WTA Jul 7-13 Budapest & Palermo Budapest Grand Prix, Budapest, HUN Tier III $175,000 30 players - outdoor: red clay Budapest website is in Hungarian WTA: draws & OOP .pdf tourney: draw & results - OOPs pics: Yahoo! - WTA - tourney tourney news in Hungarian - video Budapest: radar - forecast - map # , # # , # Internazionali Femminili Palermo, ITA Tier IV $145,000 32 players - outdoor: red clay WTA .pdf: draws & OOP tourney .html: OOP - draw - pics Palermo weather - Italy News # , # # , #

Budapest: 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004   Palermo: 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 previous other tourney pages next Palermo 2007: #53 Agnes Szavay 5' 7" 139 lb, RH, 2H-BH Budapest 2007: #50 Gisela Dulko 5' 7", 123½ lbs, RH 2H-BH

    The Budapest & Palermo draws are not yet available as of this writing (qualifying draws are usually up on the Friday before the tourney begins, main draws on Saturday, sometimes later). The links are above for your convenience when the draws become available.

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Budapest 2007:
    On Sunday at Budapest, Hungary, in the final of the Budapest Grand Prix, 22-year-old 6th-seeded # 50 Gisela Dulko from Buenos Aires, Argentina, dropped a close first set, then handily defeated 17-years-and-22-days-old qualifier # 321 Sorana Cirstea from Targoviste, Romania, 6(2)-7, 6-2, 6-2 (Gisela is shown during the match, and during the trophy ceremony afterward).

    Gisela said: "I'm really happy because this is my first WTA title, I feel really excited now.
    "I want to congratulate Sorana. She is a great talent and I'm sure she is going to play many more finals." AP story - WTA story

    Gisela and Sorana had met once before, on an indoor hardcourt in the 1st round of qualifying in Zurich last year, where Gisela won, 6-4, 6-2.

    Gisela, who was ranked # 26 a year and a half ago, is now 1-2 in WTA singles finals; her most recent final was earlier this year in Pattaya City, where she was defeated by Sybille Bammer 7-5, 3-6, 7-5. Gisela has also won 6 WTA doubles titles, 6 ITF singles titles, and 6 ITF doubles titles.

    Sorana, was playing in only her third WTA tourney, and had never won a WTA main draw match until this week. But she won seven matches in a row to reach the final, including victories over top-seeded # 34 Martina Muller on Thursday and 4th-seeded # 44 Eleni Daniilidou on Friday. She has won 3 ITF singles titles and 7 ITF doubles titles.

    Sorana said: "I'm really happy. This is just my third WTA tournament and nobody expected me to be here in the final.."

Palermo 2007:
    On Sunday in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, in the final of the Internazionali Femminili, 18 year old 8th seeded # 53 Agnes Szavay from Budapest, Hungary, won her first WTA singles title when she crushed, killed and destroyed 24 year old 2nd seeded # 33 Martina Muller from Sehnde, Germany, 6-0, 6-1 (Agnes is shown with the hardware after the match).

    The win will raise Agnes's ranking to a career-high # 37 on Monday. Agnes said: "I played really well the whole week, except in my second round match with [Ekaterina] Bychkova, I played terrible there. But after that I played better and better in each match. Today I tried to attack a lot but be patient at the right times and it worked well. Now I'm feeling very good, as you can imagine." AFP story

    Martina said: "I was really tired, because I'd had some tough matches the day before; but [Agnes] played really well today. I wasn't playing well in the beginning and she took advantage of it. I like clay, but she likes it too, so it didn't make much of a difference. Hopefully we'll play again soon and I can make it closer." WTA story
    Agnes was playing in her first WTA singles final; she has also won 1 WTA doubles title, plus 3 ITF singles and 3 ITF doubles titles.
    Martina is now 1-1 in WTA singles finals; she won her title in Budapest in 2002. She also has 1 WTA doubles title, plus 10 ITF singles and 9 ITF doubles titles.

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WTA SCOREBOARD: Budapest & Palermo s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? Budapest Grand Prix,  Budapest, Hungary   tourney time:        = GMT +2 hours        = US EDT +6 hours        = US PDT +9 hours Hungary News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Budapest: The 30-player main draw for Budapest has 8 seeds, with 2 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers in the main draw. Qualifying (3 rounds) starts on Saturday, qualifying finals are on Monday.   click for broader view   Római Tenisz Akadémia, Budapest, Hungary Latitude: 47.584338 Longitude: 19.066719 goto link for World Wind Budapest Grand Prix venue address: Királyok útja 105, Budapest, Hungary; Tel. 240-8616 2007: On Monday, April 23 in Budapest, local resident and 16-year-old wild card Lucia Batta looked pleased by her reception upon arriving for her match against Alberta Brianti... also on Monday, Elena Likhovtseva and Maria Kirilenko decorated the sidelines during their 1st round doubles victory... And on Wednesday, local resident and 18-year-old wild card Agnes Szavay looked pleased by her reception upon arriving for her match against Elena Likhovtseva... 2007: 17-year-old qualifier Sorana Cirstea attended the player's party on Wednesday evening with a good friend who might just be her mom; Martina Sucha was also looking very nice at the party, as usual

Budapest, 1st Rd, Mon 10am-Tue 11am losers' prize: $1,340 US; points: 1

Budapest, 2nd Rd, Wed-Thu 11am losers' prize: $2,260 US; points: 20

Budapest, QFs, Fri 11am losers' prize: $4,270 US; points: 35

Budapest, SFs, Sat 11am losers' prize: $7,730 US; points: 65

Budapest, Final, Sun 10:30am loser's prize: $15,000 US; points: 100 winner's prize: $28,000 US; points: 140

Budapest, Doubles Final, Sun losers' prize: $4,400 US winners' prize: $8,250 US Budapest, Qual Finals, Mon Apr 23 10am losers' prizes: q1 $200 1pt; q2 $350 3pts; q3 $650 4pts; qualifier 8 points Budapest, Withdrawals

Internazionali Femminili,  Palermo, Sicily, Italy   tourney time:        = GMT +2 hours        = US EDT +6 hours        = US PDT +9 hours Italy News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Palermo: The 32-player main draw for Palermo has 8 seeds, with no 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers and 3 wild cards in the main draw. Qualifying finals are on Monday.   click for broader view   Country Time Club, Palermo, Italy Latitude: 38.189389 Longitude: 13.318852 goto link for World Wind Internazionali Femminili venue address: Country Time Club, Via dell'Olimpo, 5 - Palermo; Tel. +39 091 453782 - Fax +39 091 6841644

Palermo, 1st Round, Mon-Wed 4pm-3pm-4pm losers' prize: $1,035 US; points: 1

Palermo, 2nd Round, Wed-Thu 5pm-4pm losers' prize: $1,925 US; points: 15

Palermo, QFs, Fri 4pm losers' prize: $3,580 US; points: 30

Palermo, SFs, Sat 4:00pm losers' prize: $6,650 US; points: 50

Palermo, Final, Sun 10am loser's prize: $12,345 US; points: 80 winner's prize: $22,900 US; points: 115

Palermo, Doubles Final, Sat losers' prize: $3,640 US winners' prize: $6,750 US Palermo, Qual Finals, Mon Jul 16 4pm losers' prizes: q1 $175 1pt; q2 $300 2pts; q3 $555 3pts; qualifier 7 points Palermo, Withdrawals

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Current WTA Results & Tennis News (tennis home page) - 2008 WTA Schedule with links & photos

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