. Read more »

Less than two weeks after preventing Caroline Wozniacki from winning her third straight home tournament title in Copenhagen, German Angelique Kerber defeated the Dane again, this time in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.

Last year's Stuttgart runner-up Wozniacki, seeded sixth this time, went out in just 63 minutes, 6-1 6-2. Kerber was so solid that she didn't even face a single break point and won 92% on her first serve. Wozniacki, on the other hand, has some pretty embarrassing stats, like the 14% of second serve points won and just 8% of first serve return points won.

Kerber's opponent in the quarterfinals will be Petra Kvitova, who defeated Francesca Schiavone 6-2 6-2. Other quarterfinal pairs: Victoria Azarenka vs. Mona Barthel, Maria Sharapova vs. Samantha Stosur, Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Li Na. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Because of a back injury, world No.12 Andrea Petkovic had been away from the competition from Sydney in the beginning of January to the last weekend's Fed Cup tie against Australia, which is full three months. And now playing only her second match in a WTA event since the comeback, the German suffered an ankle injury and retired in the second set against Victoria Azarenka.

The top-seeded Azarenka won the first set 6-2. With the score tied at 4-4 in the second set Petkovic twisted her right ankle and it swelled up immediately. Tomorrow's tests will show how great the damage is.

This Petkovic's quote assures me that she's staying positive:

It is definitely unlucky, but I will be back again.

After the three-month layoff Petkovic lost to Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-1 in the Fed Cup, then in the first round of Stuttgart she defeated Kristina Barrois 6-1 6-4, and now she's on the sidelines again. Hopefully the injury is not too serious! (photo: sr_cranks)