Williams Sisters Win at Key Biscayne

Sisters Serena and Venus Williams won their matches in straight sets Saturday and advanced to the third round of the $4.5 million Sony Ericsson Open.

Top-ranked Serena dispatched American wild card Alexa Glatch, the 124th-ranked player in the world, 6-2, 6-3. Venus, seeded fifth, downed Israeli Shahar Peer, 6-3, 6-3.

Serena won her second straight and fifth overall Miami title last year by besting Jelena Jankovic in the final. She also titled here from 2002-04. The five titles ties Steffi Graf for the most ever at this tournament.

Next up for Serena will be 32nd seed Peng Shuai of China, as she beat Italian Mara Santangelo, 7-5, 6-3. Venus’ next foe will be Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld, who beat 30th-seeded Italian Sara Errani, 6-4, 6-3.

Venus won this event in 1998, 1999 and 2001. Venus defeated Serena in the ‘99 finale.

Also Saturday, sixth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva defeated Italy’s Tathiana Garbin, 6-4, 6-1, while some other seeds to advance were No. 9 Nadia Petrova, No. 10 Agnieszka Radwanska, No. 14 Alize Cornet and No. 16 Dominika Cibulkova. The Russian Petrova downed Michaella Krajicek of the Netherlands, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, Radwanska of Poland topped Thailand’s Tamarine Tanasugarn, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, Frenchwoman Cornet got by Czech Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), and Cibulkova breezed past Croatian Karolina Sprem, 6-4, 6-3.

In other action, No. 17 seed Zheng Jie of China beat German qualifier Julia Goerges, 6-4, 6-2, 19th seed Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain downed Russian. Alla Kudryavtseva, 7-6 (7-3), 6-4, 21st-seeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi rallied to defeat Spain’s Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5, Russian Ekaterina Makarova ousted 23rd-seeded Japanese Ai Sugiyama, 6-3, 6-4, 26th-seeded Czech Iveta Benesova cruised over German Sabine Lisicki, 6-2, 6-4, and China’s Li Na defeated 29th-seeded Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak, 7-5, 6-3.

The 2009 Miami champ will claim $700,000.

Venus Williams Wins Mexican Open

Venus Williams beat defending champion Flavia Pennetta 6-1, 6-2 to win the Mexican Open title on Saturday.

The 62-minute victory earned the top-seeded Williams her 41st career singles title and second in two weeks. She won in Dubai last weekend, where she became the only active player to win 40 titles.

Overall, Williams has won four of her last five tournaments, including last year’s WTA Championships, and 20 of her last 21 matches.

In the men’s final, Nicolas Almagro of Spain defended his Mexican Open title, beating second-seeded Gael Monfills of France 6-4, 6-4. The fourth-seeded Almagro, ranked 21st in the world, earned his fifth career title for beating the 10th-ranked Monfils.

Making her debut on Acapulco’s clay, Williams won three consecutive three-set matches then lost only six games in her last two matches in extending her winning streak to 10.

“During the week I had very hard games, but luckily I produced my best game for my toughest opponent,” Williams said.

She broke the second-seeded Pennetta four times in the final and saved the only break point she faced.

“I served very well, and I knew if do then it’s difficult to break me,” Williams said. “So I just tried to hold my serve and wait for her to make mistakes.”

Pennetta was playing in her sixth successive final in Acapulco, but has won only in 2005 and 2008. Her tournament-best record dropped to 28-5.

“I hope to return next year and try and reach a seventh final,” Pennetta said.

Almagro, 23, became the first to successfully defend the men’s title since Thomas Muster won four straight from 1993-96, when the tournament was held at Mexico City.

Almagro raced to a 5-1 lead in the first set with breaks in the third and fifth games, and Monfils was forced to save two set points. In the second set, Almagro broke in the opening game and held on for the match.

Williams Sisters Win at Dubai

World No. 1 Serena Williams and former top-ranked star Venus Williams posted third-round wins, while third-seeded Serb Jelena Jankovic went by way of the upset Wednesday at the $2 million Dubai Tennis Championships.

The Australian Open and U.S. Open champion Serena handled 13th-seeded Chinese Zheng Jie 6-4, 6-2, while a sixth-seeded Venus waltzed past 10th-seeded Frenchwoman Alize Cornet 6-3, 6-2 on the hardcourts at Dubai Tennis Stadium.

In Thursday’s quarterfinals, the 10-time major champion Serena will face French Open champ Ana Ivanovic and the seven-time Grand Slam titlist and reigning Wimbledon winner Venus will take on fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva, the reigning Dubai champion.

Meanwhile, the former world No. 1 Jankovic succumbed to 16th-seeded Estonian Kaia Kanepi 6-2, 7-5. Jankovic was last year’s U.S. Open runner-up to Serena.

The Olympic gold medalist Dementieva, fresh off her runner-up finish in Paris last week, leveled 14th-seeded Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-1, 6-3, while an eighth-seeded Ivanovic got past French lucky-loser Camille Pin 6-2, 7-6 (7-5). Dementieva defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova in last year’s all-Russian finale here.

In some other third-round action, fifth-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva topped 11th-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 5-2, retired; unseeded Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina upended 12th-seeded Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 4-6, 6-1, 4-0, retired; and France’s Virginie Razzano edged out Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 1-6, 6-2. Bartoli retired against Zvonareva due to a foot injury, while Cibulkova surrendered against Vesnina because of a heat-related illness.

Thursday’s other quarters will pit Zvonareva against Razzano and Kanepi versus Vesnina. Zvonareva is fresh off her title in Pattaya City last week.

The 2009 Dubai champ will collect $350,000.

Venus Williams Beats Vera Zvonareva for Title

American Venus Williams rallied to win the WTA’s Sony Ericsson Championships for the first time, defeating Vera Zvonareva 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2 Sunday at the season-ending event. The Wimbledon champion found her rhythm and took command in the last two sets with powerful serving, smashes and aggressive ground strokes against her Russian opponent.

”I’m so excited,” Williams said. ”That was a hard-fought match, every point, right down to the end.” Williams won US$1.34 million at the event, which for the first time offered the same prize money as the men at the ATP’s season-ending Masters Cup in Shanghai.

The first lady of Qatar, a conservative Muslim sheikdom, presented the trophy to Williams, shaking her hand and kissing her on both cheeks. Sheika Mozah bint Nasser al-Missned wore a traditional black head scarf and robe. ”Thanks to your Royal Highness for coming. Wow!” Williams said.

Such a public appearance by a ruler’s wife is unusual in the region. Billie Jean King sat with Mozah and other dignitaries during the match and joined Williams on the court for the awards ceremony. The trophy is named for King.

Williams’ ranking will improve to No. 6 from No. 8, while the ninth-ranked Zvonareva also will move up two spots. The two were the lowest-ranked players at the event, which featured the top eight players in the world. ”I know I can go higher” in the rankings, said the 28-year-old Williams, a former No. 1 who defeated top-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the semifinals.

Zvonareva became increasingly frustrated and collapsed to the ground in tears when Williams broke her in the final set to go up 3-1. Williams, who lost in their first meeting at the 2003 French Open, now holds a 6-1 record against Zvonareva. ”She stayed aggressive,” said Zvonareva, who qualified for the championships in 2004 but did not win a match. ”In the second and third, she was dictating.”

Zvonareva surged to 5-2 in the first set, and led 5-3, 40-0. But she was unable to convert four set points in that game, and Williams won it on her second break point. In the tiebreaker, Zvonareva fell behind 1-5, but rallied to win it on her 5th set point when her backhand slice clipped the net cord and dropped over.

”I just played some bad shots and went from bad to worse,” Williams said. ”I was a little disappointed, to say the least. But I realized the match wasn’t over.” Williams qualified for the championships for the eighth time since 1998. She had reached the semifinals twice and withdrew five times because of injuries and illnesses. ”It was missing, this one,” Williams said of the WTA Championships title. She has won 39 Tour singles titles, including five Wimbledons and two U.S. Opens.

Williams’ career earnings rose to $21,921,346.

Venus Williams Wins at Zurich Open

American Venus Williams knocked off Italy’s Flavia Pennetta in straight sets Sunday to capture the $600,000 Zurich Open. The 28-year-old Williams, who outlasted Serbian star Ana Ivanovic 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday in the semifinals, was pushed to a first-set tiebreak by Pennetta, but took a 6-0 lead in the tiebreaker and dominated the match the rest of the way. Williams walked away with a 7-6 (7-1), 6-2 victory and took home $95,500 for her work.

Williams, who converted on 2-of-4 break-point chances, collected six aces to zero for Pennetta, who left Zurich with $51,000 as the runner-up. The 26-year- old Pennetta committed four double-faults in the loss to Williams and did not break Williams’ serve during the match.

Pennetta earned a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Anabel Medina Garrigues in the semis of this event. She had a very solid showing in Zurich, as she also eliminated reigning world No. 1 and U.S. Open runner-up Jelena Jankovic on Thursday.

Jankovic, Safina and Venus Advance at Porsche Grand Prix

U.S. Open runner-up Jelena Jankovic, French Open and Olympic runner-up Dinara Safina and Wimbledon champion Venus Williams were a trio of second-round winners Thursday at the $650,000 Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

The second-seeded Jankovic, who will supplant Serena Williams atop the world rankings on Monday, blew past Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko 6-2, 6-0 on the indoor hardcourts at Porsche Arena. The steady Jankovic was last week’s hardcourt champion in Beijing.

Jankovic’s quarterfinal opponent here on Friday will be seventh-seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva, who zipped past France’s Marion Bartoli 6-2, 6-0 on Day 4. Zvonareva captured an Olympic bronze medal in Beijing back in August.

Meanwhile, the third-seeded Safina, who titled at a WTA Tour event in Beijing two weeks ago and captured a silver medal at the Beijing Games, got past Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova 6-1, 7-6 (8-6), while a sixth-seeded Venus waltzed past Ukrainian qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko 6-4, 6-2.

Russian Nadia Petrova cooled off Swiss lefthander Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-1, as Schnyder was riding a five-match winning streak, including a title in Bali last month.

Friday’s other quarters will pit Safina against Venus, fourth-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva versus Belarusian Victoria Azarenka and Chinese Na Li against Petrova. Dementieva is the reigning Olympic gold medalist. Li shocked a top-ranked Serena here on Wednesday.

The 2008 Stuttgart titlist will take home $100,000.

Williams Defeats Groenefeld at Porsche Grand Prix

Venus Williams made a successful return to the Porsche Grand Prix after 10 years, advancing to the second round by beating Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-1, 6-2 Tuesday. The sixth-seeded American cruised past a player who is on the comeback trail after missing nine months because of various reasons. Groenefeld did reach the fourth round of the U.S. Open but she was no match for the power and precision of the elder Williams sister.

“She hit some great shots but my experience helped me,” said Williams, who made it into the second round in 1998 in her only previous appearance in Stuttgart.

Williams needed four set points to close out the first set, committing a double-fault on one of them. The American then broke serve for 1-0 at love to start the second. She went two breaks up to lead 4-1, allowed the German one more game and hit a forehand winner on her second match point.

Williams next plays qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko, who rallied to upset 15th-ranked Flavia Pennetta 4-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Eight-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska swept past Sandra Zahlavova 6-3, 6-2.

Another qualifier also advanced when Tsvetana Pironkova beat teenager Alize Cornet of France 6-2, 6-1. The Bulgarian next plays third-seeded Dinara Safina of Russia, who had a bye into the second round, along with the other top three players in the tournament - Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic and Elena Dementieva.

Marion Bartoli of France advanced by beating Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-3, 6-1, and Victoria Azarenka wasted a 5-2 lead before overcoming Agnes Szavay 7-5, 6-3 to set up a second-round contest against Radwanska.

The indoor tournament has brought together eight of the top 10 players in the world, with only Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova missing.

Serena Williams, who regained the No. 1 ranking after winning the U.S. Open, plays Wednesday against Li Na. Williams’ closest rival to finish the year as No. 1 is Jankovic, who trails by 21 points. Jankovic, who won the China Open on Sunday, will not play until Thursday, when she meets Alona Bondarenko, Kateryna’s sister.