WTA Apr 5-11: Marbella & Ponte Vedra Andalucia Tennis Experience Marbella, ESP INTL $500,000 32m/32q/16d outdoor: red clay Live Scores draws: WTA pics: Y!: sports - news | tourney - WTA audio clips - Marbella: radar - forecast # S Williams, # V Azarenka # F Pennetta, # A Rezai MPS Group Championships Ponte Vedra Beach, FL INTL $220,000 32m?/32q/16d outdoor: green clay Har-Tru Live Scores draws: WTA results - draw, .html - schedule pics: Y!: sports - news | WTA - FTU TV schedule ESPN2 | FTU: MPS GC Ponte Vedra: radar - forecast # C Wozniacki, # A Bondarenko # S Lisicki, # A Pavlyuchenkova

Ponte Vedra & Marbella: 2009   Amelia Island: 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 previous other tourney pages next Marbella 2009: #3 Jelena Jankovic 5' 9½" 130lb RH 2H-BH Ponte Vedra 2009: #12 Caroline Wozniacki 5'10" 128lb RH 2H-BH

    The Marbella and Ponte Vedra Beach 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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  Marbella, 2009:

    On Sunday in Marbella, Spain, in the final of the Andalucia Tennis Experience, 24-year-old 2nd-seeded # 3 Jelena Jankovic from Belgrade, Serbia, won her first title of the year by narrowly defeating 20-year-old 5th-seeded # 32 (and Spanish # 2) Carla Suarez Navarro from Barcelona, Spain, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 (Jelena is shown with the hardware after the match).

    Jelena's prize is $112,303; Carla's is $57,669.

    Jelena converted 6 of 11 break points she held against Clara; Clara converted 5 of 10 of her break points against Jelena. Jelena won 93 points in the match; Clara won 85.

    Jelena said: "I know I haven't been playing well the last three months but this win has given me back the confidence I need. It's my 10th title, and just the beginning of the clay season, so I hope to continue in this way. The tournament has been wonderful here. I really hope to come back next year." WTA story

    Jelena and Clara had met twice before; both encounters were last year. In the quarterfinals of the 2008 French Open, Jelena defeated Carla, who had been enjoying her best Grand Slam performance to date, 6-3, 6-2. And less than a month later, at Wimbledon, Jelena won again, 6-1, 6-3.

    Jelena is now 10-10 in WTA singles finals; she won in Rome, Beijing, Stuttgart, and Moscow last year, and ended the year ranked # 1 in the WTA. Jelena now has a 14-5 match record in 2009.
    Carla was playing in her first WTA singles final; she has won 6 ITF singles titles. Carla has a 13-10 match record this season.

  Ponte Vedra Beach, 2009:

    Meanwhile at Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida, in the final of the MPS Group Championships, 18-year-old 2nd-seeded # 12 Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark (residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco) crushed, killed and destroyed 21-year-old 5th-seeded # 29 Aleksandra Wozniak from Blainville, Canada, 6-1, 6-2 (Caroline is shown with the glassware after the match).

    Caroline's prize is $37,000; Aleksandra's is $19,000.

    Aleksandra held only 1 break point against Caroline during the match, and was unable to convert it, while Caroline scored on 5 of the 9 break points she held on Aleksandra's serve.

    Caroline said: "It's a great start for the clay court season—I can't ask for anything more than winning a title. I played so many tough players here, and it was good to get some tough matches, because it proves I can beat those players, and that I'm playing well on clay. Hopefully I can keep this up." WTA story

    Aleksandra said: "I know I had a great week but it's just so disappointing. [Caroline] played really well today and there was just nothing I could do."

    Caroline and Aleksandra had met only once before, on a chlorophyll court last June in the 2nd round of The Championships at Wimbledon, when Caroline won, 6-1, 6-1.

    Caroline is now 4-2 in WTA singles finals; she reached the Memphis final earlier this year, and won in Stockholm, New Haven, and Tokyo (the Japan Open) last year. Caroline has a 23-7 match record for the year.
    Aleksandra is now 1-2 in WTA singles finals; she won the Stanford title last year, and reached the Fes final in 2007. Aleksandra had been struggling prior to this tourney; she has a 6-6 match record in 2009, with four of the six wins coming in the past week.

Ponte Vedra Beach MPS GC photos, videos & reports by IHeartMasha

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WTA SCOREBOARD: Marbella and Ponte Vedra s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? Andalucia Tennis Experience,  Marbella, Spain   tourney time:        = GMT +2 hours        = US EDT +6 hours        = US PDT +9 hours Spain News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Marbella: The 32-player main draw for Marbella has 8 seeds, with no 1st-round byes. There are 4 qualifiers in the main draw. Qualifying finals are on Monday.   click for broader view   Club de Tenis Puente Romano, Marbella, ESP Latitude: 36.50222 Longitude: -4.925909 goto link for World Wind 2009: On Sunday, April 5 in Marbella, Spaniards Virginia Ruano Pascual and Conchita Martinez (the 1994 Wimbledon champion and former WTA #2 who is now the Andalucia tourney director) played beach tennis with 2nd seed Jelena Jankovic... Top-seeded # 1 Serena Williams arrived in Marbella on Monday with her crew... 2009: At the Marbella player party on Wednesday, Vivi Ruano and Anabel Medina tested their flamenco skills with the pros, while Jelena Jankovic and Serena Williams observed, but left the dancing to those whose feet speak Español...

Marbella, 1st Round, Mon-Wed 11am loser's prize: $2,707 US; points: 1 full entry list, partially from tourney website; seeds will be based on the March 29 rankings # Serena Williams USA # Victoria Azarenka BLR # Flavia Pennetta ITA # Aravane Rezai FRA # Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez ESP # Anabel Medina Garrigues ESP # Maria Kirilenko RUS # Gisela Dulko ARG # Sorana Cirstea ROU # Andrea Petkovic GER # Yaroslava Shvedova KAZ # Carla Suarez Navarro ESP # Iveta Benesova CZE # Sara Errani ITA # Alexandra Dulgheru ROU # Roberta Vinci ITA # Anna-Lena Groenefeld GE # Polona Hercog SLO # Stefanie Voegele SUI # Anna Chakvetadze RUS # Kirsten Flipkens BEL # Alberta Brianti ITA # Kristina Barrois GER # Petra Martic CRO + 4 wild cards and 4 qualifiers next in; possibly in the qualifying draw: # Iona Raluca Olaru ROU

Marbella, 2nd Round, Wed-Thu 11am loser's prize: $4,629 US; points: 30 # Serena Williams USA

Marbella, QFs, Fri noon loser's prize: $8,380 US; points: 70

Marbella, SFs, Sat noon loser's prize: $30,959 US; points: 130

Marbella, Final, Sun 1pm loser's prize: $57,669 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $112,303 US; points: 280

Marbella, Doubles Final, Sun 11am loser's prize: $9,023 US winner's prize: $17,262 US Marbella, Qual Finals, Mon Apr 5 11am losers' prizes: q1 $416 1pt; q2 $722 6pts; q3 $1,350 10pts; qualifier 16 points Marbella, Withdrawals

The MPS Group Championships  Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida   NWS weather radar tourney time:        = GMT -4 hours        = US EDT        = US PDT +3 hours Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar   click for broader view   Sawgrass Country Club Latitude: 30.193643 Long.: -81.371768 goto link for World Wind     Formerly the Bausch & Lomb Championships, this tourney was held at Amelia Island Plantation for 29 years before moving to Ponte Vedra Beach for 2009. Ponte Vedra Beach is located in northeast Florida, 20 minutes southeast of Jacksonville. tourney Twitter blog     Sawgrass Country Club covers 1250 acres with 13 Har-Tru green clay tennis courts, including a 3800-seat stadium court. Former ATP great Tony Trabert is a prominent club member. 2009: On Sunday, April 5, at Ponte Vedra Beach, top seed Nadia Petrova pulled players' names out of a bag during the main draw ceremony... Bethanie Mattek-Sands, Nadia, and Caroline Wozniacki posed for a pic on the boardwalk on Sunday, and Elena Vesnina also contributed extra prettiness during the draw...

Ponte Vedra Beach, 1st Round, Mon-Tue 10am loser's prize: $1,725 US; points: 1 partial entry list, seeds will be based on the March 29 rankings # Caroline Wozniacki DEN # Alona Bondarenko UKR # Sabine Lisicki GER # Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS # Alisa Kleybanova RUS # Elena Vesnina RUS # Dominika Cibulkova SVK # Virginie Razzano FRA # Lucie Safarova CZE # Ekaterina Makarova RUS # Angelique Kerber GER # Julia Goerges GER # Aleksandra Wozniak CAN # Melanie Oudin USA # Patty Schnyder SUI # Vania King USA # Sybille Bammer AUT # Kateryna Bondarenko UKR # Melinda Czink HUN # Olga Govortsova BLR # Shuai Peng CHN # Magdalena Rybarikova SVK # Anastasija Sevastova LAT # Barbora Zahlavova Strycova CZE # Sofia Arvidsson SWE + 4 wild cards and 4 qualifiers next in; possibly in the qualifying draw: # Alla Kudryavtseva RUS

Ponte Vedra Beach, 2nd Round, Wed-Thu 11am loser's prize: $2,950 US; points: 30

Ponte Vedra Beach, QFs, Fri 11am loser's prize: $5,340 US; points: 70

Ponte Vedra Beach, SFs, Sat noon TV: Tennis Channel loser's prize: $10,200 US; points: 130

Ponte Vedra Beach, Final, Sun 1pm TV: Tennis Channel loser's prize: $19,000 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $37,000 US; points: 280

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

    () The Andalucia Tennis Experience was added to the WTA calendar in late January, 2009. It was originally slated to be a $220,000 tourney, but the prize money was later increased to $500,000 when both Serena Williams and Jelena Jankovic entered ($220,000 tourneys are allowed only 1 top-10 player).

    The MPS Group Championships is the tourney formerly known as the Bausch & Lomb Championships, and formerly held at Amelia Island. Florida Times-Union: Women's tennis event begins a new chapter at Sawgrass Country Club

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 2008 WTA Player Videos page.

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