Top seed Francesca Schiavone beat Yvonne Meusburger of Austria 6-1 6-4 to finally win her first WTA Tour title (the 27-year-old Italian had lost eight previous finals!). Additionally, she became the first winner of this new tournament on the WTA Tour calendar.

“A great relief … but I didn't put pressure on myself," world No. 31 said. "I'm a different player now and I just went out today to enjoy myself and hopefully win."

"The match was much closer than the result shows," said the 82nd-ranked Meusburger, who was also beaten by Schiavone in the first round of this year's French Open. "Anyway, the final was a good experience for me and it will help me to further raise my game."

It’s worth mentioning that the winner took home $25.840 and 140 points, while the runner-up earned $13.520 and 100 points. (source: CBS Sports Line)

Doubles specialist Liezel Huber became an American yesterday. "It's amazing," Huber said about her new citizenship. "I'll be playing in the US Open as an American. So, that's a dream come true." World No.4 in doubles has lived in Houston for some time, and together with her husband was actively engaged in helping the victims of Katrina and Rita in Louisiana.

Note: Liezel Huber and her doubles partner Cara Black of Zimbabwe are currently ranked No.1 in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships. (sources: Women Who Serve, ABC)

After a one-sided French Open final when Justine Henin demolished Ana Ivanovic, and after Venus Williams earned Wimbledon crown without using too much power to defeat Marion Bartoli, I vote for the introduction of best-of-five-set Grand Slam finals.

However, it seems that it won’t happen any time soon. Chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour Larry Scott said: "My own view is that it's probably counter to the direction we've been heading in from player-health and well-being standpoints.” What he refers to is that it collides with the idea to give the players a longer off-season and reduce tournament commitments because of numerous injuries and hence too many withdrawals. (via SeattlePI) Read more »

BBC is offering masks of tennis players. You can download Andy Murray, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Tim Henman, and Anastasia Myskina (the only woman in the crowd). Check them out here.

I only wonder why they didn’t choose some more popular female player than Myskina. She’s ok, but wouldn’t masks of some other players be more interesting at the moment?

Maybe they are planning to expand the list.

This Monday none of the top ten players changed their position in the WTA rankings. Even though Nadia Petrova lost in yesterday's final of Bausch & Lomb Championships, she stayed world's number 7 female tennis player.

On the other hand, there are some changes in the top twenty. The first-time winner of the title at Amela Island, France's Tatiana Golovin, jumped one spot (from 20 to 19) and took the place of Vera Zvonareva. Russia's Dinara Safina also went up one spot (to number 12), exchanging places with compatriot Elena Dementieva.