Player of the week: Francesca Schiavone

In Seoul, Italian Francesca Schiavone reached the final for the 10th time in her career, and was defeated for the 9th time. But she wasn't affected for another dissapointment and this week in Moscow she captured the most important title of her career.


The tournament didn't start well for Schiavone, as she lost the opening set to qualifier Nuria Llagostera, but this was the only set she was going to lose throughout the week. After coming back to defeat Llagostera, Schiavone consecutively defeated Monica Niculescu, Maria Kirilenko, Alona Bondarenko and Olga Govortsova in straight sets. She was playing her best tennis as she progressed to the decissive rounds, dropping just 5 games to Kirilenko in the quarters, 4 games to Bondarenko in the semis and 3 games to Govortsova in the final, eventually closing the tournament with a 6/0 set.


Next objective for Schiavone is the Fed Cup final next week, where Italy will try to get the title against USA.