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)

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)

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)

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)

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.

The Wimbledon dress was neat and elegant.

Later in the season Sharapova started wearing a headband, which wasn’t welcomed by the majority of tennis audience. I never really mind it. Maria can get away with a lot of things.

Of course, for the US Open there were two dresses – for day and night.

What’s your favorite dress Sharapova wore in 2009? I like the US Open night dress the most – it's simple, the cut is nice, and I like the combination of black and silver.

Impressively, this is the third consecutive year Women’s Tennis Blog is featuring a revision of Sharapova’s Nike outfits. I'm sure you would like to remind yourselves of what the Russian was wearing on court in 2007 and 2008. Do you maybe think her style was better in the past? (photos: Maria Sharapova's official website, Ralf Reinecke, Stephane Martinache)

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)

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)

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)

The 22-year-old three-time Grand Slam champion showed signs of her glory, playing much more consistently than in the first-round three-setter against Italy's Tathiana Garbin.

Sharapova will next have a stiffer test, as she’ll fight eighth seed Alona Bondarenko for a place in the semifinals of the Warsaw Open.

Additional info: Sharapova is expected to play Roland Garros, and then to continue her comeback at the June 8-14 AEGON Classic in Birmingham, which will be her preparation for grasscourt Wimbledon. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

As the first round came to a conclusion, No.5 seed Sara Errani of Italy rallied from 4-2 and 5-3 down in the third set to edge qualifier Greta Arn 6-2 1-6 7-6(2), while No.6 seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia came from 6-3 3-1 down to beat Nuria Llagostera Vives 3-6 6-3 6-3.

Former world No.4 Jelena Dokic, now ranked 72nd, still hasn’t added up to her more than sensational run to the Australian Open quarterfinals. Since then, the Australian hasn’t made a better result than the second round of Miami, and today at Warsaw Open she lost in the first round to qualifier Ioana Raluca Olaru 6-4 6-3.

The entire second round will be played on Wednesday, and the most popular participant at the tournament, Maria Sharapova, will have a first career meeting with lucky loser Darya Kustova. Sharapova will play only her second singles match after a nine-month injury layoff. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)