Hot shot: Sexy pictures of Azarenka, Cibulkova, Chakvetadze and Bondarenko on FHM

Victoria Azarenka, Dominika Cibulkova, Anna Chakvetadze and Alona Bondarenko appear on this month's French edition of FHM men's magazine. The article, which coincides with the tournament of Roland Garros being held in Paris, includes interviews with the tennis players and very sexy pictures in bikini.






You can watch more pictures from the UK edition here

Player of the week: Alexandra Dulgheru

With her victory last week in Warsaw, 19 years old Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru has entered WTA's history as one of the few players to win a title being ranked outside the Top #200, and the first one to do it in a Premier event.


Despite her great progression this year, climbing from #385 to #201 in the rankings, no one expected that Dulgheru could go so far, especially after going through the qualy round with some difficulties, having to come back from a set down against Lenka Wienerova and Anna Korzeniak. But in the Main Draw everything was completely different as she got a place in the semifinals without dropping a set with very convincing victories over Agnes Szatmari, Sara Errani and Galina Voskoboeva. The semifinal seemed the end of the road for Dulgheru, as she was facing former Top-5 Daniela Hantuchova, but Dulgheru took the match in three sets. And again in the final Alona Bondarenko looked as the favourite, as she had been playing a very solid tennis throughout the week, but Dulgheru didn't want a sad end for her amazing run and after coming back to win the first set in the tie-break and losing the second, she swept Bondarenko in the third by 6/0.


With this victory Dulgheru has entered the Top-100, gaining 118 places to #83. A new face for the WTA Tour and definitively someone to keep an eye on.

WTA ranking as of 25-May-2009

No changes in WTA Top-10 as none of them played any tournament last week. The greatest move of the week is for surprising champion in Warsaw Alexandra Dulgheru, who breaks into Top-100 climbing from #201 to #83. Runner-up in Warsaw, Alona Bondarenko gets back into Top-30 moving from #39 to #28. Aravane Rezai, champion in Strasbourg, gains 22 places up to #57, while runner-up Lucie Hradecka moves 17 spots up to #67. Remarkable climbs also for Anne Keothavong (from #56 to #48), Galina Voskoboeva (from #95 to #81), Raluca Olaru (from #106 to #88), Victoriya Kutuzova (from #115 to #90) and Klara Zakopalova (from #116 to #100).

Cur	Prv	Name	Country	Rank pts.	Tours.
1	(1)	Dinara Safina	RUS	9801	19
2	(2)	Serena Williams	USA	7838	17
3	(3)	Venus Williams	USA	7237	16
4	(4)	Elena Dementieva	RUS	6931	21
5	(5)	Jelena Jankovic	SRB	6720	21
6	(6)	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	5640	24
7	(7)	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	5091	19
8	(8)	Ana Ivanovic	SRB	4892	17
9	(9)	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	4526	18
10	(10)	Caroline Wozniacki	DEN	4370	28

Week #21-22 preview: Roland Garros

Roland Garros (FRA), Grand Slam, €7,226,040
The clay courts of Roland Garros will hold this traditional Grand Slam for the next two weeks. WTA #1 and champion in Rome and Madrid, Dinara Safina is the top favourite for the title. Fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, champion in Stuttgart and runner-up in Rome, is the only player who has threatened Safina's domination in the clay season. Concerning the rest of the top seeds, Serena and Venus Williams have completed a dissapointing clay season, although they always play their best in Grand Slams, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic are not at their best moment, and is unsure if Vera Zvonareva will recover of the ankle injury she suffered 4 weeks ago. Therefore, upsets are expected, and youngsters Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska or veterans Amelie Mauresmo and Patty Schnyder might reach the final rounds. Maria Sharapova is not expected to go very far in the tournament as this is her 2nd appareance after 9-month injury break.

Week #20: First WTA titles for Dulgheru and Rezai

Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru got one of the most surprising victories in the WTA Tour as she captured the title in the WTA Premier tournament of Warsaw, which was weakened by the late withdrawals of 1st and 2nd seeds Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska. Dulgheru, who was ranked below Top-200 before the tournament and had to go through the qualification to get her place in the Main Draw, astonished everyone as she progressed to the final defeating very solid players such as 5th seed Sara Errani and 6th seed Daniela Hantuchova. In the final, Dulgheru defeated Alona Bondarenko, who showed a great performance throughout the tournament, reaching the final without dropping a set. Hantuchova and Anne Keothavong completed the semis, while former #1 Maria Sharapova returned after a 9-month break due to a shoulder injury. Sharapova suffered to defeat Italian Tathina Garbin in the 1st round and enjoyed an easy victory over lucky-loser Darya Kustova before losing to Bondarenko in the quarters.

In Strasbourg, French player Aravane Rezai captured her 1st WTA title in a tournament plenty of upsets, as only one seeded player was able to reach the quarter-finals. Rezai upsetted 2nd seed Sybille Bammer in the 1st round and then enjoyed an easy draw to the title, as she didn't face any Top-50 player. In the final, Rezai (WTA #79) defeated Lucie Hradecka (WTA #84), who also enjoyed an easy draw not facing any Top-70 player. Ayumi Morita and Viktoriya Kutuzova completed the semis.

Warsaw (POL), Premier, $600,000
Final: Alexandra Dulgheru (ROM) def Alona Bondarenko (UKR) 7/6 3/6 6/0

Strasbourg (FRA), International, $220,000
Final: Aravane Rezai (FRA) def Lucie Hradecka (CZE) 7/6 6/1

Player of the week: Dinara Safina

For the 2nd week in a row, Dinara Safina is our player of the week after she captured the title in the mandatory Premier tournament in Madrid. This is the 3rd final and 2nd consecutive title for Safina in three weeks, making an impressive 15-1 record this clay season.


After enjoying a bye in the 1st round, Safina defeated two very dangerous players, Chinese Na Li and Czech Lucie Safarova, who maneged to take a set form Safina, to book her place in the quarterfinals. In the quarters Safina should have met Svetlana Kuznetsova for the 3rd time in 3 weeks, after Stuttgart and Rome finals, but Ukranian Alona Bondarenko, who played a great tennis during the week, upsetted Kuznetsova. Nevertheless, Bondarenko was not a big deal for Safina, who raised her level as she progressed to the decissive rounds. Safina showed again a very solid game and mentality and defeated Patty Schnyder in the semifinal and Caroline Wozniacki in the final dropping just 6 games on each match.


With this victory Safina has proven that she is the strongest player at the moment, that her #1 place in the ranking is well deserved and that she is the top favourite to win Roland Garros starting next week.

WTA ranking as of 18-May-2009

Madrid champion and WTA #1 Dinara Safina extends her lead over Serena Williams to almost 2000 points, as Elena Dementieva climbs to #4 and Madrid runner-up Caroline Wozniacki breaks into the Top-10 for the first time, being the first Danish player to accomplish this. Jie Zheng, peaking at a career-high ranking at #15 is also the first Chinese to break into the Top-15. Madrid semifinalists Amelie Mauresmo and Patty Schnyder move from #21 to #16 and from #20 to #17 respectively, while quarter-finalists Agnes Szavay (from #38 to #30), Alona Bondarenko (from #46 to #39) and Vera Dushevina (from #67 to #54) also move up in the rankings. Big climbs also for Aravane Rezai (from #95 to #79) and Lourdes Dominguez (from #98 to #83), although the greatest gainer in Top-100 is Varvara Lepchenko, who climbs 19 places up to #93.

Cur	Prv	Name	Country	Rank pts.	Tours.
1	(1)	Dinara Safina	RUS	9801	19
2	(2)	Serena Williams	USA	7838	17
3	(3)	Venus Williams	USA	7237	16
4	(5)	Elena Dementieva	RUS	6931	22
5	(4)	Jelena Jankovic	SRB	6720	21
6	(6)	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	5640	24
7	(7)	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	5091	19
8	(8)	Ana Ivanovic	SRB	4892	17
9	(9)	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	4526	18
10	(11)	Caroline Wozniacki	DEN	4370	28

Week #20 preview: Warsaw, Strasbourg

Warsaw (POL), Premier, $600,000
The Warsaw Open changes of date this season and takes the place of the dissapeared Berlin Open in the clay season previous to Roland Garros. Madrid runner-up Caroline Wozniacki and Chinese Jie Zheng are the top seeds, although the crowd will miss home favourite Agnieszka Radwasnka, who was forced to withdraw due to a back injury. But the biggest attraction of the tournament will be former #1 Maria Sharapova, who will play her first tournament in 2009 after a long absence due to a shoulder injury.

Strasbourg (FRA), International, $220,000
Champion in 2005, 2007 and 2008, Spanish Anabel Medina will be the top seed and favourite for the title in Strasbourg. Other contenders for the title include Sybille Bammer, Shuai Peng, Gisela Dulko, Elena Vesnina, Anna-Lena Groenfeld or Yanina Wickmayer.

Week #19: Safina wins in Madrid, 2nd title in a row

WTA #1 Dinara Safina showed once again that she's the best player at the moment, reaching her 3rd final in a row and getting her 2nd consecutive title after defeating Danish Caroline Wozniacki in the new mandatory tournament in Madrid. The tournament was plenty of retirements and upsets, and neither Safina nor Wozniacki faced any seeded player on their way to the final. Semifinals were completed by Patty Schnyder, who upsetted Jelena Jankovic, and Amelie Mauresmo, who upsetted Elena Dementieva. Dissapointg performances from Serena and Venus Williams, upsetted by Francesca Schiavone and Alisa kleybanova respectively, while Stuttgart champion and Rome runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova was also upsetted by Alona Bondarenko.

Madrid (ESP), Premier, $3,600,000
Final: Dinara Safina (RUS) def Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 6/2 6/4

Player of the week: Dinara Safina

There has been some controversy in the last weeks about the leadership of Dinara Safina in the WTA ranking without having won any Grand Slam title. But last week in Rome, Safina showed once again that she deserves it as she was the strongest player amongst all the top players.


But the victory wasn't easy for her. After defeating Virginie Razzano in the 2nd round, Safina had to come back from a set down to overcome Chinese Jie Zheng in the 3rd round, in a match decided in the third set tiebreak, and Spanish Maria Jose Martinez in the quarters. The semifinal looked a much tougher test, as she was facing Venus Williams, whose sister Serena had claimed that she was the "real" #1. And again Safina came back after losing the first set to win the match. And in the final Safina faced fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who had defeated her last week in Stuttgart's final. But this time Dinara was much more solid and with a great tennis defeated Kuznetsova by 6/3 6/2.


Now Dinara not only has extended her lead over Serena Williams in the WTA rankings, but also has shown that she is the strongest player on clay nowadays and therefore the big favourite to win in Roland Garros. If she does, she will get her Grand Slam title and her #1 will no longer be questioned.

WTA ranking as of 11-May-2009

Rome champion Dinara Safina extends her lead as WTA #1, as runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova climbs one to #7 and semifinalist Venus Williams gains 2 places up to #3. Estoril runner-up Ekaterina Makarova moves from #43 to #35, while champion Yanina Wickmayer climbs 24 places to #64 and is the greatest gainer in Top-100.

Cur	Prv	Name	Country	Rank pts.	Tours.
1	(1)	Dinara Safina	RUS	9011	18
2	(2)	Serena Williams	USA	8053	17
3	(5)	Venus Williams	USA	7452	16
4	(4)	Jelena Jankovic	SRB	7330	21
5	(3)	Elena Dementieva	RUS	6991	21
6	(6)	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	5890	24
7	(8)	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	5206	19
8	(7)	Ana Ivanovic	SRB	4894	17
9	(9)	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	4506	18
10	(10)	Nadia Petrova	RUS	3840	26

Week #19 preview: Madrid

Madrid (ESP), Premier, $3,600,000
The new tournament in Madrid is the most important tournament on the way to Roland Garros and one of the four biggest Premier event, mandatory for all players and ATP/WTA combined. The tournament is held in a new tennis complex called La Caja Magica. Russians Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova, finalists in Stuttgart and Rome in the last two weeks, will be the main favourites. But one must never forget about Serena and Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Elena Dementieva and young talent Victoria Azarenka.

Week #18: Safina takes revenge over Kuznetsova in Rome

WTA #1 Dinara Safina took revenge over fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, who defeated her last week in Stuttgart's final, and defeated her by 6/3 6/2 in the final of Rome. With this title, Safina secures her #1 spot and confirms herself as one of the best players on clay and top favourite to win in Roland Garros. Venus Williams and upcoming youngster Victoria Azarenka completed the semis, while Serena Williams suffered her third consecutive defeat, this time against Patty Schnyder.

In Estoril, Belgian youngster Yanina Wickmayer captured her first WTA title after defeating Russian Ekaterina Makarova, who lost her 2nd final in two weeks after Fes. German Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Israeli Shahar Peer completed the semis.

Rome (ITA), Premier, $2,000,000
Final: Dinara Safina (RUS) def Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 6/3 6/2

Estoril (POR), International, $220,000
Final: Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) def Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 7/5 6/2

Player of the week: Svetlana Kuznetsova

Since she finished #2 in 2007, former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova has been showing some lack of regularity and consistency. But with the beggining of the clay season, it seems that she has found her best tennis back and this week in Stuttgart she has captured her 10th WTA title, the first one in the last 20 months (since New Haven in August 2007).


At the beggining of the tournament, it seemed the same story for Kuznetsova, as she needed three sets to overcome Andrea Petkovic and Na Li in the 1st and 2nd round respectively. But as she progressed to the final rounds, she started to feel more confident and her game become more solid. She just dropped 5 games to Gisela Dulko in the quarter-final and 6 games to 2nd seed and WTA #3 Elena Dementieva in the semifinal. But the final was going to test if the performance of Kuznetsova was just a couple of good matches or if she had definitively recovered her best tennis, as she was facing WTA #1 Dinara Safina. And again Kuznetsova showed a very solid tennis and mentality and defeated Safina 6/4 6/3.


From now on, Svetlana must be considered again a serious contender for the big titles, especially on red clay, as the Grand Slam at Roland Garros in a few weeks.

WTA ranking as of 4-May-2009

Stuttgart champion Svetlana Kuznetsova gains one place and ranks at #8, while Fes champion Anabel Medina climbs 2 reaching a career-high ranking at #16. Fes runner-up Ekaterina Makarova climbs 8 for a career-high ranking at #43, although greatest gainer in Top-100 is Italian Maria Elena Camerin, champion at ITF-$100,000 Cagnes-Sur-Mer, who gains 29 places to get back into Top-100 at #95.

Cur	Prv	Name	Country	Rank pts.	Tours.
1	(1)	Dinara Safina	RUS	9071	18
2	(2)	Serena Williams	USA	8272	17
3	(3)	Elena Dementieva	RUS	7391	22
4	(4)	Jelena Jankovic	SRB	7350	21
5	(5)	Venus Williams	USA	7102	15
6	(6)	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	6040	23
7	(7)	Ana Ivanovic	SRB	5174	17
8	(9)	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	4776	19
9	(8)	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	4546	18
10	(10)	Nadia Petrova	RUS	3840	26

Week #18 preview: Rome, Estoril

Rome (ITA), Premier, $2,000,000
One of the biggest tournaments on clay, the Premier event held in Rome will feature 13 of the Top-15 players, with the only absences of Elena Dementieva and injured Vera Zvonareva. There are a lot of candidates for the title, including the Williams sisters, Serbians Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic, the Russian squad headed by Dinara Safina and Svetlana Kuznetsova and youngsters Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska and Alize Cornet. Local players, headed by Flavia Pennetta, veteran Amelie Mauresmo and clay specialists such as Spanish Anabel Medina and Carla Suarez will look for some upsets to reach the final rounds.

Estoril (POR), International, $220,000
As every year, Portuguese city of Estoril hosts a small combined ATP/WTA tournament. Concerning the women's side, the draw is very open and there are no clear favourites, wtih Czechs Benesova and Kvitova, Russians Kirilenko and Makarova, Germans Lisicki and Groenefeld, Romanian Cirstea and Israeli Peer as seeded players. It is remarkable also the presence of 38-year old Kimiko Date-Krumm.

Week #17: Kuznetsova wins in Stuttgart

Svetlana Kuznetsova captured in Stuttgart her first WTA title since 2007 after overcoming Dinara Safina in an all-Russian final. Despite dropping sets in her first two matches, Kuznetsova raised her level and found her best tennis back at the decissive rounds. The domination of Russian players was almost total with 3 of the 4 semifinalist, including Kuznetsova, Safina and Elena Dementieva, with Italian Flavia Pennetta, who upsetted Jelena Jankovic in the semis, as the only non-Russian player in the semis.

In Fes, Spanish Anabel Medina confirmed that she is one of the best players on clay, especially in this kind of small tournaments, and captured the 9th WTA title in her career. After suffering to defeat Klara Zakopalova in the 2nd round and Lourdes Dominguez in the quarters, the decissive matches were easy for Medina, as Hungarian Melinda Czink had to retire in the semis due to gastrointestinal illness and in the final Ekaterina Makarova put little opposition and was sweeped by 6/0 6/1 by Medina. Young Russian Alisa Kleybanova completed the semis.

Stuttgart (GER), Premier, $700,000
Final: Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) def Dinara Safina (RUS) 6/4 6/3

Fes (MAR), International, $220,000
Final: Anabel Medina (ESP) def Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) 6/0 6/1