“It’s overwhelming,” Paszek said. “I’m extremely happy. Anytime you win a tournament for the first time it’s very special. This is something I’ll remember the rest of my life.”

“I don’t see how I got a blister after sitting on my [expletive deleted] for two days,” Azarenka said.

Wozniacki will open against the winner of Oudin and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova; (7) Pennetta a tough start against Kleybanova; the French Open champ (3) Schiavone starts against former No. 1 (WC) Safina; (2) Stosur will likely start against the tough Zheng; tournament started in 1948 as the U.S. Women’s Hardcourt Championships; Wozniacki is the two-time defending champion.

Sharapova under stress in the third set lost her trademark “Byouooooooooo! Byouooooooooo!” shrieks when hitting the ball, looking for Clijsters to put her out of her misery, and graciously shaking hands and offering congratulations at the net.

Loaded non-seeded field with former No. 1s Ivanovic and Safina, and former No. 2 Kuznetsova unseeded; first-round match-ups of interest are (6) Bartoli vs. Hantuchova, (7) Peer vs. (WC) Ivanovic, (8) Wickmayer vs. Kuznetsova, and potential second-round match-ups after seeded byes (1) Jankovic vs. Rezai and Stosur vs. Azarenka or Oudin

Open De Nice Cote D’Azur
Nice, France
Surface: clay
Seeds: Robin Soderling, Fernando Verdasco, Gael Monfils, Thomaz Bellucci, Marcos Baghdatis, Al Montanes, Michael Berrer, Lucasz Kubot
ADHEREL
Floaters: (WC) Mario Ancic, Richard Gasquet
Notes: (5) Baghdatis opens against (WC) Ancic; possible (6) Montanes vs. Gasquet 2nd rd.; Nice replaces Kitzbuhel this year during this calendar week, the city’s first ATP event [...]

Usually the punisher, Venus was the punished on Sunday on the receiving end of Rezai’s baseline fury, rarely leaving a short ball anything short of a winner. Rezai has now beaten the elder Williams sister in two of their last three meetings. The unseeded Frenchwoman topped two former No. 1s in Justine Henin and Jelena Jankovic en route to the final.

The Top 8 players in the world make up the top eight seeds in Madrid: Serena Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Dinara Safina, Venus Williams, Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic and Sam Stosur.

The unseeded Henin defeated No. 8 seed Yanina Wickmayer and No. 4 Jelena Jankovic en route to the final.

Stosur improved to 2-5 in career finals, and became the first Aussie to win the Family Circle Cup title. Cracking 36 winners in the final, Stosur kept it to under an hour, and recorded her fifth win in a row over the Russian. Zvonareva was also the 2008 runner-up to Serena Williams, and falls to 10-12 in career finals.