Week #16: Serena Williams gets her 3rd title of the season

Serena Williams captured in Charleston her 3rd title of the season (Bangalore and Miami were the previous ones) and extended her victory streak to 16 matches in a row since she was defeated by Jelena Jankovic in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. On her way to the final, Serena had to face Maria Sharapova, which was considered the anticipated final between the best players of the season so far. In the final Serena defeated Russian Vera Zvonareva, who is also in great form lately and upsetted 1st seed Jelena Jankovic, 4th seed Elena Dementieva and 6th seed Marion Bartoli, but wasn't able to overcome Williams in the final.
In Estoril Maria Kirilenko got her 3rd career WTA title and first one on clay, as she defeated Czech Iveta Benesova in the final. Benesova, who suffered a big slump last year which took her out of the Top 100, has been playing impressively in the last few weeks and made a great run to the final, defeating 1st seed Flavia Pennetta on her way. On the other hand Kirilenko had a good start of the season reaching the Last 16 in the Australian Open but was missing good results after that, so this title will boost her confidence.

Charleston (USA), Tier I, $1,340,000
Final: Serena Williams (USA) def Vera Zvonareva (RUS) 6/4 3/6 6/3

Estoril (POR), Tier IV, $145,000
Final: Maria Kirilenko (RUS) def Iveta Benesova (CZE) 6/4 6/2