Sania Mirza officially became the first Indian woman tennis player to be ranked World No 1.
World number one Serena Williams crushed Italian Sara Errani 6-1, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the French Open in intimidating fashion on Wednesday.
The tournament is the first in five months since the Tour was suspended due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Martic said she felt the effects of not playing competitive tennis for so long.
The Pole said she wanted to do better this time and felt the pressure.
India's Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis stormed into the US Open women's doubles final following a 6-4, 6-1 win over 11th seeded Italians Sara Errani and Flavia Pennetta in New York, on Wednesday night.
The unseeded Bencic, who also beat former world number ones Caroline Wozniacki and Ana Ivanovic in Toronto, wore a look of disbelief after the 18-year-old's forehand winner whizzed past Williams to seal the match.
Andrea Petkovic battled back to advance to the semi-finals at the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, South Carolina on Friday while Czech qualifier Lucie Hradecka upset yet another seed with a victory over Sara Errani.
India's Sania Mirza continues to top the women's double chart while her partner Martina Hingis of Switzerland maintained her second spot in the latest tennis WTA rankings issued on Monday. Sania is atop the list with 11395 points while Hingis has 11355 points in her kitty. Sania and Martina, the world number one women's doubles team, have stitched a 26-match winning streak together, which has brought them six titles in a row at the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing, WTA Finals and Brisbane. It is the longest winning streak since Italians Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci's 25 in a row in 2012.
Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic took the men's prize for the fourth time, having won seven titles this season and the year-end top ranking for the third time in four years, while Serena Williams won the award for the fifth time in a career that has brought her 18 Grand Slam singles titles -- the most recent at this year's US Open.
World No 3 Maria Sharapova withdrew on Monday from the end-of-season WTA Championship in Istanbul due to the shoulder injury that also kept her out of the US Open.
Leander Paes and Canada's Daniel Nestor beat the Spanish combination of Fernando Verdasco and David Marrero 7-6(10-8), 6-3 in 83 minutes, while Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black beat Chinese Taipei's Yung-Jan Chan and Jie Zheng.
Paths to the final in the women's singles at the U.S. Open (prefix denotes seedings)
In the ATP doubles, Leander Paes slid to 25, a loss of four places.
Venus Williams's bid for a 50th WTA title ended when she fell to Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva in the Round of 16 at the Volvo Car Open on Thursday, while Australian Open champion Angelique Kerber breezed into the last eight.
Venus Williams avoided another early exit with a routine win over fellow American Alison Riske at the Volvo Car Open in South Carolina while Swiss second seed Belinda Bencic was ousted by Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina.
Pliskova, a finalist at last year's US Open who reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells last week, relied on her booming groundstrokes and strong returning to dispatch her American opponent in 59 minutes.
Following Iga Swiatek's victory over Coco Gauff in the final, here's a list of French Open women's singles champions:
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Sania Mirza took a giant leap towards becoming the world number one player in the doubles by pocketing 1000 ranking points, following her stupendous title win in the Miami Open with partner Martina Hingis.
India's veteran Leander Paes and his Swiss partner Martina Hingis stayed on course for their third Grand Slam of the year after advancing to the mixed doubles final at the US Open, in New York, on Wednesday night.
Sania Mirza and her Czech partner Barbora Strycova stormed into the quarter-finals of the BNP Paribas Open 2017 tennis tournament with a straight-set win over their opponents in the women's doubles at Indian Wells.
American seventh seed Sloane Stephens captured her third title of 2016 by defeating Russian qualifier Elena Vesnina 7-6(4), 6-2 in the final of the Volvo Car Open clay court event in South Carolina on Sunday.
India's Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis continued their domination in the women's doubles by winning their sixth consecutive title by lifting the Brisbane International Tennis Tournament, in Brisbane, on Saturday.
The women's draw at the US Open has been in news for the upsets it created. Almost everyday one or some days even two of the top seeds feel to unknown players.
Serena Williams's health and gamesmanship were the subjects on everyone's lips at the French Open.
Novak Djokovic launched his bid to stay on course for a Golden Slam with a clinical 6-2, 6-2 win over 139th-ranked Hugo Dellien of Bolivia on Saturday, as sweltering conditions in Tokyo took a toll on the players on the opening day of tennis at the Games.
Five things to watch out for at the French Open on Wednesday.
Images from Day 4 of the French Open, at Roland Garros, in Paris.
Serena Williams won her third Italian Open title, crushing local favourite Sara Errani 6-3, 6-0 in Rome on Sunday.
Regaining the world's top ranking in women's tennis is less important to Maria Sharapova.
China's Li Na made it a hat-trick of White Group victories, overpowering back-injury victim Victoria Azarenka 6-2, 6-1 on Friday to march through to the semi-finals of the WTA Championship.
World No 1 Serena Williams showed her determination to defend her WTA Championships title by sweeping to a 6-3, 6-1 win over Angelique Kerber at the season-ending event on Tuesday.
India's Sania Mirza and Zimbabwe's Cara Black entered the final of the WTA China Open, shocking top seeds Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-4 on Friday. In doing do they extended their unbeaten run to eight matches, and Sania put herself in line for her fifth title of the season.
Factbox on Russia's Maria Sharapova who was banned until January 2018 on Wednesday after testing positive for the banned drug meldonium at this year's Australian Open.
Take a look at the profile of Maria Sharapova who told a news conference on Monday she failed a drugs test.
Sania Mirza on Sunday created history by becoming the first female tennis player from India to achieve the World No 1 rank.
Kristina Mladenovic took her love affair with Roland Garros to a new level on Friday.
Images from Day 3 of the Australian Open in Melbourne on Wednesday.
It was a day of surprises at Flushing Meadows in New York as seeded players were knocked out one after the other on Friday.
Sharapova was broken in the first game but fought back to draw level before going on to take the first set with a hold to love.
Roberta Vinci beat her opponent and the rain to storm into the quarter-finals of the US Open on Monday just before a thunderstorm forced play to be suspended.
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