Flavia Pennetta will enter the Top 10 for the first time when the new Sony Ericsson WTA Tour rankings are released on Monday, and will become the first Italian tennis player to achieve the feat.

The 27-year-old Pennetta is expecting a "crazy" reaction in her native Italy when she returns home next month.

"It's a dream come true," said Pennetta, currently ranked 12th, while her career-high has been No.11 so far. "I always hoped to be one of the best players in the world and now I'm there so it's crazy."

"I have only spoken with my mum so far. I've already received I don't know how many SMS's so I think it's going to be crazy," Pennetta added.

Pennetta is now on a 15-match winning streak, having won back-to-back tournaments in Palermo and Los Angeles and then having reached the semifinals in Cincinnati (where she'll face top-ranked Dinara Safina). (source: Reuters, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Wildcard Kim Clijsters had defeated three Top 20 players en route to the quarterfinals of the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open before Russian world No.1 Dinara Safina ended the Belgian's fairytale comeback run. Final score: 6-2 7-5.

Clijsters defeated Marion Bartoli in the first round, Patty Schnyder in the second and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third, which were her first three matches after a more than two-year-long break, but top-seeded Safina stopped the former world No.1 Clijsters from progressing further by winning only the second time in their eight encounters.

"I really felt today that Dinara played some of her best tennis that I've seen," said Clijsters, whose return after a child birth has proved to be more than promising. "I think by far that's the best she's ever played against me."

Safina will next play world No.12 Flavia Pennetta, who defeated Daniela Hantuchova in the quarterfinals one day after upsetting Venus Williams. By reaching the semis, Pennetta will have the honor of becoming the first Italian Top 10 tennis player.

The other semifinal pair will feature Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva and Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic. Dementieva defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 6-1, while Jankovic lost only three games in the match against Sybille Bammer, who upset Serena Williams in the previous round. (source: ESPN, photo via Life.com)

Second seed Serena Williams has again beaten herself, as she likes to say, following her older sister Venus out of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women’s Open in Cincinnati by falling to unseeded Sybille Bammer 7-5 6-4 in the third round.

Serena Williams is not giving Bammer the pleasure of enjoying one of the best wins of her career, stating: "Anyone could have beaten me today."

The second-ranked American made loads of unforced errors and partly blamed her sore throat for the defeat.

World No.29 Sybille Bammer will next play fifth seed Jelena Jankovic, who edged ninth seed Victoria Azarenka 7-5 7-6(4) to advance to the quarterfinals. (photo by our reader Colleen)

Wildcard Kim Clijsters is still doing impressively well in her comeback after a two-year-long break and a child birth, scoring her third Top 20 victory in three matches she played since returning to competitive tennis at the Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open. Third seed Venus Williams fell to No.14 seed Flavia Pennetta in the third round.

Clijsters started her third-round match with a 4-1 lead, and even though sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova leveled at 4-4, the Belgian won the set 6-4. We can safely say that Kuznetsova was saved by the challenge system in the second set. Clijsters was leading 3-0, and then 4-3, and just when we thought she broke Kuznetsova for 5-3, the Hawk-eye system said Kuznetsova's ball was in and in the end she leveled at 4-4 to eventually win the set. Still, Clijsters triumphed in the decider to defeat the sixth-ranked Russian, after victories over No.13 Marion Bartoli and No.20 Patty Schnyder.

No.14 seed Pennetta defeated third seed Venus Williams 7-6(2) 6-4 and extended her winning streak to 14 matches. The Italian won back-to-back titles in Palermo and Los Angeles, and has now reached the quarterfinals of Cincinnati.

Clijsters might face world No.1 Dinara Safina in the quarterfinals, while Pennetta, who is now 4-3 against Williams, will next play Daniela Hantuchova, the winner over seventh seed Vera Zvonareva in the third round.

Additional info: The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour made this nice video clip dedicated to Kim Clijsters’ comeback.

(photo via Life.com)

Playing only her second competitive match in more than two years, wildcard Kim Clijsters beat world No.20 Patty Schnyder 6-2 7-5 to reach the third round of the Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open.

Don't forget that Clijsters started her comeback with a win over world No.13 Marion Bartoli!

The Belgian’s opponent in the third round will be sixth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.

Seed No.11 Ana Ivanovic suffered an upset to world No.59 Melinda Czink, despite leading by a break in both sets. Ivanovic committed 11 double faults and lost this second-round match 7-6 7-5.

And only two days ago did I read that Ivanovic had found a cure for her troubled serve!(photo: Life.com)