It didn't happen in the last week's Doha semifinal against eventual champion Victoria Azarenka, but today, in the first round of the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, Agnieszka Radwanska earned her 300th victory in her seventh year of turning pro. It wasn't an easy final step, as Radwanska fought harsh wind and qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak's resurgence in the second and third set.

The world No.6 Radwanska cruised through the first set 6-1, but it turned out she would need two more hours to finish the match. Serving for the win at 6-5 in the second set, Radwanska was even two points away from triumph, when Wozniak crept back with her solid baseline play and after winning the second set in a tiebreak, in the third she established a 5-3 lead. Radwanska, however, rallied and won the match 6-1 6-7(6) 7-5.

Next for Radwanska is Shahar Peer, who leads their head-to-head record 3-2. However, they haven't met since 2010. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

Three top players, Petra Kvitova, Li Na, and Vera Zvonareva, have announced withdrawals for the $2,000,000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, while Serena Williams will skip the Whirlpool Monterrey Open.

World No.3 Kvitova announced on her Facebook page that she had pulled out of Dubai due to illness. The reason for Li's withdrawal is a low back injury, while Zvonareva continues to suffer from her left hip injury which caused her retirements at Pattaya and Doha.

Kaia Kanepi will also not play Dubai, due to a right shoulder injury, and Andrea Petkovic is staying away from the tennis courts because of a low back stress fracture.

You know that world No.1 Victoria Azarenka sustained an ankle injury in her Doha semifinal, and even though the ill effects were not noticeable en route to her title win, we'll see how her leg will react in Dubai.

As for the Monterrey Open, Serena Williams has pulled out due to the ankle she hurt during a recent practice. Nevertheless, Serena was capable of entertaining the Monterrey crowd with an on-water exhibition hitting with Gisela Dulko. (photos © Neal Trousdale, Monterrey Open)

World No.1 Victoria Azarenka humbled world No.5 Samantha Stosur in the Qatar Total Open final and won her 11th career title and her third in 2012 even though it's only mid-February. Azarenka has remained undefeated this season with her 17th consecutive match win, after her perfect showings in Sydney and the Australian Open.

It seemed that the left angle injury sustained yesterday in the semi against Agnieszka Radwanska didn't bother Azarenka, as she dominated the Premier-level final 6-1 6-2. Of the first ten games of the match, Stosur won only one. Moreover, Stosur didn't earn even a single opportunity to break Azarenka's serve.

It was an absolutely straightforward victory for Azarenka, which is quite a disappointment considering that the match featured two Top 5 players. Although Stosur has fell to 3-11 in WTA finals, the campaign at the Doha tournament is a success for Stosur after her very unsatisfactory Australian swing.

To make the victory even bigger for Azarenka, she hasn't dropped a set whole week and lost just 18 games en route to the title. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

World No.1 Victoria Azarenka survived a leg injury which did impair her movement and defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals of the Qatar Total Open for her 16th straight win this year.

Azarenka won the first set 6-2 and after an exchange of breaks in the beginning of the second set at 1-1, the top seed made a bad step on her left leg and injured it so that she needed a medical timeout and the consequences on her movement were visible. However, Radwanska didn't take advantage of her opponent's troubled movement. Even though Azarenka lost a game full of unforced errors on her side and trailed 1-2, from then on she was on a roll, broke Radwanska's serve two times, including without losing a single point for a 5-2 lead. Azarenka didn't manage to serve out the match right away and dropped serve, but in her next service game she was perfect and closed out the match to love. Final score: 6-2 6-4.

We'll see how Azarenka's injury will react when it cools off and how ready she will be for the final against Samantha Stosur, who advanced when Marion Bartoli retired with a right calf injury at 6-3 for Stosur. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

Victoria Azarenka won Sydney, then the Australian Open, and now in Doha she comfortably reached the semifinals with a 6-0 6-4 victory over Yanina Wickmayer, which is her 15th consecutive match win this year. What do you think of her way of claiming and confirming her No.1 ranking?

In all her three Doha matches, against Mona Barthel, Simona Halep and now Yanina Wickmayer, the top-seeded Azarenka was dominant. The first set of the quarterfinal Azarenka even called "a perfect set", while the second set wasn't far from great either, as even though Wickmayer broke her two times to get the match back on serve, Azarenka kept striding forward and closed out the match with a love service game.

In the semifinals Azarenka will play fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who defeated Christina McHale 6-1 6-1. The other semifinal will feature third seed Samantha Stosur and fifth seed Marion Bartoli. Stosur made her way past Monica Niculescu 6-2 2-6 6-3, and Bartoli also went through in three sets, against Lucie Safarova 7-5 4-6 6-1. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)