Kvitova wins Toray Pan Pacific Open

Petra Kvitiova won the Toray Pan Pacific Open today, defeating Angelique Kerber in the final of the the event's 30 anniversary. The victory was a portrait of both the truly great player Kvitova became in 2011, as well as the inscure, error-prone player she became following her banner year. She defeated Kerber 6-2, 0-6, 6-3, and the scoreline paints the portrait.

Kvitova swept through the first set, hitting winners into both corners and comporting herself easily at the net. She so dominated Kerber that it would have been easy to think that she was actually going to get off the court with a straight sets win. But hey--this was Kvitova, and this was a big match. There was still time for her to lose her way. And lose her way she did (following a between-sets chat with her coach--just saying). Second set Petra was an error machine whose clumsiness boosted Kerber's confidence, which is really all that the German needed to bring up her own level.

So befuddled was Kvitova that Kerber was able to take the second set 6-0 while hitting only a few winners.

But we knew how it would end. Kvitova raced to a 4-0 lead in the final set, Kerber then made things harder for her, but--on her fourth match point--Kvitova won her second title of the year, and the 11th of her career.

It had been four years since two leftys contested a WTA fnal, and 20 years since two of them contested a big (what we now call "premier") final: In 1993, Martina Navratilova defeated Monica Seles for the Paris indoor event final.

Cara Black and Sania Mirza won the Tokyo doubles title. They defeated Chan Hao-Ching and Liezel Huber 4-6, 6-0, 11-9. This win gives Mirza four doubles titles for the year.

Sweeping the court

Li Na is the fifth player to qualify for the WTA Championships in Istanbul. The others who have qualified are Serena Williams, Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, and Agnieszka Radwanska.

Serena Williams will end the year as the number 1 player in the world.

Li, in the meantime, has been named a Global Athlete Ambassador for Right To Play.

Get to know Stephanie Dubois and Jovana Jaksic.

Venus Williams dreams about Hostess Sno Balls.

Martina Hingis's estranged husband says that Hingis and Melanie Molitor physically assaulted him.

Patty Schnyder and husband Reiner Hoffman are alleged to have separated. I generally wouldn't mention this type of news about a retired player, but so many fans have expressed concern about Schnyder's well-being, I thought I'd pass this along, for what it's worth.

Jovanovski wins Ningbo title as Kvitova and Kerber reach Tokyo final

Bojana Jovanovski won her second WTA title in three weeks today when she defeated Zhang Shuai 6-7, 6-4, 6-1 to win the title in Ningbo. Zhang won her very first WTA title last week in Guangzhou. Jovanovski was a set and a break down in today's final. The Ningbo event is a 125K Series tournament.

Zhang and "Wrong Way" Bojo broke each other 18 times.

Zhang did win the doubles title, with partner Chan Yung-Jan. Seeded at the top, Chan and Zhang beat Irina Buryachok and Oksana Kalashnikova 6-2, 6-1.

Meanwhile, in Tokyo, Venus Williams and Petra Kvitova played a "comeback match" to rival any. Williams showed no sign of the Sjoegren's syndrome fatigue that has taken her out of the latter stages of tournaments for some time, nor did she show any sign of the lower back problem that has inhibited her serve lately. For her part, Kvitova didn't show any of the "Oh, Petra" nonsense we've come to expect from her. It was as if both women were telling us "Don't give up on me--I can still play tennis really, really well."

Both players served wonderfully in this semifinal, and some of the rallies were stunning. In the end, Kvitova took control of the third set tiebreak, going up 6-0, and winning it 7-2. Her opponent in the final will be yet another woman who seems to be telling us to remember who she is--Angelique Kerber. Kerber defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6-4, 7-6.

The doubles final puts Liezel Huber against two players who, without a doubt, don't want to hang out and have dinner with her at the tournament's conclusion. Huber and partner Chan Hao-Ching will play Cara Black and Sania Mirza, who upset top seeds Hsieh Su-Wei and Peng Shuai in the semifinals. Black and Huber, who held the number 1 spot for a long time, split a few years ago in a painful, public fashion. As for Mirza, she once became so frustrated with Huber's antics that she knocked her right down with what I think is still the fiercest forehand in women's tennis.

40 LOVE Story, Episode 5

Venus into Tokyo semifinals

Venus Williams answered a tough challenge from Eugenie Bouchard today in the Tokyo quarterfinals, but emerged the winner, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3. Williams beat Mona Barthel in the opening round, and easily got past a visibly ailing Victoria Azarenka in the second. Before knocking out Bouchard, Williams defeated Simona Halep 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Next for Williams is Petra Kvitova, who has also had a very good week in Tokyo, beating Belinda Bencic in the second round (Bencic got her first tour win, over Daria Gavrilova, in the opening round), Madison Keys in the third round, and Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals.

In the other semifinal match, Caroline Wozniacki will play Angenique Kerber. In Tokyo, everything old is new again!

Kerber, by the way, reached the semifinals today by knocking out 2012 runner-up (and 2011 champion) Agnieszka Radwanska.

In Ningbo, top seed (and Tashkent champion) Bojana Jovanovski reached the semifinals with a win over Johanna Larsson. She is joined there by Guangzhou champion Zhang Shuai, who defeated Yvonne Meusburger 6-3, 6-0.

Radwanska wins Seoul title

It took her three sets and two hours and 45 minutes, but top seed Agnieszka Radwanska won the Korea Open championship today when she defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-7, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. Pavlyuchenkova beat Francesca Schiavone 7-6 (8), 7-6 (11) in her semifinal match, in which she had to come from behind in both sets.

This is Radwanska's 13th WTA title, and her third of 2013.

In doubles, the top seeds, Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears, were upset in the final by Chan Chin-Wei and Xu Yi-Fan, who defeated them 7-5, 6-3.

Jill Craybas retires from professional tennis

Veteran of veterans Jill Craybas has announced her retirement from professional tennis; the U.S. Open was her last event.

Craybas, always popular with U.S. fans because of her easy-going personality and hard work on the court, began her professional tennis career 16 years ago. She was in the top 100 for 10 straight years, and she reached a career high ranking of 39 in 2006, and a career high doubles ranking of 41 in 2008.

Craybas won the Japan Open in 2002, and she won five WTA doubles titles. She was a four-time member of the USA Fed Cup team, and a member of the USA's 2008 Olympic team.

The 39-year-old Craybas (born on the 4th of July) graduated from the University of Florida, and was the NCAA singles champion in 1996.

Craybas reached the round of 16 at Wimbledon in 2005, and on her way there, she took out Serena Williams; the next year, she beat Kim Clijsters in Miami. Craybas also had victories over Elena Dementieva, Vera Zvonareva and a half dozen other top 20 players.

Jill Craybas was the first tennis player to get a sponsorship from Under Armour, and the company outfitted her before it officially manufactured and sold women's clothing.

In announcing her retirement, Craybas said:

"I tried to put the wins and losses into perspective and I hope I handled the ups and downs they provided with equal grace. I have truly cherished my years on the tour as they have taught me so much and encouraged me to grow into a unique, determined individual."