WTA: May 19-24 2008 Istanbul Cup Istanbul, TUR Tier III $200,000 30 players - outdoor: red clay Live Scores WTA pdf.: draws & OOP pics: Yahoo! - WTA - tourney Istanbul: weather forecast # E Dementieva, # D Hantuchova # A Radwanska, # N Petrova Internationaux de Strasbourg Strasbourg, FRA Tier III $175,000 30 players - outdoor: red clay Live Scores html: draws - OOP - results WTA pdf.: draws & OOP - notes pics: Yahoo! - tourney - WTA Strasbourg:     weather sat-radar - forecast # M Bartoli, # T Golovin # A Bondarenko, # F Pennetta

Strasbourg & Istanbul: 2007 - 2006 - 2005   Strasbourg: 2004 - 2003 previous other tourney pages next Istanbul 2007: #13 Elena Dementieva 5' 11" 141lb RH 2H-BH Strasbourg 2007: #31 Anabel Medina Garrigues 5' 6½" 130lb RH 2H-BH

    The Strasbourg & Istanbul 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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Istanbul, 2007:
    On Saturday in Istanbul, Turkey, in the final of the Istanbul Cup, 25-year-old 2nd-seeded # 13 Elena Dementieva from Moscow, Russia, won her first singles title of the year by defeating 20-year-old unseeded # 59 Aravane Rezai from St. Etienne, France, 7-6(5), 3-0 retired when Aravane could no longer continue due to left patella (kneecap) tendonitis (Elena is shown after the match).
    Despite the loss, Aravane, who had won only four matches all year, had the best week of her career, reaching a WTA singles semi and a final for the first time, and defeating former # 1s Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams.

    Elena said: "I am sorry Rezai did not finish the match, but it was a great fight. It has been an amazing week and I hope to come back next year." AFP story

    Elena and Aravane had met just once before, on a hard court in the 4th round of last year's US Open, when Elena ended the best Grand Slam tourney performance of Aravane's career by defeating her 7-5, 6-4.
    Elena now 7-11 in WTA singles finals; her most recent titles came last year in Los Angeles and in the Tokyo indoor tourney. Elena also was a finalist at the 2004 French and US Opens. Aravane had never before been beyond the quarterfinals of a WTA tourney; she has won 6 ITF singles titles.

Strasbourg, 2007:
    In the Strasbourg final on Saturday, the 2005 Strasbourg champion, 24-year-old 6th-seeded # 31 Anabel Medina Garrigues from Valencia, Spain, defeated the 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon champ, 27-year-old top-seeded # 4 Amelie Mauresmo of France (residence: Geneva, Switzerland), 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 (Anabel is shown after match point).
    It was Anabel's first win over Amelie, who still leads Anabel 4-1 in career matches. It was their first meeting since 2005.
    Anabel is now is 7-3 in WTA singles finals; six of her seven WTA singles titles have come on red clay, four of those in Palermo, and two in Strasbourg. Amelie is now 24-22 in WTA singles finals; she most recently won earlier this year in Antwerp.

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WTA SCOREBOARD: Istanbul & Strasbourg s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? Istanbul Cup,  Istanbul, Turkey   tourney time:        = GMT +3 hours        = US EDT +7 hours        = US PDT +10 hours Turkey News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Istanbul: 32-player The main draw for Istanbul has 8 seeds, with 2 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers and 3 wild cards in the main draw. Qualifying finals are on Monday.   click for broader view   Koza Plaza, Istanbul site before construction Latitude: 41.069492 Longitude: 28.866084 goto link for World Wind Istanbul Cup venue address: Tennis Courts TEM Otoyolu Atışalanı Mevkii Tekstil Kent Koza Plaza Esenler / Istanbul 2007: On Thursday, May 17, Masked Marvel and Nike Princess of Increased Tourney Ticket Sales Maria Sharapova arrived at Ataturk Airport in Istanbul, ready to return to action after resting her ailing right shoulder for a few weeks... On Sunday, May 20, Maria met the press; her possible semifinal opponent, Venus Williams, addressed the media on Monday... Also on Monday, at Topkapi Palace, disheveled Maria attempted to explain to Turkish authorities what she was doing climbing around on the roof with Peter Ustinov, Maximillian Schell, and Melina Mercouri... (if you didn't see the movie, ignore the last remark; Maria is actually addressing tourney opening ceremonies at Topkapi) 2007: Elena Dementieva also addressed the opening ceremony attendees, assuring them that she was not carrying any stolen bejeweled daggers, and that Maria had plotted the entire heist herself (with Maximillian, of course)... also on Monday, lovely ladies Elena, Venus, and Maria had some pretty pictures taken in the, uh, harem section of Topkapi Palace...

Istanbul, 1st Rnd, Mon-Tue 10am losers' prize: $1,370 US; points: 1 entry list, from tourney website; seeds will be based on May 12 rankings # Elena Dementieva RUS # Daniela Hantuchova SLO # Agnieszka Radwanska POL # Nadia Petrova RUS # Olga Govortsova BLR # Akiko Morigami JAP # Kaia Kanepi EST # Sofia Arvidsson SWE # Meghann Shaughnessy USA # Alisa Kleybanova RUS # Akgul Amanmuradova UZB # Jill Craybas USA # Tzsvetana Pironkova BUL # Anastasia Rodionova RUS # Martina Muller GER # Ekaterina Makarova RUS # Aiko Nakamura JAP # Marta Domachowska POL # Marina Erakovic NZL # Yvonne Meusberger AUT # Meilen Tu USA + 2 more direct entries, 3 wild cards and 4 qualifiers

Istanbul, 2nd Round, Tue-Wed 10am losers' prize: $2,550 US; points: 20

Istanbul, QFs, Thu 11am losers' prize: $4,745 US; points: 35

Istanbul, SFs, Fri noon losers' prize: $8,840 US; points: 65

Istanbul, Final, Sat after doubles loser's prize: $16,450 US; points: 100 winner's prize: $30,500 US; points: 140

Istanbul, Doubles Final, Sat noon losers' prize: $4,900 US winners' prize: $9,150 US Istanbul, Qual Finals, Monday May 19 10am losers' prizes: q1 $215 1pt; q2 $395 3pts; q3 $735 4pts; qualifier 8 points Istanbul, Withdrawals

Internationaux de Strasbourg,  Strasbourg, France   tourney time:        = GMT +2 hours        = US EDT +6 hours        = US PDT +9 hours France News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Strasbourg: The 30-player main draw for Strasbourg has 8 seeds, with 2 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers and 3 wild cards in the main draw. Qualifying finals are on Monday.   click for broader view   Centre Sportif de Hautepierre Latitude: 48.599033 Longitude: 7.691063 goto link for World Wind Internationaux de Strasbourg venue address: Centre Sportif de Hautepierre, Rue Baden Powell, F-67200, Strasbourg, France 2007: On Monday, May 21, in Strasbourg, Stephanie Dubois awarded gifts at a VIP luncheon to tennis trivia game winners... On Saturday, Tiantian Sun did the player rep thing at the main draw ceremony, and then was interviewed by a local TV station... and on Wednesday, Na Li signed autographs at the Sony Ericsson booth...

Strasbourg, 1st Round, Mon 10am-Tue 10am losers' prize: $1,340 US; points: 1 entry list, from Jiro's Tennis Pages; seeds will be based on May 12 rankings Main draw # Marion Bartoli FRA # Tatiana Golovin FRA # Alona Bondarenko UKR # Flavia Pennetta ITA # Katarina Srebotnik SLO # Virginie Razzano FRA # Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP # Karin Knapp ITA # Ai Sugiyama JPN # Julia Vakulenko UKR # Zi Yan CHN # Kateryna Bondarenko UKR # Tathiana Garbin ITA # Casey Dellacqua AUS # Ashley Harkleroad USA # Edina Gallovits ROU # Shuai Peng CHN # Yung-Jan Chan TPE # Klara Zakopalova CZE # Mariya Koryttseva UKR # Timea Bacsinszky SUI # Stephanie Cohen-Aloro FRA ITF champ Saint-Malo, FRA 14 Apr 08 # Petra Kvitova CZE ITF champ Monzon, ESP 7 Apr 08 + 1 more direct entry, 3 wild cards and 4 qualifiers Next In Main Draw 1 PEER Shahar ISR 2 ERRANI Sara ITA 1 3 SANTANGELO Mara ITA 4 OLARU Ioana raluca ROU 1 5 PIN Camille FRA 6 PEREBIYNIS Tatiana UKR 7 LLAGOSTERA VIVES Nuria ESP 8 SALERNI Ma. emilia ARG 9 MAKAROVA Ekaterina RUS 1 10 MDO RUANO PASCUAL Virginia ESP 11 DECHY Nathalie FRA 12 MDO TANASUGARN TamarineTHA 13 Olga SAVCHUK UKR 1 14 LOIT Emilie FRA 1 15 MDO OSTERLOH Lilia USA 2 16 DE LOS RIOS Rossana PAR 1 17 SEQUERA Milagros VEN 18 MDO OBZILER Tzipora ISR 2 19 YUAN Meng CHN 20 LISICKI Sabine GER 1 21 KREMER Anne LUX 1 22 RODINA Evgeniya RUS 23 MDO DUBOIS Stephanie CAN 2 24 MDO COHEN-ALORO Stephanie FRA 25 FEDAK Yuliana UKR 1 26 MDO KLOESEL Sandra GER 1 27 CAMERIN Maria elena ITA 1 28 MDO KING Vania USA 2 Main draw only lists 1 MDO PEER Shahar ISR 9 MDO Virginia RUANO PASCUAL 12 MDO TANASUGARN TamarineTHA 15 MDO Lilia OSTERLOH 2 18 MDO Tzipora OBZILER 2 23 MDO Stephanie DUBOIS 2 24 MDO Stephanie COHEN-ALORO 26 MDO KLOESEL Sandra GER 1 28 MDO Vania KING 2 32 Catalina CASTANO 2 33 Anne KEOTHAVONG 1 38 Emmanuelle GAGLIARDI 2 Qualifying List 1 Sara ERRANI 1 2 Mara SANTANGELO 3 Ioana raluca OLARU 1 4 Camille PIN 5 Tatiana PEREBIYNIS 6 Nuria LLAGOSTERA VIVES 7 Ma. emilia SALERNI 8 Ekaterina MAKAROVA 1 9 Nathalie DECHY 10 Olga SAVCHUK 1 11 Emilie LOIT 1 12 Rossana DE LOS RIOS 1 13 Milagros SEQUERA 14 Meng YUAN 15 Sabine LISICKI 1 16 Anne KREMER 1 17 Evgeniya RODINA 18 Yuliana FEDAK 1 19 Maria elena CAMERIN 1 20 Su-wei HSIEH 21 Ayumi MORITA 22 Alicia MOLIK 23 Greta ARN 24 Mathilde JOHANSSON 25 Yaroslava SHVEDOVA 26 Tatiana POUTCHEK 27 W 28 W 29W 30 W 31 X Bari, ITA 14 Apr 08 BRIANTI, Alberta 32 X Palm Bch Gardens, FL 14 Apr 08 KARATANCHEVA, Sesil

Strasbourg, 2nd Round, Wed 11am losers' prize: $2,260 US; points: 20

Strasbourg, QFs, Thu 11am losers' prize: $4,270 US; points: 35

Strasbourg, SFs, Fri noon losers' prize: $7,730 US; points: 65

Strasbourg, Final, Sat 2pm loser's prize: $15,000 US; points: 100 winner's prize: $28,000 US; points: 140

Strasbourg, Doubles Final, Sat after singles losers' prize: $4,400 US winners' prize: $8,250 US Strasbourg, Qual Finals, Mon May 19 10am losers' prizes: q1 $200 1pt; q2 $350 3pts; q3 $650 4pts; qualifier 8 points Strasbourg, Withdrawals

See also: QuickShop: Sporting Goods - Martina Hingis - Anna Kournikova

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

Link to many postmatch interview & match highlight videos of WTA players at the 2008 WTA Player Videos page.

WTA PhotoRankings: the current top 20 Women's Tennis rankings with player photos, links, and bio info.