WTA Jul 18-24: Baku Baku Cup, Azerbaijan INTL $220,000 32m/32q/16d outdoor: hard Free Live Video (popup) Live Scores - in popup window draws: WTA: Q - main - D - OOP pics: DL - Y!: sports - news | WTA Azerbaijan news Baku: forecast #3 Vera Zvonareva RUS #13 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova #33 Elena Vesnina RUS #40 Ekaterina Makarova #58 Elena Baltacha #65 Ksenia Pervak #77 Evgeniya Rodina #87 Anastasiya Yakimova #88 Kateryna Bondarenko #91 Vesna Dolonts #112 Aravane Rezai #164 Galina Voskoboeva

Portoroz: 2010 - 2009 - 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 previous other tourney pages next Baku: #65 Ksenia Pervak 5' 7" 132lb LH 2H-BH Baku: #3 Vera Zvonareva 5' 7¾" 130½lb RH 2H-BH

    On Sunday in Azerbaijan, in the final of the Baku Cup the 2010 US Open & Wimbledon finalist (and this year's champion in Doha, Qatar), 26 year old top seeded #3 (career high: #2) Vera Zvonareva from Moscow, Russia, defeated 20 year old 7th seeded #65 (career high: #55) Ksenia Pervak from Moscow, Russia, 6-1, 6-4 (Vera is shown with the glassware after the match; Ksenia is shown during her SF win on Saturday). Vera's prize is $37,000; Ksenia's is $19,000.

    Vera won 63% of her 1st serve points and 64% of her 2nd serve points, while scoring on 6 of the 9 break points she reached against Ksenia, and totaling 58 points in the match. Ksenia won only 46% of her 1st serve points and 33% of her 2nd serve points, while converting 2 of the 3 break points she reached against Vera, and scoring 38 points in the 1 hour, 23 minute match.

    Vera said: "Every single opponent was tough... I know if I don't have my full concentration or give my best there's no chance I'll win a match. Maybe I didn't play my best tennis this week but I still fought very hard and played every match from the first point to the last. It's a great feeling to win at the end of the day." WTA story

    Ksenia said: "Vera is a really good player and has a lot of experience. It was tough to play against her...It was a really tough match, but I played pretty well I think."

    Vera and Ksenia had met only once before, on a hardcourt last year in the 1st round at Pattaya City, when Vera defeated Ksenia 6-3, 6-2.

    Vera is now 12-16 in WTA singles finals; she won this year at Doha, and last year won at Pattaya City and reached the finals at Wimbledon, Flushing Meadows, Beijing, Montreal, and Charleston. Vera's 2011 singles match record is 37-12.

    Ksenia was playing in her first WTA singles final. She has won 7 ITF singles titles and 3 ITF doubles titles. Ksenia's singles match record this year is 30-17.

    A good New York Times story from 1884 describing Baku and it's oil industry can be read at Azerbaijan News and Links

WTA SCOREBOARD: Baku s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? Baku Cup,  Baku, Azerbaijan   tourney time:        = GMT +5 hours        = US EDT +9 hours        = US PDT +12 hours Azerbaijan News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Baku: The 32-player main draw for Baku 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   Baku, Azerbaijan Latitude: 45.507963 Longitude: 13.596697 goto link for World Wind Baku Cup venue address: Baku Tennis Academy, 3158/3156 Ibrahim Dadashov Street, AZ1000 BAKU | phone: 5115408     Baku is a late replacement for the Portoroz, Slovenia, tourney, which lasted six years. Baku 2011: On Saturday, July 16 in Baku, 15 year old wild card Kamilla Farhad of Azerbaijan did the player rep thing at the main draw ceremony, and posed for pic on the new center court of the Baku Tennis Academy... row 2: Young ladies looking good at the players party on Monday included Elena Vesnina & Vera Zvonareva, and former player/current coach Alina Jidkova & her pupil, Galina Voskoboeva...

Baku, 1st Rd, Mon-Tue 11am loser's prize: $1,725 US; points: 1 #3 s1 Vera Zvonareva RUS d #487 wc Nigina Abduraimova UZB 6-1, 7-5 Tue #13 s2 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS d #278 q Valeria Solovieva RUS 7-5, 6-4 Tue #33 s3 Elena Vesnina RUS d #367 q Yana Buchina RUS 6-2, 3-6, 7-5 Tue     Elena won despite not feeling up to par. Elena tweeted: "Hi guys! I must say that 42C [108°F] in the shadow feels awful. Happy to go through that match, even knowing that I wasn't 100% healthy... Now back in my room,relaxing and trying to cool down a bit after that heat." Elena Vesnina at Twitter #40 s4 Ekaterina Makarova RUS d #147 Anne Kremer LUX 6-1, 6-4 Tue #52 s5 Monica Niculescu ROU d #197 q Eirini Georgatou GRE 5-1 retired—left ankle injury Tue *#168 Mariya Koryttseva UKR d #58 s6 Elena Baltacha GBR 6-1, 7-5 Mon #65 s7 Ksenia Pervak RUS d #152 Noppawan Lertcheewakarn THA 3-6, 6-1, 7-5 Tue *#83 Anna Tatishvili GEO d #77 s8 Evgeniya Rodina RUS 6-4, 6-2 Tue #87 Anastasiya Yakimova BLR d #137 Valeria Savinykh RUS 6-3, 6-4 Tue #88 Kateryna Bondarenko UKR d #126 Lesia Tsurenko UKR 6-3, 6-2 Tue #91 Vesna Dolonts RUS d #125 Alona Bondarenko UKR 6-3, 6-3 Mon #112 Aravane Rezai FRA d #NR wc Kamilla Farhad AZE 6-0, 6-2 Tue Kamilla and Aravane about to swat forehand and backhand #164 Galina Voskoboeva KAZ d #256 Sofia Shapatava GEO 6-0, 6-0 Mon *#321 q Elena Bovina RUS d #173 Zarina Diyas KAZ 6-0, 3-6, 7-5 Tue #186 Kristina Kucova SVK d #258 Tetyana Arefyeva UKR 6-3, 6-3 Tue #345 LL Tatia Mikadze GEO d #NR wc Nina Khrisanova RUS 6-0, 6-0 Tue

Baku, 2nd Rd, Wed-Thu 11am loser's prize: $2,950 US; points: 30 #3 s1 Vera Zvonareva RUS d #186 Kristina Kucova SVK 6-3, 3-0 retired—lower leg injury Thu Kristina following a backhand, and Vera about to swat a forehand #13 s2 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS d #321 q Elena Bovina RUS 6-4, 6-0 Thu Anastasia and Elena driving backhand and forehand *#112 Aravane Rezai FRA d #33 s3 Elena Vesnina RUS 6-3, 1-0 retired—illness Wed *#88 Kateryna Bondarenko UKR d #40 s4 Ekaterina Makarova RUS 6-1, 6-4 Thu *#164 Galina Voskoboeva KAZ d #52 s5 Monica Niculescu ROU 7-6(2), 6-2 Wed     Galina tweeted: "Had another good match on center court. It's always tough to play against your doubles partner. And again the weather was extremely hot. Tomorrow we play doubles at 11 on center court again! Love this court, it a pleasure to play on it, and also there is a shadow there! And one more thing... from this week I start to work with my coach Alina Jidkova again." Galina Voskoboeva at Twitter #65 s7 Ksenia Pervak RUS d #91 Vesna Dolonts RUS 6-3, 6-3 Wed #83 Anna Tatishvili GEO d #345 LL Tatia Mikadze GEO 7-6(4), 6-3 Thu *#168 Mariya Koryttseva UKR d #87 Anastasiya Yakimova BLR 6-2, 7-5 Wed

Baku, QFs, Fri 11am loser's prize: $5,340 US; points: 70 #3 s1 Vera Zvonareva RUS d #83 Anna Tatishvili GEO 7-5, 6(4)-7, 6-2 *#164 Galina Voskoboeva KAZ d #13 s2 Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS 6(5)-7, 6-4, 6-3 Anastasia ready to drive a backhand, and Galina ready slice one     Anastasia struck 27 double faults during the match (and she had 25 double faults in her 1st round match). Anastasia tweeted: "Guys, I'm sorry but with this serve I've had this tournament, was impossible to play and win matches! That's very pity! I was changing the serve before this tournament, but I think its time to come back to the old one and keep improving! I hope this will never happen again!" Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova at Twitter     Galina has also reached the doubles final, partnered with Monica Niculescu. Galina tweeted: "Had a long day but very successful! I am happy I won today )) It is my first WTA semis ))) and it's great to play in the final of doubles too. Today was the hottest day so far. At 10:30 am it was 36.1C! My energy drink was under umbrella but melted and changed it's shape!" [click to see TwitPic] - Galina Voskoboeva at Twitter #65 s7 Ksenia Pervak RUS d #112 Aravane Rezai FRA 6-1, 6-2 *#168 Mariya Koryttseva UKR d #88 Kateryna Bondarenko UKR 7-5, 6-4

Baku, SFs, Sat 5pm loser's prize: $10,200 US; points: 130 #3 s1 Vera Zvonareva RUS d #168 Mariya Koryttseva UKR 6-1, 6-2 #65 s7 Ksenia Pervak RUS d #164 Galina Voskoboeva KAZ 1-6, 6-0, 6-2 Galina and Ksenia following backhand and forehand     Galina, partnered with Monica Niculescu, will play Mariya Koryttseva & Tatiana Poutchek in the doubles final on Sunday. Galina tweeted: "Lost my match((( Was playing great in the 1 set but then my energy level went down... but anyway it was a good tournament for me. Tomorrow we play our doubles final at 3:30!" Galina Voskoboeva at Twitter

Baku, Final, Sun 6pm loser's prize: $19,000 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $37,000 US; points: 280 #3 s1 Vera Zvonareva RUS d #65 s7 Ksenia Pervak RUS 6-1, 6-4

Baku, Doubles Final, Sun 3:30pm loser's prize: $5,750 US winner's prize: $11,000 US cdr126 s2 Mariya Koryttseva & Tatiana Poutchek d cdr100 s1 Galina Voskoboeva & Monica Niculescu 6-3, 2-6, (10-8) Tatiana and Mariya     Mariya also reached the singles semifinals. Mariya said: "I'm so happy for this week. Finally some results are coming out for me, and I'm very glad Tatiana and I won this title. For me it has been a good week and I've enjoyed being here so much." WTA story     Tatiana said: "We're really happy, because winning a tournament is always nice and that final was really tough. Monica and Galina are great doubles players and a great team. We knew it would be tough, and we would have to stick together for every point." Baku, Qual Finals, Mon Jul 18 losers' prizes: q1 $265 1pt; q2 $460 6pts; q3 $860 10pts; qualifier 16 points #197 Eirini Georgatou GRE d #470 Ekaterine Gorgodze 6-3, 6-1 Sun Jul 17 #278 Valeria Solovieva RUS d #345 Tatia Mikadze GEO 1-6, 6-3, 6-1 #321 Elena Bovina RUS d #379 Dalila Jakupovic SLO 6-1, 6-0 #367 Yana Buchina RUS d #678 Yevgeniya Kryvoruchko UKR 6-2, 6-1 Baku, Withdrawals #31 Lucie Safarova CZE #43 Lourdes Dominguez Lino ESP right shoulder injury #48 Jelena Dokic AUS hamstring injury #50 Kimiko Date-Krumm JPN left shoulder injury #56 Bojana Jovanovski SRB hamstring injury #63 Sania Mirza IND knee injury #73 Greta Arn HUN right knee injury #69 Alberta Brianti ITA left knee injury #104 Eleni Daniilidou GRE #109 Patricia Mayr-Achleitner AUT gastrointestinal illness #111 Andrea Hlavackova CZE #127 Aranxta Parra Santonja ESP right shoulder injury #141 Yaroslava Shvedova KAZ illness

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

Current WTA Results & Tennis News (tennis home page) - 2011 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.