Wrapping up the week

Another tournament week has just passed and the WTA tournaments in Montreal and Stockholm saw new winners, one of them also a first time WTA-Event winner.

Dinara Safina finished her campaign. I saw her match against Schnyder, she looked rock solid in all her movements. She's got the timing, she always had the shots. Now she has the patience and reduced unforced errors, I would bet a lot on her winning that hard court swing US Open series and eventually do well at the US Open itself. But that's another story on another piece of paper.
Her toughest match came in the quarters against Sveta, but Dinara survived. She also overcame a second set collaps in her semifinal against Victoria Azarenka. Finally, unseed Dominika Cibulkova appeared to be overwhelmed by playing her first Tier I final and after taking out Dementieva, Petrova, Jankovic and Bartoli, she must've been all pleased. Engine off...
Congratulations to Dinara for this victory, she's making her way up in the circle of the top players this season.

The blonde Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark secured her first WTA tour title ever at the Tier IV Event in Stockholm. Having had to play both the semifinal and final today, the danish teenagers didn't falter long and wiped away defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska in the semis and then whitewashed unseed Vera Dushevina from Russia in the final 6:0 6:2. She didn't drop a set throughout the whole tournament and will be one of the future players to watch if she continues to improve like she does.

On the ITF curcuit german Anna-Lena Grönefeld continued her comeback run with just another ITF-Title run, this time at the 75.000 $ event in Rimini/Italy. She outlasted no other than Spaniard Lourdes Domingues-Lino in the final easily with 6:1 6:2. Grönefeld didn't drop a set throughout the tournament and will move up in the rankings again. Since her return to professional tennis in May this year she has now won five ITF-Titles. I doubted it before, but it looks as if we will be seeing more of her in the future.

Austrian Patricia Mayr won the other ITF tournament this week in the Ukraine also in fine fashion without dropping a set. She is currently ranked 170 in the world but will move higher due to that victory.

Down to 4!

It's down to the last four at the Tier I event in Montreal. While Safina's victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) didn't come that surprising, world No. 2 Jelena Jankovic succumbed to unseed Domnika Cibulkova (SVK) in straight sets. Jankovic stated that she felt powerless and lost concentration after being up 5:1 but couldn't find a way back into the game.

Safina fought it out from the baseline with her also hard hitting countrywoman. Expectations were high that this would be the match of the day and it really turned out to be.

Maid Marion from France continued her great hard-court run with just another straight set victory over Ai Sugiyama, but needed medical treatment on her foot during the second set, which might cause her trouble in today's semis.

As many before, Tamira Paszek wasn't able to add one more victory after her stunning performance against Ana Ivanovic. Victoria Azarenka was one shot too good and guaranteed herself a semi-final place, her second at a Tier I event after Berlin earlier this season.

Semi-Final action will take place tonight with Bartoli taking on Cibulkova and Azarenka on Safina. I bet Cibulkova in three, Safina in straight sets.

Stunning day 4 in montreal

A day full of high value tennis was brought to court on thursday in Montreal although one of the scheduled matches became a walkover for Ai Sugiyama, as Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament. Minor news were made as Dinara Safina powered past Patty Schnyder 6:2 6:2. Safina again proved that she improved a lot to the player she's been just a year ago. Schnyder was given a tough time, although the crafty swiss used her angles but Safina had the better answer in most of the moments. It wouldn't surprise me to see Safina win back to back titles in L.A. and Montreal.

Marion Bartoli and Anna Chakvetadze were on court at the same time but couldn't finish their match as rain set in at 4:6 4:5 for the russian. Stepping back on court, Bartoli fought off match points in the second and eventually took home the second set 7:5. The third set continued to be the close affair it's been before, with Bartoli finally advancing 7:6 (4) in the tie-break. This was Bartoli's third victory over Chakvetadze this season, improving to 3:1 overall. She will next face Sugiyama in a rematch of the Stanford semifinal two weeks ago.

Top seed and world No. 1 Ana Ivanovic was ousted by teenage sensation Tamira Paszek (AUT) 6:2 1:6 6:2. I think it was just about time that Paszek would finally score a breakthrough result, so here it is. Ivanovic stated that she was hampered by a hurt right thump, but it apparently didn't bother her that much that she kept on playing.

Jelena Jankovic herself continues to send home one canadian after the other, this time surpassing canada's No. 2 Stephanie Dubois in straight sets. By reaching the final at the rogers cup Jankovic will become the new world No. 1 player.