WTA Sep 14-20: Guangzhou & QC International Women's Open Guangzhou, CHN INTL $220,000 32m/32q/16d outdoor: hard Live Scores - in popup window draws: WTA: Q - main - D - OOP photos: sports21.cn tennis - WTA Guangzhou weather #21 A Medina G, #44 S Peng #56 K Srebotnik, #64 S Peer Bell Challenge Quebec City, CAN INTL $220,000 32m/32q/16d indoor: hard Uniturf PEPS, Laval University campus Live Scores - in popup window draws: WTA: Q - main - D - OOP html: OOP - results photos: Y!: sports - news | WTA Quebec: radar - forecast #13 N Petrova, #39 A Wozniak #48 L Safarova, #51 M Czink Canada News and Links

Tourney pages: Guangzhou: 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 Quebec City: 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 previous other tourney pages next Quebec City: #51 Melinda Czink 5'10" 136¾lb LH 2H-BH Guangzhou: #64 Shahar Peer 5'7" 132lb RH 2H-BH

    On Sunday in Quebec City, Canada, in the final of the Bell Challenge, 26-year-old 5th-seeded #51 Melinda Czink from Budapest, Hungary, won her first WTA singles title by defeating 22-year-old 4th-seeded #48 Lucie Safarova from Brno, Czech Republic, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 (Melinda is shown with the tourney trophy racquet after the match). Melinda's prize is $37,000; Lucie's is $19,000.

    Melinda said: "It feels great. I haven't really processed it yet but I will. I went match by match this week. This was the toughest match this week. I had to take some risks on [Lucie's] serve today—sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn't. We really pushed each other, and I'm happy I could come out the winner." WTA story

    Lucie said: "We both played a good match. I think it just came down to a few balls and [Melinda] did it better. The whole week I was trying to be very aggressive and move forward, but she did the same today and I had trouble dealing with it. I didn't feel I did anything wrong today. It could have gone either way. I hope to come back next year and do better. Unless you win, you can always do better!"

    Surprisingly, Lucie and Melinda had never before met on the field of combat.

    Melinda is now 1-1 in WTA singles finals; she reached her other final in Canberra in 2005. She has won 18 ITF singles titles and 9 ITF doubles titles. Melinda has a 33-20 match record for the season.
    Lucie is 4-3 in WTA singles finals; she won her titles at Forest Hills last year, at Gold Coast in 2006, and at Estoril & Forest Hills in 2005. Lucie has a 30-20 match record in 2009.

    On Sunday in Guangzhou, China, in the final of the International Women's Open, 22-year-old 5th-seeded #64 (and former #15) Shahar Peer from Maccabim, Israel, defeated 29-year-old 8th-seeded #85 Alberta Brianti from Fontanellato, Italy, 6-3, 6-4 (Shahar is shown with the fine ceramicware after the match). Shahar's prize is $37,000; Alberta's is $19,000.

    Shahar said: "I'm very happy to win this title. I haven't been in the finals for almost two and a half years, so winning this title is really important to me. At the beginning of the match [Alberta] played really, really well. She was very aggressive and dominating the points. I was a bit nervous—I wasn't hitting the ball very well. But I found my rhythm. It wasn't perfect, but it was good enough to win today." WTA story

    Shahar and Alberta were also playing each other for the first time in WTA singles.

    Shahar is now 4-1 in WTA singles finals; she won her earlier titles in Pattaya City, Prague, and Istanbul, all in 2006. Shahar now has a 30-19 match record in 2009.
    Alberta, who has won 8 ITF singles titles, was playing in her first WTA singles final; she reached the semifinals this year in Portoroz. Alberta has a 37-21 match record this year.

    Two nice New York Times articles from 1854 describing Quebec City, its surroundings, and the river trip there from Montreal, are located at the (newly revised) QuickNews: Canada News and Links, below the story about a rail trip to Montreal.

WTA SCOREBOARD: Guangzhou & Quebec City s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? Guangzhou International Women's Open,  Guangzhou, China   tourney time:        = GMT +8 hours        = US EDT +12 hours        = US PDT +15 hours China News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar Guangzhou: The main draw for Guangzhou has 8 seeds, with no 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   Fangcun Tennis Sports Center, Guangzhou, China Latitude: 23.073474 Longitude: 113.210024 goto link for World Wind     Back when Beijing was called Peking (and even earlier, Peiping), Guangzhou was known as Canton. It is about 182 kilometers from Hong Kong. At last count about 10.15 million people live there (and rising). "Tennis Courts of Fangcun Tennis Sports Center was built in 2001, covering an area of 53000 Square meters. It has total 17 tennis courts including one center court with a capacity of more than 3,500 seats..." 2009: On Saturday, Sept 13 in Guangzhou, Jie Zheng, a Wimbledon semifinalist last year, starred at a tourney promotional event (Jie is unable to play this week due to a left wrist injury)... At the draw ceremony on Sunday, Jie's frequent doubles partner Zi Yan (they were Australian Open & Wimbledon champs in 2006) appeared at the draw, along with row 2: Kimiko Date Krumm and top seed Anabel Medina Garrigues... Players looking good at the welcome reception on Monday, September 14 included Anabel, Shahar Peer, and Zi...

Guangzhou, 1st Rd, Mon 2pm/2:30pm, Tue 2pm loser's prize: $1,725 US; points: 1 #21 s1 Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP d #160 Kimiko Date Krumm JPN 6-1, 4-6, 6-4 Tue #44 s3 Shuai Peng CHN d #134 Angela Haynes USA 6-2, 7-5 Tue *#169 Olga Savchuk UKR d #56 s4 Katarina Srebotnik SLO 3-6, 7-5, 6-2 Tue #64 s5 Shahar Peer ISR d #126 Kathrin Woerle GER 6-1, 6-4 Tue #65 s6 Olga Govortsova BLR d #194 wc Xinyun Han CHN 3-6, 6-4, 7-5 Mon #69 s7 Ayumi Morita JPN d #224 q Tatiana Poutchek BLR 6-3, 6-3 Tue Ayumi about to connect with a forehand, and Tatiana following her serve #85 s8 Alberta Brianti ITA d #151 Sophie Ferguson AUS 7-6(1), 6-4 Tue #86 s9 Maria Elena Camerin ITA d #578 q Yanchong Chen CHN 6-2. 6-2 Tue #96 Anastasija Sevastova LAT d #185 wc Jingjing Lu CHN 6-4, 6-2 Tue *#108 Yung-Jan Chan TPE d #97 Mathilde Johansson FRA 6-1, 6-1 Tue #111 Akgul Amanmuradova UZB d #178 Rika Fujiwara JPN 6-3, 6-2 Mon *#149 Chanelle Scheepers RSA d #115 Arantxa Parra Santonja ESP 7-6(12), 5-7, 6-3 Tue #144 Lenka Wienerova SVK d #385 q Ling Zhang HKG 7-6(5), 4-6, 6-4 Tue #174 Su-Wei Hsieh TPE d #329 wc Zi Yan CHN 6-3, 7-5 Tue *#193 Alexandra Panova RUS d #170 Yurika Sema JPN 6-2, 3-6, 7-6(7) Mon #207 LL Abigail Spears USA d #212 q Kai-Chen Chang TPE 6-3, 7-6(3) Tue

Guangzhou, 2nd Rd, Wed-Thu 2:30pm loser's prize: $2,950 US; points: 30 *#96 Anastasija Sevastova LAT d #21 s1 Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 Thu cC m2 #44 s3 Shuai Peng CHN d #149 Chanelle Scheepers RSA 6-3, 6-2 Thu #64 s5 Shahar Peer ISR d #111 Akgul Amanmuradova UZB 6-3, 6-3 Wed *#193 Alexandra Panova RUS d #65 s6 Olga Govortsova BLR 7-5, 6-4 Wed #69 s7 Ayumi Morita JPN d #207 LL Abigail Spears USA 1-6, 6-1, 6-0 Wed #85 s8 Alberta Brianti ITA d #144 Lenka Wienerova SVK 6-3, 6-1 Wed *#108 Yung-Jan Chan TPE d #86 s9 Maria Elena Camerin ITA 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(2) Thu Maria Elena following a backhand, and Yung-Jan driving one #169 Olga Savchuk UKR d #174 Su-Wei Hsieh TPE 6-4, 6-4 Thu

Guangzhou, QFs, Fri 2pm loser's prize: $5,340 US; points: 70 #44 s3 Shuai Peng CHN d #193 Alexandra Panova RUS 6-2, 6-3 Alexandra driving a backhand, and Shuai following one #64 s5 Shahar Peer ISR d #108 Yung-Jan Chan TPE 6-3, 6-1 Yung-Jan tossing the ball for her serve, and Shahar following a forehand #69 s7 Ayumi Morita JPN d #169 Olga Savchuk UKR 6-3, 6-4 85 s8 Alberta Brianti ITA d #96 Anastasija Sevastova LAT 6-4, 6-2

Guangzhou, SFs, Sat 2pm loser's prize: $10,200 US; points: 130 *#64 s5 Shahar Peer ISR d #44 s3 Shuai Peng CHN 6-4, 1-0 retired—right wrist injury Shahar about to swat a backhand, and Shuai twisting a serve before her wrist injury *#85 s8 Alberta Brianti ITA d #69 s7 Ayumi Morita JPN 6-3, 7-5

Guangzhou, Final, Sun 2:30pm loser's prize: $19,000 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $37,000 US; points: 280 #64 s5 Shahar Peer ISR d #85 s8 Alberta Brianti ITA 6-3, 6-4 Shahar running down a forehand, Alberta following a backhand, and Shahar driving one

Guangzhou, Doubles Final, Sun after singles loser's prize: $5,750 US winner's prize: $11,000 US *cdr308 Olga Govortsova & Tatiana Poutchek d cdr234 Tiantian Sun & Kimiko Date Krumm 3-6, 6-2, (10-8) Olga and Tatiana Guangzhou, Qual Finals, Mon Sep 14 10:30am losers' prizes: q1 $265 1pt; q2 $460 6pts; q3 $860 10pts; qualifier 16 points *#578 Yanchong Chen CHN d #207 Abigail Spears USA 6-3, 6-2 *#385 Ling Zhang HKG d #208 Shuai Zhang CHN 6-1, 6-4 #212 Kai-Chen Chang TPE d #873 Tiantian Sun CHN TPE 6-1, 6-4 #224 Tatiana Poutchek BLR d #243 Yi-Miao Zhou CHN 7-5, 6-4 Guangzhou, Withdrawals #22 s2 Jie Zheng CHN left wrist injury #26 Sorana Cirstea ROU right foot injury #28 Francesca Schiavone ITA right leg injury #30 Alisa Kleybanova RUS bilateral plantar fascia injury #118 Klara Zakopalova CZE illness #133 Julie Ditty USA

Bell Challenge,  Quebec City, Canada   tourney time:        = GMT -5 hours        = US EST        = US PST +3 hours Canada News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Quebec City: The main draw for Quebec City has 8 seeds, with no 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   PEPS, Laval University, Quebec City Latitude: 46.784634 Longitude: -71.277645 goto link for World Wind Bell Challenge venue address: Pavillon de l'Éducation physique et des sports, Laval University, Quebec City 2009: Vania King made an appearance in Quebec City on, uh, Monday or Tuesday or something or other... Since the QC "photo gallery" has no captions, one can only assume that sultry crooner Vania is singing The Theme from Star Wars to a group of prominent local businessmen, translating the complex Bill Murray lyrics into Canadian French on the spot (the pic later appeared at the WTA photo gallery; you can click for their alternative photo description)... Injured Sabine Lisicki cheerfully signed autographs in QC though she could not play... 2008 tourney champ Nadia Petrova posed in the Mercedes the tourney provided for her transport this week... row 2: Lovely ladies looking good at the players party included Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, Lucie Safarova, Julia Goerges, Valerie Tetreault, Stephanie Dubois, Nicole Riner and Amra Sadikovic...

Quebec City, 1st Rd, Mon-Wed 11am loser's prize: $1,725 US; points: 1 #13 s1 Nadia Petrova RUS d #132 Carly Gullickson USA 6-2, 6-0 Tue Nadia tossing the ball for her serve #39 s3 Aleksandra Wozniak CAN d #152 Corinna Dentoni ITA 6-2, 6-0 Tue #48 s4 Lucie Safarova CZE d #113 Stephanie Dubois CAN 6-1, 6-3 Tue #51 s5 Melinda Czink HUN d #164 Monique Adamczak AUS 6-3, 7-6(1) Mon #75 s6 Jill Craybas USA d #364 sr84 Laura Granville USA 6-0, 6-1 Mon *#124 Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA d #84 s7 Vavara Lepchenko USA 6-4, 7-5 Tue #92 s8 Julia Goerges GER d #148 Sofia Arvidsson SWE 6-3, 7-5 Tue #94 Alla Kudryavtseva RUS d #104 Katie O'Brien GBR 6-1, 6-4 Mon #99 Severine Bremond Beltrame FRA d #182 wc Heidi El Tabakh CAN 5-0     retired—left finger laceration Tue #114 Vania King USA d #168 q Anna Tatishvili GEO 7-5, 6-2 Tue *#161 Valerie Tetreault CAN d #117 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova CZE 6-2, 6-1 Mon *#220 q Lilia Osterloh USA d #131 Shenay Perry USA 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 Tue #158 Regina Kulikova RUS d #181 Jorgalina Cravero ARG 6-4, 6-2 Tue #165 Madison Brengle USA d #484 q Mallory Cecil USA 7-5, 6-3 Tue *#200 wc Rebecca Marino CAN d #166 Lauren Albanese USA 6-4, 6-3 Mon *#595 q Amra Sadikovic SUI d #228 LL Olga Puchkova RUS 6-4, 6-3 Tue

Quebec City, 2nd Rd, Wed-Thu 11am loser's prize: $2,950 US; points: 30 #13 s1 Nadia Petrova RUS d #165 Madison Brengle USA 6-3, 6-2 Wed #39 s3 Aleksandra Wozniak CAN d #158 Regina Kulikova RUS 6-2, 7-5 Thu Aleksandra serving to Regina #48 s4 Lucie Safarova CZE d #161 Valerie Tetreault CAN 6-2, 6-2 Thu Lucie following a backhand #51 s5 Melinda Czink HUN d #99 Severine Bremond Beltrame FRA 6-4, 6-3 Wed *#94 Alla Kudryavtseva RUS d #75 s6 Jill Craybas USA 7-5, 6-2 Wed #92 s8 Julia Goerges GER d #200 wc Rebecca Marino CAN 6-2, 6-3 Wed *#124 Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA d #114 Vania King USA 6-3, 6-3 Thu #220 q Lilia Osterloh USA d #595 q Amra Sadikovic SUI 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 Thu

Quebec City, QFs, Fri noon loser's prize: $5,340 US; points: 70 *#51 s5 Melinda Czink HUN d #13 s1 Nadia Petrova RUS 7-6(4), retired—illness #39 s3 Aleksandra Wozniak CAN d #94 Alla Kudryavtseva RUS 6-1, 6-1 #48 s4 Lucie Safarova CZE d #124 Bethanie Mattek-Sands USA 6-3, 6-4 #92 s8 Julia Goerges GER d #220 q Lilia Osterloh USA 6-2, 6-4 Julia at ready

Quebec City, SFs, Sat 1pm & 6:30pm loser's prize: $10,200 US; points: 130 *#51 s5 Melinda Czink HUN d #39 s3 Aleksandra Wozniak CAN 6-3, 6-3 #48 s4 Lucie Safarova CZE d #92 s8 Julia Goerges GER 6-3, 6-2

Quebec City, Final, Sun 1pm+ loser's prize: $19,000 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $37,000 US; points: 280 *#51 s5 Melinda Czink HUN d #48 s4 Lucie Safarova CZE 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 Melinda reaching for a backhand (file photo from earlier this year; photos during play from this match have not been found)

Quebec City, Doubles Final, Sun noon loser's prize: $5,750 US winner's prize: $11,000 US cdr73 s1 Vania King & Barbora Zahlavova Strycova d cdr419 Sofia Arvidsson & Severine Bremond Beltrame 6-1, 6-3 Sofia & Severine, and Barbora & Vania Quebec City, Qual Finals, Mon Sep 14 11am losers' prizes: q1 $265 1pt; q2 $460 6pts; q3 $860 10pts; qualifier 16 points #168 Anna Tatishvili GEO d #242 Natalie Grandin RSA 6-3, 7-6(10) #220 Lilia Osterloh USA d #234 Greta Arn HUN 6-3, 6-2 *#484 Mallory Cecil USA d #228 Olga Puchkova RUS 6-4, 6-1 *#595 Amra Sadikovic SUI d #245 Megan Moulton-Levy USA 7-6(5), 7-6(4) Quebec City, Withdrawals #25 s2 Sabine Lisicki GER ankle sprained at US Open #70 Melanie Oudin USA left thigh injury #103 Alexa Glatch USA low back injury #119 Michaella Krajicek NED left wrist injury

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

Current WTA Results & Tennis News (tennis home page) - 2009 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.