WTA Stars line up in Paris and Pattaya City

The WTA Tour resumes after the Fed Cup with tournaments in two different but very beautiful cities of Paris in France and Pattaya in Thailand. 



Santuary of truth

In Paris there are three Top 10 players that grace the draw; World No.3 Maria Sharapova, World No.7 Marion Bartoli and World No.9 Li Na.  Jelena Jankovic is another seed with Lucie Safarova also in the draw with the latter reaching the final twice previously in 2007 and 2010 – she is the only women in this year’s draw who has reached the final.  Sabine Lisicki was also due to play but has had to pull out due to a viral illness. 

The city of Pattaya welcomes other top players including Vera Zvonareva, twice a champion and leading this year’s field.  Sorana Cristea has already played her first round match here dispatching her opponent, Erika Sema 6-2, 6-2 in 74 minutes.  Cibulkova has also played her first match but lost to Britain’s Anne Keothavong 4-6, 1-6.  Keothavong managed to adjust to the conditions better after having played in the Fed Cup in Israel last week which saw Great Britain win all their ties and will now go to the play offs for World Group II.  The news was not so good for Heather Watson who lost to Vania King 4-6, 2-6.   



Czech Republic win the Fed Cup

The Fed Cup was won on the deciding match; with the experienced Czech doubles pairing never looking like they would squander the chance to take the title home with them.  Hradecka and Peschke took their team to victory with a 6-4, 6-2 win.  But it was Petra Kvitova who was the star player winning both matches using her confidence from winning the WTA Championships, to get through a tough win against Svetlana Kuznetsova after being  3-0 down in the final set, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3. It was not a bad performance from Russia with all their players doing their best, but they were defeated by the better team. 

Also in the women’s game today, Ana Ivanovic celebrated her 24^th birthday with style after taking $600,000 with a win over Anabel Medina Garrigues to take the Commonwealth Bank of Champions title in Bali.