Week #21: Titles for Radwanska and Medina

Agnieszka Radwanska confirmed her progression in this 2008 season and captured her 2nd title of the year in Istambul. 2nd seed Radwanska defeated 1st seed and title holder Elena Dementieva in the final in straight sets. The tournament presented a weak draw for a Tier III with just four players inside the Top 50, so there was a good chance for lower ranked players to get some good points. Two players who are showing a good form lately, Tsvetana Pironkova and Akgul Amanmuradova completed the semifinals and will keep on climbing in the rankings.
A better field was shown up in Strasbourg, where Spanish Anabel Medina retained her title in her 3rd victory here in the last four years (2005, 2007 and 2008). Medina had to comeback from a set down in a very though final against Katarina Srebotnik which was suspended twice due to rain. Swiss Timea Bacsinszki upsetted 2nd seed Alona Bondarenko for a place in the semifinals, while the other semifinalist was Yung-Jan Chan from Taipei, who upsettted 3rd seed Virginie Razzano and took advance of the early loss of 1st seed Marion Bartoli.

Istambul (TUR), Tier III, $200,000
Final: Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) def Elena Dementieva (RUS) 6/3 6/2

Strasbourg (FRA), Tier III, $175,000
Final: Anabel Medina (ESP) def Katerina Srebotnik (SLO) 4/6 7/6 6/0