Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru won her second career WTA title and her second straight at the $600,000 Polsat Warsaw Open.

Last year at the claycourt tournament, Dulgheru was making her first main draw appearance and stunned the tennis world when she went all the way to the title while ranked No.201. Dulgheru then became the first player outside the Top 200 to win a Premier-level tournament and the fifth player outside the Top 200 to win a WTA title.

Dulgheru scored two Top 10 wins on clay this season, over Dinara Safina in Rome and Elena Dementieva in Madrid, and en route to the Warsaw Open title the 32nd-ranked player in the world defeated No.7 seed Kateryna Bondarenko, Timea Bacsinszky, Tsvetana Pironkova, and two best-ranked Chinese players No.3 seed Li Na and No.5 seed Zheng Jie.

Zheng was on the way to become the first Chinese to win a Premier-level tournament, but lost to Dulgheru 6-3 6-4 in the final.

The victory earned Dulgheru $98,500, while Zheng received $52,500. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Top seed Maria Sharapova defeated Germany’s Julia Georges 7-6(2) 6-1 in the delayed quarterfinal of the Internationaux de Strasbourg this morning, and then beat three-time Strasbourg champion Anabel Medina Garrigues in the afternoon to advance to the final. Sharapova scored a 4-6 6-2 6-2 victory over Medina Garrigues and will face Germany's Kristina Barrois in the final. The world No.77 Barrois, who defeated Vania King 2-6 6-2 7-6(6) in the semifinals, will play her first WTA final and will have a chance to become the first German winner of the tournament since Steffi Graf in 1997.

At the Polsat Warsaw Open, Romania’s Alexandra Dulgheru spoiled the hopes of an all-Chinese final by defeating Li Na, at No.3 the highest seed left in the draw. The 32nd-ranked Dulgheru is now 12-0 at the Polsat Warsaw Open and is looking for her second title at the tournament (which would also be her second career WTA title).  To reach that goal Dulgheru will have to get past fifth seed Zheng Jie of China, who put an end to Greta Arn's successful week in the second semifinal with a 6-4 7-5 win. If Zheng wins the Polsat Warsaw Open, she will become the first Chinese to win a Premier-level title. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki was forced to leave her Polsat Warsaw Open quarterfinal against Zheng Jie because of the right ankle injury sustained in Charleston in April which has been bothering her ever since. The world No.3 Wozniacki lost the first set 6-3 and then retired, increasing Zheng’s record in their career meetings to 3-1.

Even though Wozniacki said a little more than a week ago that she expected to be ready for the French Open, the injury is still causing her pain and her French Open appearance is very uncertain (the tournament starts in three days).

Here’s the Dane’s statement after the loss to the 26th-ranked Zheng.

"I felt some pain from the beginning of the match today. I spoke to the physio and she said it would only get worse. I'm really sad. I wanted to win this match. I wanted to win the whole tournament. But health is the most important thing, and I didn't want to risk having a worse injury." (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Stephane Martinache)

Second seed Elena Dementieva suffered her third loss in five matches of the European clay season, falling to Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova at the Polsat Warsaw Open. Maria Sharapova’s warm-up for the French Open is doing good, as the Russian lost only three games to advance at the Internationaux de Strasbourg, another tournament played this week.

Dementieva lost her second-round match at the Premier-level event to the world No.100 Pironkova 7-5 4-6 6-4 after almost three hours of play. The Russian was twice a break up in the deciding set, but didn’t manage to use that advantage to the full and handed Pironkova her fourth Top 10 win.

Sharapova was made to work in her first match at the International-level event in Strasbourg, but the top seed had a straightforward victory in the second round, defeating qualifier Dia Evtimova 6-3 6-0. Sharapova’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be world No.81 Julia Goerges, who upset No.6 seed Sybille Bammer 6-1 7-6(6). (photo: Stephane Martinache)

As promised, Women's Tennis Blog is continuing its tradition of revising on-court outfits from the season behind us. This year's retrospections will start with the best-dressed WTA player – Nike-clad Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova started the season late, because of her career-threatening shoulder injury, playing her first match of 2009 at the BNP Paribas Open in March. She was introducing herself to competitive tennis slowly, playing doubles first, but her style had to be spot-on from the very beginning, and it was.

People argued that Sharapova’s Roland Garros dress had too much fabric, but I liked it, and I especially favored the blue color against the red clay. Read more »

Qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru has won eight matches this week in Warsaw to claim her first career singles title in her main draw debut on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. The 201st-ranked Romanian upset world No.39 Alona Bondarenko 7-6(3) 3-6 6-0 in the final of the Warsaw Open.

The 19-year-old Dulgheru became the first qualifier to reach the finals at Warsaw, and she did it by beating world No.205 Greta Arn in the first round, No.36 Sara Errani in the second round, No.95 Galina Voskoboeva in the quarterfinals and No.36 Daniela Hantuchova in the semifinals. And on top of all that she beat the clear favorite Bondarenko in the title match.

Dulgheru’s best career win prior to Warsaw was against world No.138 Olivia Sanchez at 2007 Granada.

Eighth-seeded Bondarenko was trying to win her second career singles title in her first final since 2007, which was also at the Warsaw Open. (photo via Warsaw Open)

Eighth seed Alona Bondarenko progressed into the Warsaw Open final for the second time in her career, while sixth seed Daniela Hantuchova lost to a Romanian qualifier in the semifinals.

The world No.39 Bondarenko defeated Britain’s No.1 Anne Keothavong 6-2 7-5, and as the result shows, the Ukrainian was pushed harder in the second set. Just to mention that Keothavong was the first British woman to reach the last four of a WTA claycourt event since 1983.

Bondarenko, victor over Maria Sharapova in the Warsaw Open quarterfinals, will play world No.201 Alexandra Dulgheru in the title match. Dulgheru upset the 36th-ranked Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-4 6-7 (2) 6-1. The 19-year-old qualifier converted eight of 10 break points to reach the final in her WTA Tour main draw debut. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Maria Sharapova wasn’t strong enough to pass her third obstacle at the Warsaw Open. Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko defeated the Russian in the quarterfinals of the event.

Sharapova was victories in the first two matches of her singles comeback, but fell to the eighth-seeded Bondarenko 6-2 6-2, which we can’t say we weren’t prepared for.

It’s interesting to read Bondarenko’s opinion about Sharapova’s form after the nine-month injury layoff.

"I have played her (Sharapova) twice before her injury and I thought the match would be harder," the world No.39 said. "She makes more mistakes than before the injury… her serve was a little slower."

Despite losing, Sharapova is happy with her achievement at the Warsaw Open, and believes that she had the best preparation for the upcoming French Open. However, the current world No.126 is keeping her expectations low. (source: Reuters, photos: Ralf Reinecke)