WTA Sep 13-19: Guangzhou & QC International Women's Open Guangzhou, CHN INTL $220,000 32m/32q/16d outdoor: hard Live Scores draws: WTA photos: sports21.cn tennis - WTA Guangzhou weather # , # # , # Bell Challenge Quebec City, CAN INTL $220,000 32m/32q/16d indoor: hard Uniturf PEPS, Laval University campus Live Scores draws: WTA html: OOP - results photos: Y!: sports - news | WTA Quebec: radar - forecast Canada News and Links # , # # , #

Guangzhou & Quebec City: 2009   Guangzhou: 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 Quebec City: 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 previous other tourney pages next Quebec City 2009: #51 Melinda Czink 5'10" 136¾lb LH 2H-BH Guangzhou 2009: #64 Shahar Peer 5'7" 132lb RH 2H-BH

    The Guangzhou & Quebec City 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.

    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.

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  Quebec City, 2009:

    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.

  Guangzhou, 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.

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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

Guangzhou, 2nd Rd, Wed-Thu 2:30pm loser's prize: $2,950 US; points: 30

Guangzhou, QFs, Fri 2pm loser's prize: $5,340 US; points: 70

Guangzhou, SFs, Sat 2pm loser's prize: $10,200 US; points: 130

Guangzhou, Final, Sun 2:30pm loser's prize: $19,000 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $37,000 US; points: 280

Guangzhou, Doubles Final, Sun after singles loser's prize: $5,750 US winner's prize: $11,000 US Guangzhou, Qual Finals, Mon Sep 13 10:30am losers' prizes: q1 $265 1pt; q2 $460 6pts; q3 $860 10pts; qualifier 16 points Guangzhou, Withdrawals

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

Quebec City, 2nd Rd, Wed-Thu 11am loser's prize: $2,950 US; points: 30

Quebec City, QFs, Fri noon loser's prize: $5,340 US; points: 70

Quebec City, SFs, Sat 1pm & 6:30pm loser's prize: $10,200 US; points: 130

Quebec City, Final, Sun 1pm+ loser's prize: $19,000 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $37,000 US; points: 280

Quebec City, Doubles Final, Sun noon loser's prize: $5,750 US winner's prize: $11,000 US Quebec City, Qual Finals, Mon Sep 13 11am losers' prizes: q1 $265 1pt; q2 $460 6pts; q3 $860 10pts; qualifier 16 points Quebec City, Withdrawals

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

Current WTA Results & Tennis News (tennis home page) - 2010 WTA Schedule with links & photos

Link to many postmatch interview & match highlight videos of WTA players at the 2009 WTA Player Videos page.

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