Plenty of upsets in Malaysia and Brazil

Few fans would have picked Karolina Pliskova and Bethanie Mattek-Sands to contest the final of the Malaysian Open, but they became the finalists today when they upset the 4th and 3rd seeds, respectively. Pliskova defeated Ayumi Morita 6-0, 6-2, and Mattek-Sands defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-4, 6-1.

Meanwhile, in Florianopolis, Brazil, Monica Niculescu won the singles title today when she defeated Olga Puchkova 6-2, 4-6, 6-4. This is Niculescu's first WTA title, though she was a finalist twice before.

The Florianopolis champion emerged from the semifinals with a 6-0, 6-2 win over 7th seed Kristina Mladenovic. Mladenovic never held serve during the match.

Puchkova had a harder job in the semifinals in that she had to fight for 2 1/2 hours against top seed Venus Williams, whom she finally defeated, 4-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova won the doubles title, defeating Anne Keothavong and Valeria Savinykh 6-0, 6-4.