Week #2: Dementieva wins in Sydney, 2nd title in two weeks

Elena Dementieva got in Sydney her 2nd title in 2 weeks, showing that she has started the season in very good form and that she is a candidate to take the Australian Open title. And her way to the title wasn't easy, as she had to defeat 6th seed Agnieszka Radwanska (WTA #10) in the quarters, 1st seed Serena Williams (WTA #2) in the semis and 2nd seed Dinara Safina (WTA #3) in an all-Russian final. Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama completed the semis.

In Hobart, youngster Petra Kvitova got her first WTA title after defeating Iveta Benesova in an all-czech final. The most difficult match for Kvitova was the quarter-finals against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, who was leading in the 2nd set after winning the first, but Kvitova managed to comeback. In the rest of the matches, Kvitova dropped no more than 6 games on each. The tournament was plenty of upsets, and no one of the seeded players was able to reach the quarterfinals

Sydney (AUS), Premier, $600,000
Final: Elena Dementieva (RUS) def Dinara Safina (RUS) 6/3 2/6 6/1

Hobart (AUS), International, $220,000
Final: Petra Kvitova (CZE) def Iveta Benesova (CZE) 7/5 6/1