Top seed Simona Halep was pooled with grand slam winners Maria Sharapova and Flavia Pennetta in a formidable looking Red Group for the end-of-season WTA Finals on Friday.
Sania Mirza's campaign in the Australian Open ended on Wednesday when she and her Czech partner Renata Voracova crashed out of the women's doubles, losing in straight sets to top seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta in the opening round in Melbourne. Argentina's Dulko, who is the World No 1 doubles players and her World No 2 Italian partner Pennetta, outplayed the Indo-Czech duo, winning the contest 6-4, 6-1 in just over 60 minutes.
Eyeing their eight title of the season, Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her doubles partner Swiss Martina Hingis entered the semi-finals of the China Open in Beijing on Thursday.
World number one Dinara Safina staged a comeback to beat Italian Flavia Pennetta 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 on Saturday and reach the Stuttgart Grand Prix final where she will face fellow-Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova. Fifth seed Kuznetsova crushed compatriot and number two seed Elena Dementieva 6-4, 6-2 in just 67 minutes.
World number one Dinara Safina will take on a rejuvenated Jelena Jankovic in the final of the Cincinnati Open after hugely contrasting wins on Saturday. Russian Safina stormed into her eighth final of the year with a 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Italian Flavia Pennetta, while fifth seed Jankovic saved four match points to beat fourth seed Elena Dementieva 7-6, 0-6, 7-6 after two hours and 46 minutes.
Venus Williams defeated unseeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 7-6, 6-2 in Sunday's Zurich Open final to all but guarantee the American a place at the season-ending WTA Championships in Doha. Third seed Williams, who had lost her last three meetings with Pennetta, took full control of their latest encounter after rampaging through the first set tiebreak 7-1.
Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone gave Italy a shock 2-0 lead over champions Russia, while the United States and the Czech Republic were level at 1-1 after day one in the Fed Cup semi-finals on Saturday. Pennetta swept past an out-of-sorts Anna Chakvetadze 6-4, 6-0 in windy conditions at Castellaneta Marina before Schiavone fought back to beat Svetlana Kuznetsova 1-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Flavia Pennetta overpowered Alexa Glatch 6-3 6-1 to give Italy a 1-0 lead over United States in the Fed Cup final on Saturday.
Jelena Jankovic eased into the last four at the BNP Paribas Open on Thursday when Ukrainian qualifier Lesia Tsurenko retired from their quarter-final with an ankle injury while trailing 6-1, 4-1.
After a long rain delay Germany's Sabine Lisicki made quick work of Venus Williams, strolling into the second round of the Rogers Cup on Monday after routing the American 6-0 6-3.
Ana Ivanovic reached her second semi-final in two weeks by overcoming seventh seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-4, 6-4 at the Linz Open on Friday. Although Pennetta came within two points of recovering the break as Ivanovic served for victory, the Serbian held on to set up a clash with third-seeded Pole Agnieszka Radwanska.
Romania's Simona Halep kicked off her campaign for a maiden WTA Finals title in emphatic fashion with a thumping 6-0, 6-3 victory over US Open champion Flavia Pennetta in the opening match of the eight-woman season-ending tournament on Sunday.
Dinara Safina won her first title on US soil with a clinical 6-4, 6-2 destruction of Flavia Pennetta in the Los Angeles Classic final on Sunday. The powerful Russian completely dominated the Italian's serve, breaking her six successive times to claim her second title of the year.
Top seed Venus Williams beat Flavia Pennetta while the Russian accounted for Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in Saturday's semi-finals.
Russia's Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova stands on the threshold of finally delivering the title long predicted
Former world number one Martina Hingis' first comeback tournament ended in the semi-finals when she was beaten by fourth seed Flavia Pennetta 1-6, 7-6, 6-2 at the Australian hardcourt championships on Friday.
China's Li Na allowed herself a small smile of satisfaction after she advanced to her fourth Australian Open semi-final on Tuesday, mindful that an inquisition from coach Carlos Rodriguez earlier in the tournament had helped her get there.
The Czech teenager beat Italian fourth-seed Flavia Pennetta in the final of the Australian women's hardcourt championship.
She hit out at her home Swiss crowd for supporting opponent Flavia Pennetta.
World number one Serena Williams credited an on-court coffee for her recovery after she stormed back from a first set bagel to beat Italy's Flavia Pennetta in her opening match of the year at the Hopman Cup on Monday.
Martina Hingis, Flavia Pennetta, Jelena Jankovic, Thomas Johansson and other top tennis players would cross swords when the Champions Tennis League (CTL) 2015 begins on November 23.
Top seed Lindsay Davenport had little difficulty advancing to the semi-finals at the Cincinnati Open on Friday.
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black hardly broke a sweat as they entered the US Open women's doubles semifinals after their rivals retired midway through the quarterfinal match in New York.
World number one Novak Djokovic received a free pass into the third round of the U.S. Open when Jiri Vesely of the Czech Republic withdrew from their match on Wednesday due to a left forearm injury. The walkover provided the top-seeded defending champion with an extended break to improve his niggling left wrist injury before his next match against either Guido Pella of Argentina or Mikhail Youzhny of Russia.
Defending champion Serena Williams beat China's Li Na 6-0, 6-3 on Friday to reach her second consecutive US Open final.
A misfiring Rafael Nadal had trouble hitting the mark but the third seeded Spaniard still had enough to beat American Donald Young 6-4, 6-2 on Tuesday and advance to the fourth round of the BNP Paribas Open.
The US Open women's semi-finals scheduled for Thursday evening have been postponed due to the threat of rain.
Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard swatted aside an out-of-sorts Serena Williams 6-2, 6-1 at the Hopman Cup in Perth on Tuesday.
A confident Victoria Azarenka will get a chance to avenge last year's US Open final defeat to Serena Williams after the pair came through their semi-finals on Friday to set up a re-match.
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her American partner Liezel Huber advanced to the third round of women's doubles event at the Wimbledon with a three-set win over Italian-German duo of Flavia Pennetta and Andrea Petkovic.
Holder Maria Sharapova ended the encouraging run of Venus Williams to reach the semi-finals of the Italian Open on Friday, but Serena Williams enjoyed an easy passage through to the last four.
Jarmila Groth marked her first Fed Cup appearance for Australia with a shock win against French Open champion Francesca Schiavone as holders Italy shared the opening singles in their first round tie in Hobart on Saturday.
Sania Mirza and and her partner Elena Vesnina shocked top seeds Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta 6-0, 7-5 to reach the women's doubles semi-finals in the French Open, on Monday.
World number one Caroline Wozniacki reeled off 12 successive games to ease into the semi-finals of the Qatar Open after a 6-2, 6-0 demolition of Italian Flavia Pennetta on Thursday.
Caroline Wozniacki reached the final of the Dubai tennis championships by beating Serbian sixth seed Jelena Jankovic 7-5, 6-3 on Saturday.
Francesca Schiavone repeated her French Open final triumph over Samantha Stosur on Sunday as Fed Cup holders Italy completed a 4-1 victory over Australia in their World Group last eight tie.
Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the U.S. Open Friday in a shock third round loss to Flavia Pennetta, while Andy Murray was lucky to survive after being pushed to five sets by Robin Haase.
Maria Sharapova was knocked out of the US Open on Friday in a shock third round loss to Flavia Pennetta, while Andy Murray was lucky to survive after being pushed to five sets by Robin Haase.
Top seeds Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis advanced to the semi-finals of the US Open following a straight sets victory over Hao-Ching Chan and Yung-Jan Chan of Chinese Taipei in New York, on Tuesday.
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