Agnieszka Radwanska has still not defeated Victoria Azarenka this year, but has finally lost to a player other than the Belarusian! The Pole entered the second-round match of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia with a 32-6 win-loss record in 2012 and all the six losses came at the hands of top-ranked Azarenka, who was again lurking in her half of the draw. However, Radwanska escaped the unpleasant taste of losing to her nemesis again, by exiting the tournament in an opening match, falling to Petra Cetkovska 6-4 4-6 6-1.

After the match, Cetkovska praised Radwanska's intelligent game, saying that it was her ability to perform better in important moments that decided the match. Radwanska, Dubai and Miami champion this season, was half-hearted, exhausted and injured:

Losing at the beginning of the tournament is disappointing. I'm tired from all the matches I've been playing and I have some problems with my back. I'm going to take a few days off then play Brussels. I still have some matches before Paris.

Radwanska is now actually 0-4 in head-to-head against the 28th-ranked Cetkovska, but this is the first time that the 27-year-old Czech beat her as a Top 10 player, even more so, Radwanska is now world No.3. Three of those four defeats to Cetkovska happened in the last 12 months. (via WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

In the beginning of the match Petrova was confident on her shots, especially on serve, never facing a break opint, and an early break of Williams earned her the first set. Until 1-1 in the second set, Williams was inferior, as Petrova lost just six points in her six service games. And in the following game things looked to be going the Russian's way, as she had an opportunity to break Serena to love! But Petrova's nerves and errors and Serena's determination clashed and the American held her serve after saving five break points. Since then the set was all hers, even though she dropped serve in the seventh game. In the third set both players held their serves until the eighth game when Serena struck again and then served out for the match. Final score: 4-6 6-2 6-3.

The ninth-seeded Williams will next play Anabel Medina Garrigues, who had an easy passage into the third round when Caroline Wozniacki retired trailing 4-6 0-4, stating upper respiratory illness. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Maria Sharapova has had a very good stretch on clay and extended it today with a 7-5 7-5 victory over Christina McHale in the second round of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia. The Russian has won 17 of her last 19 matches on clay, and those wins include the 2011 Rome and 2012 Stuttgart titles.

Her opening match in Rome this year was a tricky affair, as the second-seeded Sharapova trailed in both sets, especially in the first set when she had to recover from a 4-1 deficit, overcoming numerous unforced errors. The victory came after two hours and 12 minutes.

Besides finding her groove on the clay of Rome, Sharapova is using the situation to practice the Italian she's learned from fiancé Sasha Vujacic who speaks it fluently.  "I can say dove vai, cosa fai, come stai, and also cosa mangiamo. E andiamo… that's very important in my life," Sharapova shared her expanding knowledge of the Italian language.

Next opponent for the defending champion will be either Ana Ivanovic or Spanish qualifier Sílvia Soler-Espinosa.

Additional info: You know that Sharapova has recently signed with Samsung. Well, here's a behind-the-scenes video of her photo shoot for the brand.

(sources: WTA Tour, The Slice; photo courtesy of Francesca Moscatelli)

Another high-profile German was in action today – Julia Goerges overcame qualifier Aleksandra Wozniak in three sets 6-1 6-7(1) 6-3, but after missing a match point in the second set.

The dramatic windy day on the clay of the Internazionali BNL d’Italia also featured a clash of two Grand Slam champions, even better, the French Open champions – Ana Ivanovic and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Ivanovic produced a fine performance to defeat Kuznetsova 6-4 6-3, performing 100% on the conversion of the five break points she had.

There was another French Open champion in action on the first day of Rome – No.10 seed Francesca Schiavone – but the Italian No.1 ended up as the only seeded casualty of the day, falling to Ekaterina Makarova 6-3 6-4. (via WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Red clay, green clay, blue clay – it's all the same for Serena Williams, even though it's her least favorite surface. The American became the first champion on the infamous blue clay by demolishing world No.1 Victoria Azarenka in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open.

The top-seeded Azarenka finished the first set with a double fault and the match with an awkward missing of the ball and that can pretty much sum up the short Madrid final which lacked in competitiveness and rallies. In the third game of the match, trailing 0-2, Azarenka made three double faults to drop serve again and then quickly go even further down, 0-4, before winning her first game, which didn't mean much as Serena soon won the set 6-1. The second set was not a very different story, only that Azarenka won two more games. Final score: 6-1 6-3.

Serena hit 14 aces to Azarenka's zero! And Azarenka had only six winners in the entire match, compared to Williams' 26. Moreover, Williams won an astonishing 91% points on first serve, while Azarenka won 63%.

All in all, Serena stormed through the tournament to stay unbeaten in her last 13 matches on clay, losing a set only to Caroline Wozniacki in the Madrid quarterfinals. Besides Wozniacki and Azarenka, Serena also defeated Elena Vesnina, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, second seed Maria Sharapova and Lucie Hradecka en route to the Ion Tiriac trophy and $631,000 in prize money. The Mutua Madrid Open title is Serena's 41st career title! (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

At the Mutua Madrid Open, world No.105 Lucie Hradecka was enjoying the best tournament of her career, with landmark victories over defending champion and world No.4 Petra Kvitova in the second round and world No.5 Samantha Stosur in the quarterfinals, her first Top 10 wins, and even in the semifinal against Serena Williams, which the Czech qualifier entered after spending a total of nine hours playing matches on the courts of Madrid this year, Hradecka went shoulder to shoulder with the American, before one double fault determined Serena as the winner of the first set, and soon after the match.

Both Hradecka and Williams are big and solid servers and that's what translated into this match. Only in her main draw matches, Hradecka hit 57 aces (Williams' score is 41)! Neither Hradecka nor Williams dropped serve in the first set. Serena did have two break points at 4-3, but Hradecka confidently saved both. Also, at 6-5 Serena earned two set points, but again Hradecka was strong. In the tiebreak Hradecka made a fatal double fault to hand Serena another chance to win the set, which the American used and from then on the match was absolutely hers. In the second set Hradecka won a total of just six points! Final score: 7-6(5) 6-0.

Williams is now 12-0 on clay this year, losing just one set in those 12 matches, and the player standing between her and her 41th WTA title is world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, who defeated third-ranked Agnieszka Radwanska for the sixth straight time this year, 6-2 6-4! (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

In the Madrid Open quarterfinals, ninth seed Serena Williams cruised past second seed Maria Sharapova 6-1 6-3 for her sixth straight win against a Top 2 player and her seventh straight win against Sharapova. Serena’s opponent in the semifinals will be Lucie Hradecka, whose dream run continued when after third seed Petra Kvitova and Ekaterina Makarova she upset fifth seed Samantha Stosur 7-6(8) 7-6(6), hitting 19 aces in a match that had no breaks in regular games, as Hradecka saved four of four break points and Stosur one of one.

Top seed Victoria Azarenka put her dissatisfaction with the slippery blue clay aside and found a way to beat Li Na despite losing the first set in which the Chinese played "unbelievable", as Azarenka said. Final score 3-6 6-3 6-3. Azarenka’s opponent in the semis will be fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska who beat Varvara Lepchenko 6-4 6-4. Infamously, Azarenka and Radwanska have played each other five times this year (and it's only May!), and each time Azarenka won. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Twenty-two-year old Vesna Dolonts has received Serbian citizenship and will now represent Serbia in her tennis career. The Muscovite used to represent Russia. Her mother Ekaterina is Russian, while her father Rastko is Serbian. As I can see in her WTA profile, Dolonts speaks only Russian and English, not Serbian.

Dolonts is currently ranked 169th, which makes her the fourth-ranked Serbian after Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Bojana Jovanovski. Her highest world ranking was No.86, reached in July 2011, while her biggest victory to date is the second round upset of 15th seed and world No.17 Marion Bartoli at the 2011 Australian Open.

Before getting married to Arsen Dolonts in October 2010, Vesna played under the surname Manasieva.

This article is especially dedicated to reader Dusan who wanted me to share this story!

Update: Vesna also changed her last name's English spelling from Dolonts to Dolonc! (source: RIA Novosti, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Have you been wondering about Agnes Szavay? The former world No.13 won back-to-back WTA titles in 2010 (Prague and Budapest), and after the Seoul semifinal in September that year, the Hungarian’s results plunged. Her 2011 was very much affected by illness and back injury, she played only six tournaments where she recorded a total of just four wins. Her last match in 2011 was at Roland Garros, in May.

Szavay’s current ranking has four digits – 1115! In 2012 she finally returned to play, at the Stuttgart qualifying on clay, her favorite surface. She lost her first match 7-6(4) 6-3 to Yvonne Meusburger and even though prior to the tournament she had had great plans of competing in Budapest, Madrid, Roland Garros, and the Olympics, her wishes have faced a setback.

Here’s what Szavay said on her Facebook on April 28, after Stuttgart:

I’m happy to be playing again, and it’s great to be back on court. A lot of people were asking me how I was, what I’ve been doing and it was nice to be around the players again. Playing matches is completely different than practice, and of course my back reacts differently, and it got a little stiff already in the first set. Unfortunately it’s not perfect yet, so I’ve decided to withdraw from Madrid. I’ll be focusing on Roland Garros and I hope to be there.

Now we know that even Roland Garros is out of option. The next tournament at which we can expect to see Szavay is Bastad in mid-July.

I have been having a sinus infection for about 6 weeks now, and it seems to be serious, it was already bothering me before Stuttgart. I’m getting treatments at a hospital and I’m focusing on getting better, but in this condition I cannot practice at all, so I won’t be playing Roland Garros. I can use my protected ranking for only one Grand Slam, and I don’t want to waste it. I’m getting antibiotics at the moment, and I really hope to start training again next week, but until then, I’m trying to strengthen my lower back muscles. Roland Garros is one of my favorite tournaments and it makes me sad to withdraw, but I have to put my health first. I haven’t really planned my schedule yet, but I will probably play Bastad next.

(photos: Ralf Reinecke)

In the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open we had a clash of two former world No.1s – Serena Williams and Caroline Wozniacki. The more recent No.1, sixth seed Wozniacki, was the first to take charge, racing through the first set 6-1 in 31 minutes, making three breaks of Williams’ serve. In the second set the match took a different path – the seed No.9 Williams held her serve until the end, losing just six points in eight service games and breaking Wozniacki two times in each remaining set to win 1-6 6-3 6-2 for a place in the quarterfinals.

Williams’ next challenge will be another former No.1, second seed Maria Sharapova, who was granted an easy pass to the quarterfinals when Lucie Safarova withdrew with illness. Williams leads Sharapova 7-2 in head-to-head record, including 1-0 on clay, but Sharapova has very recently shown her claycourt skills by winning the Premier-level Stuttgart title (if the claycourt record is even relevant for this blue clay!).

Also through to Madrid quarterfinals is confident qualifier Lucie Hradecka, the conqueror of Petra Kvitova in the previous round, who today defeated Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 7-6(5). Fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska also played her third round this Thursday and beat Roberta Vinci 7-6(1) 6-4. (via WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)