Third seed Venus Williams defeated Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6(1) 6-2 in the final of the $600,000 Tennis.com Zurich Open to claim her second singles title of the year and 38th career title.

The 2008 Wimbledon champion also won the Zurich title in 1999, while still a teenager.

The Tennis.com Zurich Open final was the first in four times that Venus Williams defeated Flavia Pennetta. The Italian, however, still leads their head-to-head series 3-2. Pennetta, who is expected to rise to a new career-high ranking of 14, was trying to become only the third player to beat Williams for a fourth straight match, after conquering her in Bangkok in 2007, then at Roland Garros and Moscow this year.

With the victory in her 60th career final Williams is expected to qualify for the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.

On her way to the Tennis.com Zurich Open title Venus Williams defeated Alona Bondarenko, Francesca Schiavone, second seed Ana Ivanovic, and finally Flavia Pennetta, who upset world No.1 Jelena Jankovic in the second round. (photo via Yahoo)

Third seed Venus Williams edged past second-seeded Ana Ivanovic 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the semifinals of the Tennis.com Zurich Open.

Ivanovic may have lost the match, but the Serbian world No.4 could consider the defeat a sort of victory as she produced probably her best performance since winning Roland Garros in June. In the match against seven-time Grand Slam champion, Ivanovic was a challenging opponent and seemed quite recovered from whatever problems forced her string of disappointments in the recent past.

Ivanovic went toe-to-toe with Williams, and even fearlessly saved three successive match points in the third set, but four first serves in the following game by the 28-year-old American were too much for Ivanovic.

Williams will play Flavia Pennetta in the Tennis.com Zurich Open final, while Ivanovic will head to Austria for the Generali Ladies Linz tournament. (via Ana Ivanovic's site, photo: Getty Images)

Italian Flavia Pennetta defeated Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3 7-6(6) to advance to the final of the Tennis.com Zurich Open.

The world No.17 Pennetta came from 3-1 behind in both sets. In the second set Medina Garrigues couldn’t serve out the set after breaking for a 6-5 lead, and forced a tiebreaker. Pennetta had saved one set point in the second set, before converting her first match point.

The 25-year-old Pennetta, who upset top-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the second round, reached her fourth final of the year. In 2008 the Italian has won two titles: Vina Del Mar and Acapulco.

In the Tennis.com Zurich Open final Pennetta will play either third seed Venus Williams or seed No.2 Ana Ivanovic. (via iht, photo: Getty Images)

Top seed Jelena Jankovic fell 5-7 6-3 6-3 to world No.17 Flavia Pennetta in the second round of the Tennis.com Zurich Open and lost her first in 13 matches.

Pennetta has never before beaten Jankovic, and they had played five times before this Zurich meeting. Additionally, the 26-year-old Italian today defeated a number one player in the world for the first time.

Jankovic, who won three straight titles heading into the Tennis.com Zurich Open, beat Pennetta in straight sets last week at the Kremlin Cup after the Italian had knocked out Venus Williams.

The Serb has never made it past the second round at the Zurich Open in four tournament appearances. (photo: Getty Images)

Third seed Venus Williams advanced to the quarterfinals of the Tennis.com Zurich Open with a 6-3 6-4 win over Alona Bondarenko of Ukraine.

The world No.33 Bondarenko, who saved a total of five match points to move into the second round of the Zurich Open, succumbed to Williams despite having chances to break the American on several occasions.

Here’s why Bondarenko couldn’t convert any of her four break points: "When the points became important I was winning those, especially on my serve," said Williams.

The world No.9 Williams will next play Italian Francesca Schiavone, who beat Maria Kirilenko of Russia 6-3 7-5. (source: BBC, photo: Getty Images)

Seventh seed Anna Chakvetadze of Russia was upset in the first round of the Tennis.com Zurich Open by Romanian qualifier Monica Niculescu 3-6 6-3 6-2. Sixth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland lost to qualifier Petra Kvitova 6-4 3-6 6-4.

The world No.66 Niculescu won 10 of the final 13 games with her left thigh heavily strapped.

Chakvetadze was the second seeded player to lose at the Tennis.com Zurich Open as eighth seed Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia fell to Maria Kirilenko of Russia on Monday.

Later on Tuesday, Schnyder was upset by the world No.57 Kvitova of the Czech Republic, in three sets like Chakvetadze.

Other today’s results: Italy’s Francesca Schiavone beat Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 7-6(3) 6-2, and Marion Bartoli of France defeated Hungarian Agnes Szavay 6-4 6-0. (via IHT, photo: chakvetadze-anna.com)

Top-seeded Justine Henin beat world No.18 Tatiana Golovin 6-4 6-4 in the Zurich Open final on Sunday to win her ninth title of the year and to take the trophy in Zurich for the second time in her career.

In the opening set, Golovin was the one who broke first to take the 3-1 lead, but she didn’t manage to hold her serve and win the set. Henin broke Golovin two times, in the seventh and ninth game, to take the first set. Read more »

Top seed Justine Henin and Tatiana Golovin will face each other in the Zurich Open final on Sunday.

World number one Justine Henin fought back from a set down to defeat unseeded Czech Nicole Vaidisova 3-6 6-3 7-5 in the semifinals. France’s Tatiana Golovin, ranked 18th in the world, had a much easier time against Italian Francesca Schiavone 6-0 6-4.

This is the second time this month that Henin and Golovin meet in a final. Only two weeks ago they encountered each other in the championship match at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, Germany, and the top-ranked Belgian took the title with a 2-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over the 19-year-old Frenchwoman. (photos via Yahoo!)

Second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova became the latest casualty at the Zurich Open when right shoulder injury forced her to retire from her quarter-final match with Italy's Francesca Schiavone when trailing 3-6 3-3.

Fortunately, according to what Kuznetsova said her injury is not severe: "It's not that serious, I just need some time off because the muscle was getting very tired and I couldn't lift my arm up."

Out of eight seeded players that were there at the beginning of the Tier I tournament, only top-seeded Justine Henin and ninth-seeded Marion Bartoli are left. (source: Reuters)

Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova became the fifth of eight seeds to leave the Zurich Open early (after Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Amelie Mauresmo, and Serena Williams). The seventh seeded Slovakian lost to Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3 6-3 in the second round. This means that Hantuchova’s chances of qualifying for the season-ending WTA Championships in Madrid are getting slimmer.

World number nine Hantuchova partly blames the cold for her loss: "I had a really hard time today trying to catch my breath in between points. I have been fighting a cold for the past few days and I really just had nothing left and became very tired out there." Read more »