WTA May 16-21: Warsaw & Strasbourg Warsaw Open, POL PREMIER $600,000 30m/32q/16d outdoor: red clay Free Live Video (popup) Live Scores - in popup window draws: WTA: Q - main - D - OOP pics: DL - Y!: sports - news | WTA TVP: Tennis Polish, w/ some pics Warsaw: weather radar- forecast Poland News # , # # , # Internationaux de Strasbourg, FRA INTL $220,000 32m/32q/16d outdoor: red clay Free Live Video (popup) Live Scores - in popup window draws: WTA: Q - main - D - OOP pics: DL - Y!: sports - news | WTA France news Strasbourg: sat-radar - forecast # , # # , #

Warsaw & Strasbourg: 2010 - 2009   Warsaw: 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 Strasbourg: 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 previous other tourney pages next Warsaw 2010: #38 Alexandra Dulgheru 5'5½" 134lb RH 2H-BH Strasbourg 2010: #12 Maria Sharapova 6' 2" 130lb RH 2H-BH

    The Warsaw & Strasbourg 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.

  Warsaw & Strasbourg 2010:

On Saturday in Poland, in the final of the Warsaw Open, the defending Warsaw champion, unseeded 20-year-old #38 Alexandra Dulgheru from Bucharest, Romania, won again, by defeating a semifinalist at this year's Australian Open (and at Wimbledon in 2008), 26-year-old 5th-seeded #25 Jie Zheng from Cheng Du, Si Chuan, China, 6-3, 6-4 (Alexandra is shown after match point).     Alexandra's prize is $98,500; Jie's is $52,500.     Alexandra said: "I felt good from the beginning, but Zheng is a very good player and I had to focus on every point. It's a special feeling to win here. Besides the tactics and strategies, the nice feelings I get here also helped me win today.     "I'll have more confidence going into the French Open, but I'm a bit tired now! It's important for me to rest and recover in the next few days and get ready." WTA story     Jie said: "[Alexandra] changed the rhythm to make it difficult for me. I had my chances in the second set, but I didn't take them.     "I feel very good about this tournament. I was in the doubles final last year and the singles final this year. Now I'm just looking forward to my first round match at Roland Garros."     Alexandra and Jie had never before met on the field of combat.     Alexandra is now 2-0 in WTA singles finals; she won her only previous WTA singles final one year ago in Warsaw. She has also won 4 ITF singles titles and 3 ITF doubles titles. Alexandra has a 18-13 match record in 2010.     Jie is now 3-2 in WTA singles finals; this was the first final she had reached since she won in Stockholm in 2006 (where some guy named "Borg" handed her the trophy). She also won in Estoril that year, and in Hobart in 2005. Jie has a 15-9 match record this season.

    Meanwhile in France, in the final of the Internationaux de Strasbourg, this year's champion in Memphis (and 3-time Grand Slam tourney champ) 23-year-old top-seeded #12 (and former #1) Maria Sharapova of Russia (with residences in Manhattan Beach, California & Bradenton, Florida) defeated 28-year-old unseeded #77 Kristina Barrois from Urexweiler, Germany, 7-5, 6-1 (Maria is also shown after match point).

    Maria's prize is $37,000; Kristina's is $19,000.

    Kristina broke Maria's serve early in the 1st set, and held the lead until the score reached 5-4. Then Maria broke back, and won 9 of the next 10 games to take the match.

    Maria said: "Kristina changed it up a lot. Her backhand was more old school, with 90% of the shots low, so I really had to bend my knees. I had one sloppy game where I made a few unforced errors and that gave her the chance to go a break up. When she was serving for the set at 4-5 I managed to hang in there, and after that I felt my level went up a little bit. In the end, it was just a combination of doing a few things better than she was...
    "I'm looking forward to Roland Garros. It's obviously the most challenging of the Grand Slams for me, but I've done well there before." WTA story

    Kristina said: "It was a good tournament, no matter what happened today. I had my chances in the first set but couldn't win it, and then [Maria] put so much pressure on me.
    "It's good to have so many matches on clay just before the French. Hopefully I play the same there like I did here."

    Maria and Kristina, too, had never before met in pro singles.

    2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open, and 2008 Australian Open champion Maria is now 22-8 in WTA singles finals. Due to right shoulder rotator cuff tendon tears, she played only one match (a doubles match) between August, 2008, and May, 2009. She has said that her shoulder has completely healed, and she has changed both her racquet and her service motion to avoid further shoulder injuries. However, she incurred a right elbow bone bruise at Indian Wells in March, and that kept her sidelined until last week, when she lost to Lucie Safarova in the 1st round in Madrid. Maria has an 11-3 match record this season.
    Kristina was playing in her first WTA singles final. She has won 13 ITF singles titles and 8 ITF doubles titles. Kristina has a 13-12 singles match record this year.

WTA SCOREBOARD: Warsaw & Strasbourg s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the previous week How do players get into the "draw"? Warsaw Open,  Warsaw, Poland   tourney time:        = GMT +2 hours        = US EDT +6 hours        = US PDT +9 hours Poland News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     Warsaw: The 32-player main draw for Warsaw has 8 seeds, with 2 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   Legia Sports Club, Warsaw Latitude: 52.220623 Longitude: 21.038389 goto link for World Wind Warsaw Open venue address: Legia Sports Club, Łazienkowska 3, Warsaw, Poland 2010: On Saturday, May 15, in Warsaw, top seed Caroline Wozniacki, Aleksandra Wozniak, and Marion Bartoli were player reps at the main draw ceremony... on Monday, Elena Dementieva and Na Li once again alerted the media at the All Access Hour...

Warsaw, 1st Rnd, Mon-Tue 11am loser's prize: $4,300 US; points: 1

Warsaw, 2nd Round, Wed 11am losers' prize: $8,000 US; points: 60

Warsaw, QFs, Thu 11am losers' prize: $15,100 US; points: 120

Warsaw, SFs, Fri 11am losers' prize: $28,100 US; points: 200

Warsaw, Final, Sat 11:45am loser's prize: $52,500 US; points: 320 winner's prize: $98,500 US; points: 470

Warsaw, Doubles Final, Sat losers' prize: $16,500 US winners' prize: $31,000 US Warsaw, Qual Finals, Mon May 16 11am losers' prizes: q1 $660 1pt; q2 $1,230 8pts; q3 $2,300 12pts; qualifier 20 points Warsaw, 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 32-player main draw for Strasbourg has 8 seeds, with no 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 2010: On Sunday, May 16, in Strasbourg, Virginie Razzano, Alizé Cornet, Elena Baltacha and Elena Vesnina were player reps for the main draw ceremony... Alizé was shot while listening to piano music at the draw... Viginie paid a visit to the tourney VIP Village...

Strasbourg, 1st Round, Mon-Tue 11am loser's prize: $1,725 US; points: 1

Strasbourg, 2nd Round, Wed 10am loser's prize: $2,950 US; points: 30

Strasbourg, QFs, Thu 11am loser's prize: $5,340 US; points: 70

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

Strasbourg, Final, Sat 2pm after doubles loser's prize: $19,000 US; points: 200 winner's prize: $37,000 US; points: 280

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

    (Apr 3, 2009) The Warsaw Open venue has been changed from the Warszawianka Sports Club, where the previous J&S Cup was held, to the Legia Sports Club. story - English via Google

    (Mar 16-26, 2009) The WTA Warsaw Open reportedly has found sufficient financing, according to a Polish member of Tennis Forum. Earlier Polish press reports (English via Google) had stated that as of early March the Warsaw Open (May 18-24) had raised only 1/3 of the $1.5 million that they need in sponsor money, and that the rest must be found by the end of March.
    Now the Polish TV channel Polsat has reportedly bought the rights to broadcast the tourney, and is contributing 85% of the necessary sponsorship funds.
    The Warsaw Open, not on the calendar in 2008, was originally scheduled as a $220,000 International tourney this year, but was promoted to a $600,000 Premier tourney after the demise of the Berlin German Open, also due to lack of sponsor funds.

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 2010 WTA Player Videos page.

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