Maria Sharapova and Daniela Hantuchova have pulled out of the next week’s Qatar Telecom German Open. Sharapova’s reason for withdrawal is an unspecified injury, while Hantuchova has a stress fracture in her right foot.

Even though the two Top 10 players have pulled out, the Qatar Telecom German Open is still expected to welcome seven members of the Top 10, including No.1 Justine Henin and No.2 Ana Ivanovic. (source: On the Baseline, photo via Down the Line)

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Slovakia’s world No.45 Dominika Cibulkova scored a victory of her career today in windy Doha with a straight set win over great champion and world No.7 Venus Williams. Final score was 6-3 6-3.

I expected an interesting match, but for Cibulkova to break hard-serving Williams four times, and hold all except for one of her service games, that was beyond my imagination.

The 18-year-old Cibulkova, the second best Slovakia’s WTA player, was confident, strong, well-adapted to the windy weather, and made few unforced errors. Williams, on the other hand, made too many unforced errors, and quite surprisingly, served no aces. Also, Cibulkova used almost all of her chances, and wasted only two out of six break points, which was not the case with Williams.

At the Qatar Total Open, Cibulkova also made other two significant victories, over world No.39 Lucie Safarova in the first round and over ninth seed and world No.12 Patty Schnyder in the second.

In the quarterfinals, Cibulkova will face Agnieszka Radwanska who advanced without playing her third round match as top seed Ana Ivanovic withdrew from the tournament due to ankle injury she suffered yesterday. (photo via Getty Images)

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The world's top two players, Justine Henin of Belgium and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, will play at the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin in May.

Henin has won this $1.34-million claycourt tournament three times in her career, in 2002, 2003, and 2005. Ivanovic was a champion last year, beating Svetlana Kuznetsova after being a set down.

In addition to Henin and Ivanovic, several more of the world's top 10 players are expected to participate in the Tier I event.

"The 2007 tournament was one of the best events throughout the world with
eight of the ten top ten players competing" said Sheikh Mohamed Bin Faleh Al Thani, President of the Qatar Tennis Federation on Wednesday. "I assume that such strong entries will again take part at the 2008 Qatar Telecom German Open."

The tournament runs from May 5-11. (via On the Baseline, photos Getty Images)

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Today, at the Qatar Telecom German Open, 19-year-old Ana Ivanovic won her third career title. This is Ana's second Tier I title and 430 points she earned today put her in the top ten for the first time in her career (as of tomorrow she will be ranked 8th in the world).

The Serb beat Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia 3-6 6-4 7-6 (7-4). It was a tough match for both players — Svetlana was tired because shortly before the match against Ana she had finished her semifinal match against Justine Henin, while Ana had problems with her left ankle.

Still, both Ana and Svetlana played superbly, with lots of powerful strokes. It was definitely a very close match.

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In Berlin quarterfinal Jelena Jankovic continued her tradition of winning the opening set against Justine Henin, and eventually coming out as a loser. So far, they have played five times, and four times Jelena won the first set; still, all the five times she lost the match!

In Saturday's quarterfinal Jelena was so close to victory — in the third set she had a 4-0 lead. Henin seemed disturbed, you could see her watching anxiously at her coach. However, she managed to recover and win six consecutive games to advance to the semis.

"I don't know how that could happen," said the Serbian.

"I thought I had everything under control and I am really upset, I was so close to beating her. It was slippery out there and I didn't feel safe on the court.

"But it was all my own mistake that I lost, I wasted all my chances to win." (Source: BBC Sport)

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