World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki lost just two games in the Qatar Ladies Open quarterfinal against 15th-ranked Flavia Pennetta – the first two games, in particular, before winning 12 straight games. Wozniacki hit 35 winners to Pennetta’s 33, but the real difference came in unforced errors, where Wozniacki had three times less – 7 to Pennetta’s 21.

Even though the score is so dominantly on Wozniacki's side, the match was not as easy. Actually, there were two long games (about 13 minutes each), one featuring nine deuces, and the other one seven.

Marion Bartoli will be Wozniacki’s opponent in the semis. The Frenchwoman earlier defeated Peng Shuai 6-2 6-2. (photo: Johan Rivera)

It was mixed luck for seeds on Wednesday at the Qatar Ladies Open – three advanced and three suffered losses in the second round.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki belongs to the lucky part, and continuing the good form that took her to Dubai title last week, she defeated Nadia Petrova 6-3 6-2. Also victorious was second seed and 2008 WTA Qatar Open finalist Vera Zvonareva, who beat Dominika Cibulkova 6-1 6-2. Just to remind you, the tournament wasn’t even held in 2009 and 2010. Another successful seed, No.5 Jelena Jankovic, avenged the defeat of her compatriot Bojana Jovanovski in the previous round and took out the young Serbian hope’s conqueror, Sania Mirza, 6-0 6-1.

Now let’s move on to the unfortunate seeds. No.3 seed and world No.5 Francesca Schiavone lost her opening match of the tournament to Peng Shuai 7-5 6-3. The 38th-ranked Chinese is a qualifier into the draw, and supposedly, that's why she had more time to adapt to the court. Since it’s Peng’s second career Top 5 victory, and the first in six years, on paper it is one of the her greatest results. However, the Chinese doesn’t consider the win too big, and states her win over Kim Clijsters, who was on a winning streak of about 30 matches, in 2005 in San Diego, as her greatest achievement.

Lucky loser Klara Zakopalova earned her fifth Top 10 win with a 6-2 6-1 victory over fourth seed Li Na. Eighth seed Shahar Peer also lost, in exactly an hour, to Marion Bartoli 6-1 6-0. (photos: Johan Rivera, source: WTA Tour)

Daniela Hantuchova is building up on her Pattaya Open title of two weeks ago, recording her second Top 10 win of the month with a 4-6 6-1 6-2 upset of world No.9 Victoria Azarenka in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open. En route to winning the Pattaya Open, Hantuchova's first throphy in almost four years, the Slovakian defeated third-ranked Vera Zvonareva.

Hantuchova actually followed up her title run in Thailand with a first-round loss to Anna Chakvetadze in Dubai, but today against the sixth-seeded Azarenka, despite losing the marathon 68-minute first set, Hantuchova rebounded and capitalized on Azarenka’s errors to win the next two sets with ease. Also, Hantuchova hit nine aces, compared to Azarenka’s zero. Final score: 4-6 6-1 6-2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova fell to 0-3 in Dubai finals over the weekend and now she lost in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open to seed No.8 Shahar Peer, 6-2 6-4.

As you’re expecting from me, I’ll give special attention to Serbian players’ performance. As expected, fifth seed Jelena Jankovic defeated wildcard Fatma Al Nabhani, 6-1 6-3. The 19-year-old Al Nabhani is Oman’s only ranked player. She’s world No.426. Unfortunately, Bojana Jovanovski lost to wildcard Sania Mirza, 6-2 7-5. I was really hoping Jovanovski would manage to defeat Mirza, especially because she scored some big victories to enter the draw, over the well-known players of Kateryna Bondarenko and Urszula Radwanska.

Other players victorious on Tuesday in Doha include: Flavia Pennetta, Dominika Cibulkova, Peng Shuai, Vera Dushevina and Klara Zakopalova. (photos: Johan Rivera)

World No.5 Maria Sharapova needed three sets to beat fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 for the Qatar Total Open title, but the important thing is she won and kept her perfect season intact as she extended her match record this year to 14-0.

This is Sharapova’s second title at Doha, previously she won the tournament in 2005. Also, it’s her 18th career title and second of the year following her triumph at the Australian Open last month.

The fourth-seeded Sharapova quickly took the first set against unseeded Zvonareva, but it was not to be another easy win for Sharapova. World No.27 Zvonareva dominated the second set thanks to just three unforced errors, but things completely turned against her in the third. Sharapova gained a quick break for a 1-0 lead and broke again at love in the third game. Zvonareva never recovered, winning a total of just eight points in the decisive set.

The 23-year-old Zvonareva played her second final of the season, and was trying for her sixth singles title.

Winning the Qatar Total Open, Sharapova earned $414,000, while Zvonareva took home $211,000. (via Sports Network)

Vera Zvonareva and Maria Sharapova will face each other in an all-Russian final at the Qatar Total Open in Doha on Sunday. Unseeded Zvonareva reached her second final of the year with a 3-6 6-3 6-3 win over China's Na Li, while Sharapova avenged her tough 2007 US Open loss to Agnieszka Radwanska with a 6-4 6-3 victory over the Polish teenager.

To win the semifinal match against China's Na Li, world No.27 Zvonareva battled back from a break down in both the second and third sets. Zvonareva, who has won five titles in Tier III events, will tomorrow play the biggest final of her career. Read more »