Shahar Peer, Melinda Czink win in Guangzhou, Quebec City respectively

Controversial Israeli player Shahar Peer won her first WTA Tour title in three years, beating Alberta Brianti 6-3, 6-4 in the Guangzhou Open final.

Peer’s last championships came in Prague, Istanbul and Pattaya in 2006.

In the doubles event, Olga Govortsova and Tatiana Poutchek win their first title after defeating Date Krumm and Tiantian Sun .

In Quebec City, Melinda Czink won her first career singles title after beating Lucie Safarova 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 at the Bell Challenge on Sunday.

In the doubles final, Vania King and Barbora Zahlavova Strycova defeated Sofia Arvidsson and Severine Bremond-Beltrame 6-1, 6-3.

(Images via Yahoo! Sports)

Maria Sharapova: It's not a pretty come back

Urghh... Sharapova looks terrible in these photos.

I don't know why but she keeps reminding me of Charlize Theron's character in that award winning movie Monster.

I guess Sharapova is a little disappointed after losing 6-1, 4-6, 10-7 in her first-round doubles match with partner Elena Vesnina against Ekaterina Makarova and Tatiana Poutchek, at Indian Wells.

Vesvina was the defending champion here last year with Dinara Safina.

“It feels very good to be back,” Sharapova said.

“I just wanted to test (the shoulder) out. I started training a couple of months ago. I just wanted to … test it out in a match situation and get a little different scenery than the practice court and play in front of the crowd, so that was exciting."

"The main goal for here was just to get out there and be in that atmosphere again."

“The hump I’ve got to get through right now is to put together two weeks of coming out to the court and playing two or three sets every day, and doing that for seven or eight days in a row. … Right now I’m able to do maybe three days or four days and then I have to take it easy on the fifth."

Even Sharapova herself wasn't sure where or when she would play again.

Now here are some prettier sights of Sharapova on court.

I miss her a lot! Hopefully she'll recover completely soon.


(Via AP, Images by Matthew Stockman/Getty Images)

Vera Zvonareva defeats Peng Shuai to win in Guangzhou

Vera Zvonareva (R) of Russia poses with Peng Shuai of China while holding their respective trophies after the final of the Guangzhou Open women's tennis tournament in Guangzhou, southern China's Guangdong province.

World no.9 Vera Zvonareva won her seventh WTA Tour singles title Sunday, beating China’s Peng Shuai 6-7 (4), 6-0, 6-2 in the Guangzhou International final.

The 24-year-old Russian won her second title of the year after winning the Prague Open in May. The top-seeded Zvonareva recently won a bronze medal at the Beijing Olympics.

"I wasn't going for my shots enough in the first set; I think I was playing a bit too passively," Zvonareva said.

"She's a very good player and fights well, and she took advantage. But I had more experience behind my back and was able to turn the match around by going for my shots again. We had a tough match in our first time playing each other - if she keeps playing like this, she has a great future."

The Chinese contingent was very strong in Guangzhou, with nine - almost a third - of the 32 competitors in the main draw representing the home nation.

Peng made it the furthest and continued to show improved consistency in her week-to-week results, reaching her second Tour final in as many months, having finished runner-up at Forest Hills in August (to Lucie Safarova).

"I was really happy I could get to the final," Peng said.

"There were a lot of fans here, and whenever I was in a tough match they helped me fight through it. Every year this tournament gets better and I hope to be back here next year."

"She had a lot of expectation when she was younger," Zvonareva said of Peng.

"She is improving every year and this year she's playing very well. Chinese tennis is strong right now. People don't want to play in Russia because there are so many Russian players, but now people don't want to come to China either! And I think there are going to be even more young players coming up."

It was a Top 2 showdown in the doubles final, which followed the singles final, with No.1 seeds Sun Tiantian and Yan Zi taking on No.2 seeds Mariya Koryttseva and Tatiana Poutchek.

And it was Koryttseva and Poutchek that prevailed, taking the title by a match tie-break victory, 63 46 108. It was their first Tour doubles title as a team; they now each hold four Tour doubles titles individually.

(Image by AFP/AFP/Getty Images)