At the WTA Championships Victoria Azarenka continued her dominance over Samantha Stosur, not giving the Australian even one set in all their five meetings.

The seventh-ranked Stosur excitingly closed the opening day of the WTA Championships with her first win over Maria Sharapova in their ten meetings. Wednesday's order of play put the Stosur vs. Azarenka match first, and whether Stosur was emotionally and physically tired from her yesterday's accomplishment or Azarenka was too good, Azarenka crushed Stosur 6-2 6-2, with the Australian showing brief resistance only at the end of this White Group match, by saving three match points. (photo: sr_cranks)

Samantha Stosur's dream season now has another memorable mark besides the US Open title – the veteran defeated Maria Sharapova for the first time in their ten meetings in the long history of seven years.

In their five previous matches, the last one of which dates back to 2006, Sharapova never lost more than four games per set, but today her dominance over Stosur encountered an obstacle and the Australian was victorious in the first match of the White Group at the WTA Championships. Read more »

In front of the full stands at the WTA Championships in Istanbul, Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska looked to be on a good way to continue her amazing fall season in the Red Group match against world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, especially after fending off set points in the first set to level at 5-5 and winning the following game on Wozniacki's serve to love before taking the set 7-5.

The Pole started the second set with a break, but Wozniacki broke back, and even though Radwanska took her opponent's serve once again for a 2-1 lead in the second set, Wozniacki won four games in a row and forced the decider in which she was in control until 4-2. Radwanska then staged a comeback for 4-all, but the Polish-speaking Dane eventually won the high-quality match 5-7 6-2 6-4. Read more »

The first match of the Istanbul WTA Championships came to a close and tournament debutante Petra Kvitova routed Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-4 in an hour and 25 minutes. Zvonareva was a runner-up to Venus Williams at this event in 2008, when it was played in Doha.

From four breaks and 2-2 in the first set of this Red Group clash, the 21-year-old Kvitova took six straight games to win the first and go 2-0 up in the second. Kvitova was soon leading 4-1, but Zvonareva managed to level at 4-4 and distance Kvitova from victory. However, Zvonareva handed Kvitova an easy break and soon after the Czech won.

The Wimbledon champion Kvitova has a chance of ending the year ranked No.1, but that depends both on her and on the outside circumstances. The Czech would have to win the Istanbul title and current world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, last year's WTA Championships finalist, would have to lose her round-robin matches. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Caroline Wozniacki’s successful golfer boyfriend Rory McIlroy on Friday announced a split with his long-time manager Chubby Chandler.

The manager, admitting his hurt, thinks that McIlroy's love partner could have influenced the shock decision:

I don’t know whether it was his  girlfriend (world No. 1 tennis player Caroline Wozniacki) getting in his ear or someone else but I thought we were doing a pretty good job, to be honest, and I think that’s how the outside world saw it.

Rory and Wozniacki have been dating since summer. Rory has been supportive of his lady and now he is in Istanbul, where Wozniacki is playing the season-ending WTA Championships. (source Daily Mail via Beyond the Baseline, photo: sr_cranks)