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)
It's almost like a deja-vu at the David Cup semifinals.
After the Spanish team failed to win in the 3rd rubber set, the Argentine's team suffered the same fate in Buenos Aires too.The US dubs Mardy Fish and Mike Bryan as well as Russia's Igor Kunitsyn and Dmitry Tursunov crawled back in to the match and defeated Spaniards Fernando Verdasco and Feliciano Lopez, and Argentines David Nalbandian and Guillermo Canas respectively. Both matches ended in 5 freaking sets!
So no Davis Cup final as present for birthday boy Lopez who celebrates his 27th birthday yesterday.
Dmitry Tursunov and Igor Kunitsyn made the Argentina's pair cry.“We were on our way to victory, but we couldn’t pull through,” Mancini said.
But after a doubles match that lasted 3 hours, 37 minutes, Nalbandian might have to summon his reserves in the first reverse singles on Sunday. He’s scheduled to play the top Russian, sixth-ranked Nikolay Davydenko.
In the second reverse singles, Juan Martin del Potro is expected to meet Igor Andreev. Argentina is trying to avenge its loss to Russia in the 2006 finals.The winner of the semifinal will face either Spain or defending champion United States. Spain leads their semifinal 2-1.
No chest bump, but maybe backside bump for Mike Bryan and Mardy Fish.
Now it’s Andy Roddick’s turn.
With Spain leading 2-1 and looking to reach its sixth final, the pressure falls squarely on Roddick and his decisive match against Nadal in the first reverse singles rubber on Sunday.
“I’m not worried. (Andy) knows what he has to do, he’s been in this position many times before,” U.S. captain Patrick McEnroe said.
The U.S. has won the Davis Cup 32 times, but has only rallied back from a 1-2 deficit five times.
A Roddick victory would make fifth-ranked David Ferrer’s match against Sam Querrey the decisive one.
For the other World Group playoffs results, go to the Davis Cup official website.
(Via Yahoo! Sports)
Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina cruised into the final of the Pan Pacific Open with straight-set victories Saturday.
Fifth-seeded Kuznetsova, who upset top-seeded Serbian Jelena Jankovic in the quarterfinal round beat Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 7-6 (5), 6-2, while Safina routed compatriot Nadia Petrova 6-1, 6-0 in the second semifinal.
Japanese Crown Prince Naruhito was in the crowd for the match between Kuznetsova and Jankovic yesterday. After the matches, players hit balls into the stands; Kuznetsova hit
one to Naruhito, and he made an impressive catch. "I'm enjoying myself here," Kuznetsova said.
"I'm trying to do new things and it's exciting to be on the court."
After a closely contested first set, Kuznetsova took control in the second, breaking Srebotnik three times.
Kuznetsova broke Srebotnik with a backhand down the line in the seventh game to go ahead 5-2. She raced to a 40-love lead in the next game but Srebotnik fought back to deuce before Kuznetsova won her fourth match point.
Kuznetsova, who won the U.S. Open in 2004, will be bidding for her first title of 2008. Her last Tier I singles title was in 2006 in Miami.
Last week she helped Russia to a win over Spain in the Fed Cup final Monday and said that win boosted her heading to Japan.
"Winning the Fed Cup has given me more motivation," Kuznetsova said.
It was Safina's first win in six matches against Petrova."There is a first time for everything in life and today was my first win over her," said Safina, who is fifth in the WTA rankings and had seven aces.
"We've had some good matches in the past," added Safina.
"I wasn't like I was thinking that I had never beaten her before, the strategy was to just go out there and hit the ball as hard as I can."
Safina wasn't thinking too much about Sunday's final being an all-Russian affair.
"It's just another match," Safina said.
"We know each other well and I hope it's going to be a good match that we both can enjoy."
The 2008 champion at this Tier I hardcourt tournament will collect $196,900.
(Via International Herald Tribune)
(Images via Yahoo! Sports, Toray PPO website, Sony Ericsson WTA website)
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. 
