TENNIS in DEPTH.

Caroline Wozniacki saw off Elena Dementieva in a tough battle to win the Pan Pacific Open women’s tennis tournament in Tokyo. The Danish top seed, who crashed out in her opening matches in her previous two visits to Tokyo, made it third time lucky with a 1-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory. Wozniacki said of her win over the Russian: “I knew it was going to be tough. We always have tough matches. “But I’m just so happy to win another tournament. This is my 11th.”

Seventh seed Dementieva, the Olympic champion, got off to a flying start, racing to a 4-0 first set lead with an array of winners from the baseline. Wozniacki was short of ammunition and double-faulted to lose the set. But she made a conscious effort to be more positive from that point on, and it served her well. After missing two break points in the first game of the second set, Wozniacki took a 2-1 lead when Dementieva hit a backhand into the net and went on to win the set. The final set featured an exchange of breaks, but the crucial blow was landed when Wozniacki added another in the seventh game to move up 4-3 as a Dementieva’s forehand found the net.

The two-hour match came to an abrupt end two games later when the Russian double-faulted twice in a row on match point. “In the second set, I stepped up a little bit and I just kept fighting,” said Wozniacki after capturing her fifth title of the season, following triumphs at Ponte Vedra Beach, Copenhagen, Montreal and New Haven.

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A day before her 40th birthday, Kimiko Date Krumm gave herself and her home crowd in Tokyo something big to cheer about, upsetting the defending Toray Pan Pacific Open champion, Maria Sharapova.

In perhaps the most intriguing first round match-up, two former champions of the Premier-level tournament squared off in its first round, Date Krumm winning it all the way back in 1995 and Sharapova taking it in 2005 and last year.

After edging the No.12-seeded Sharapova in the first set, 7-5, Date Krumm, a wildcard into the draw, seemed to lose momentum for a little while, losing three straight games and never getting back on track en route to losing the middle set, 6-3. Sharapova broke again for a 3-2 lead in the third set and had 40-0 to move ahead 4-2 – but that’s when the momentum shifted one last time.

Date Krumm won 17 of 21 points from 2-3, 0-40 to win the match, 75 36 63.

Ana Ivanovic defeated Alisa Klaybenova 6-2, 6-3 in a later match. It was her third victory in a row over the Russian who came into the tournament fresh off her victory on Sunday in Seoul.

In her opening service game Ana produced one of the quickest, most emphatic games of her career as she won it in the blink of an eye with an ace and three service winners.

On the zippy court Ana’s powerful returns came to the fore and she pressured Kleybanova’s serve in the following game, winning a break. Ana hit a number of spectacular winners, a couple when at full-stretch, and was always the more consistent player in the rallies. A second break gave Ana the opening set.

The 22-year-old was relentless during the second set. She didn’t let up, instead producing several more stunning strokes that had the evening audience gasping in awe. Kleybanova, meanwhile, struggled with her timing and was almost always the first player to breakdown during a lengthy baseline exchange.

Ana didn’t face a single break point during the match, and breaks in games four and eight enabled her to power to a satisfying victory.

“I’m very happy with how I played,” said Ana. “The court is very fast and I feel like I used the conditions to my advantage. I served very well and I returned her serve well too. I put quite a lot of pressure on her.

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Serena Williams has pulled out of next week’s Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo as she continues her recovery from a foot injury.

The 28-year-old American has not played since her victory at Wimbledon after cutting her right foot on broken glass in a restaurant.

Williams described withdrawing from the US Open last month as “one of the most devastating moments of my career”.

Tokyo will be the fifth tournament she has missed because of the injury.

Wimbledon runner-up Vera Zvonareva, French Open champion Francesca Schiavone, world number two Caroline Wozniacki and defending champion Maria Sharapova are among those scheduled to play in Tokyo.

Williams, who was in London this week to attend for a fashion show, underwent surgery in Los Angeles on 15 July.

Victories in this year’s Australian Open and Wimbledon took her career record to 13 Grand Slam titles.

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In a surprising and disappointing final match Jelena Jankovic retired with a sore right wrist to give Maria Sharapova the victory. After losing the first two games of the first set, Sharapova served 4 aces on her way to winning the next 5 games in a row. Jankovic took a 3 minute medical time out while her wrist was taped. She played two more ponts and called it quits.

This is Sharapova’s first title since her comeback, and will move her back into the top 20, maybe as high as #15. Ironically these two will meet again in the third round of next week’s China Open in Beijing. Both players were given byes in the first round.

After the win Maria said: “It was my second final of the year, so I was a bit nervous.  It was very tough because Jelena started off so strong.  I wanted to perform really well. I feel like I played good enough tennis to give her a go and I just wanted to keep fighting out there. It’s never easy to win a match like this. Obviously, it’s very important for Jelena to be healthy and we want to compete at our 100%. We have gotten a lot of injuries. This is towards the end of the year. I wish Jelena a speedy recovery.”

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Jelena Jankovic will meet Maria Sharapova in the final of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

The Serb overcame China’s Li Na in straight sets, despite needing courtside treatment on her right arm during the semi-final.

The seventh seed will now face former champion Maria Sharapova, who won a tough match against Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland in the other semi.

The Russian lost the second set but hit back to win 6-3 2-6 6-4.

Jankovic recovered from a break down in both sets to beat her opponent 6-4 6-3. The second break came immediately after her injury timeout, but the Serb’s firepower was too much for Li Na.

Sharapova was also made to work, coming back from 0-2 down in the third. She fought her way back to lead 5-3 with some forceful ground strokes and closed out the match with a classic backhand cross-court return.

“It will be a tough final,” said Sharapova afterwards. “Jelena is one of the best players in the world and I’ll have to fight for every point.”

Both women are former world number ones, but both have had a tough season. Sharapova is unseeded following a long injury break, while Jankovic has won only two tournaments.

“If I can win my third title of the year, that would be pretty good,” Jankovic said. “It’s been a difficult year so it would be nice to finish strong.”

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A very confident Maria Sharapova played her best game since her comeback began and easily defeated Samantha Stosur 6-0, 6-1. After today’s round at the 2009 Toray Pan Pacific in Tokyo the only top ten player to move on was Victoria Azarenka (9), with Jelena Jankovic(8) still to play. It was another day of upsets made more meaningful by the retirement of Caroline Wozniacki.

Kateryna Bondarenko defeated Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-7, 6-1. Alisa Klebanova took out Vera Zvonareva 3-6, 6-4, 6-2, and Magdalena Rybarikova defeated Nadia Petrova 6-2, 6-2.

The Women’s game is in turmoil without any dominant players. The quality of play has plummeted downwards as the gap between the ‘top’ players and those far lower in the WTA rankings has narrowed or diminished entirely. On the one hand it adds a degree of unpredictable excitement to the matches, but in general tennis fans like to see a quality player that they can follow and relate to. The return of Kim Clijsters was timely, and the posssibility of seeing Justine Henin back in 2010 at the Aussie Open certainly adds a much needed attraction to the game.

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There was nothing spectacular about Maria Sharapova’s first round victory over Francesca Schiavone. Down 6-4, 4-2 and being outplayed by the Italian, Maria dug deep, gritted her teeth and through shear determination forced herself to take control of the match. She went on to win the second set 7-5 and the third 6-1.

On a positive note she can feel good about her serve, she served at more than 60%, but more importantly she only served only 4 double faults. She was given a warning by the chair umpire for taking too much time, but continued to stretch the rules throughout the match taking 5-10 seconds more than the allowed time between serves.

Her next opponent is Samantha Stosur, who is having her best year as a singles player after a lot of success as a doubles specialist. Stosur’s hard hitting game and hard service fits better into Sharapova’s style, and if she can continue to serve above 60% she should win.

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World No.1 Dinara Safina was reduced to tears after falling to a shock 7-6(5) 4-6 7-5 defeat at the hands of qualifier Chang Kai-Chen in her first match at the Pan Pacific Open.

The Russian, defending champion at the Tokyo event, had received a bye to the second round as the tournament’s top seed, but handed her Taiwanese opponent a break with a double fault when serving for the match at 5-4 in the third.

No.5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 7-5 4-6 6-3 to Andrea Petkovic in the day’s other shock result, while Ai Sugiyama was forced to retire in the final singles match of her career.

On Sunday Lucie Safarova dumped Ana Ivanovic out of the draw with a 6-4 7-6(1) in the first round.

But another defeat for Safina, the latest in a string of high-profile losses since she assumed the world No.1 ranking in April, was just too much for the 23-year-old to bear. The Russian sat in tears on the steps of the players lounge after talking to reporters following the match.

“It’s not an easy moment,” she said. “I had a lot of chances in the third set but I just let it go. The way I played the game at 5-4 was not right.

“It’s so disappointing I didn’t play the way I should have played. I never took her out of her comfort zone.”

Safina’s position at the top of the rankings has been called into question as she has yet to win a grand slam title, having exited each of the three majors since assuming top spot in tame fashion.

After a comprehensive defeat in the French Open final against Kuznetsova and an emphatic Wimbledon semi-final loss to Venus Williams, she then lost to the unheralded Petra Kvitova in the third round of the US Open in her last outing.

Chang, the world No.132, claimed the marathon match – nearly two hours and 45 minutes long – and a showdown with Gisela Dulko in the third round.

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