Flavia Pennetta

The second half of 2008 saw the competition for the No.1 ranking intensify, while several youngsters won their first titles and more established stars enjoyed golden form. In the end Serbia's Jelena Jankovic surged ahead as the most consistent queen of the courts, and there was also plenty of activity on the sidelines as the Tour prepared its revolutionary 2009 Roadmap calendar. 

 
JULY

The last four quarterfinal berths were snapped up at the Bell Challenge on Thursday, with the winners including No.5-seeded Canadian sensation Aleksandra Wozniak and a trio of non-seeds.
 
Wozniak, who has rocketed up the rankings this year and is currently at No.37 in the world, cruised past qualifier Carly Gullickson in straight sets in the feature night match, 63 62. She now moves into the quarters of the Tier III event for the second time in four appearances, having gotten to this stage in 2006 as well (falling to Lilia Osterloh).
 

Ana Ivanovic and Vera Zvonareva continued to march towards a title clash between the Top 2 seeds as both Top 10 stars earned straight set victories in the quarterfinals of the $600,000, Tier II Generali Ladies Linz on Friday.
 

Ana Ivanovic reached her second semifinal in two weeks by overcoming seventh-seeded Italian Flavia Pennetta 6-4 6-4 at the Linz Open on Friday.
 
The quality of play from both competitors was worthy of a final, although Pennetta was let down by a serve that produced seven double faults.
 
The top-seeded Serbian, who last week reached the semifinals of the Zurich Open before losing to eventual champion Venus Williams, used her strong forehand to give her an edge but the match remained in the balance until the final ball.
 

In-form Italian Flavia Pennetta will team up with Simone Bolelli to represent Italy at the Hopman Cup in January, organisers here said Friday.

Pennetta, 26, is ranked 14th in the world and was the fourth top-20 woman announced for the unique mixed-teams event.

Six more players marched into the quarterfinals in Linz on Thursday, as second round action wrapped up at the $600,000 Generali Ladies Linz. Seeds went 5-1, with Patty Schnyder the only one falling.
The top 2 seeds, Ana Ivanovic and Vera Zvonareva, both eased through to the final eight in straight sets, with Ivanovic beating Sybille Bammer, 64 62, and Vera Zvonareva crushing qualifier Nuria Llagostera vives, 62 60. Both players were contesting their first matches of the week, with the Top 4 seeds getting first round byes at the Tier II stop.
 

The last batch of first round matches and the first second round matches took the courts of the Generali Ladies Linz on Wednesday, with no huge surprises at the $600,000, Tier II tournament.
 
The only seed left to play their first round match, Flavia Pennetta, had the quickest win of the day, crushing Agnes Szavay in just 54 minutes, 61 62. Pennetta, who just reached a new career-high ranking of No.14 this week, is the No.7 seed and will take on Dominika Cibulkova in the second round.
 

There was barely any movement in the Top 10 but a few players outside of it definitely made their moves on the new Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Singles Rankings on October 20.
 
The only move inside the Top 10 was Venus Williams and Vera Zvonareva switching places, with Williams going from No.9 to No.8 and Zvonareva from No.8 to No.9 after Williams won her second singles title of the year at the Tier II event in Zürich.
 

Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska stepped up her bid to make the season-ending WTA Sony Ericsson Championships with victory over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia in Linz on Wednesday.
 
Radwanska reached the Generali Ladies quarterfinals with a 6-2 6-4 win as she bids for her fourth title of the season.
 
The Pole, ranked 10th, is bidding to break into the top eight to qualify for the $4.45 tournament in Doha, Qatar from November 4-9.
 

Third seed Agnieszka Radwanska and seventh seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy both claimed straight-set victories at the Linz Open.
 
Poland's Radwanska (pictutred) reached the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, and Pennetta was even more decisive in beating Hungary's Agnes Szavay 6-1 6-2 to reach the second round.
 
Radwanska took advantage of her error-prone opponent, who knew what she had to do but had difficulty in executing.