Andrea Petkovic on a quest to defend her title.

Top seed and defending champion Andrea Petkovic took just 73 minutes to polish off Czech opponent Iveta Benesova and get the defence of her Nurnberger Gasteinladies title in Bad Gastein off to a winning start.

Petkovic made her big breakthrough at the same event last season and has improved steadily since, making her far too strong for Benesova, whose weak serve let her down.

Second seed Timea Bacsinszky also breezed through with a 6-1 6-2 win over Germany’s Anna-Lena Groenefeld, while fourth seed Julia Goerges defeated Czech Klara Zakopalova 6-2 5-7 6-1.

In a Czech family affair, sixth seed and last week’s Prague finalist Barbora Zahlavova Strycova was beaten 7-5 6-3 by Sandra Zahlavova – who is the cousin of Strycova’s husband.

More of the same from Ivanovic….

Ana Ivanovic advanced to the quarter-finals of the Brisbane International  with another seasaw victory. Just a day after beating Jelena Dokic (56) in three sets she defeated Timea Bacsinszky (53) 6-2, 2-6, 6-4. It was more of the same error ridden points from Ivanovic who continues to have trouble tossing the ball and serving consistently. If she expects to improve her ranking and to be considered a threat to any of the top players she must improve all aspects of her game. Her two unimpressive victories were both against players outside of the top 50! If she wasn’t so pretty nobody would bother to watch her!

She won the first six points of the match as she asserted her authority, especially with her heavily-hit forehand.

She pressed the Swiss player and Bacsinszky could offer little resistance. A smart backhand volley saw Ana break to lead 2-0 and she moved serenely through the opening set, winning it in 33 minutes.

As so often is the case in tennis, the match turned in an instant: Bacsinszky’s intensity rose at the beginning of the second set and she broke Ana before pulling away in set and levelling the match.

Once again the momentum swung, with Ana pressurising the Swiss as she served to stay in the match. After an hour and 41 minutes it was all over, Ana sealing victory when Bacsinszky served her sixth double fault of the match.

“She improved in the second set and made it very difficult for me,” said Ana immediately after the match.

“Thank you guys for staying, I know it’s a late night!” she said to the crowd, who had offered her generous support throughout. “I’m very happy to be through.”

Third-seeded Ana will take on either Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova or Roberta Vinci of Italian in the last eight on Thursday.

Timea Bacsinszky wins her first WTA title.

Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland defeated Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 7-5 to record her first WTA title in Luxembourg. She reached the final by ending Yanina Wickmayer’s winning streak in the semi final, and in Sunday’s final she dominated from the first game. Lisicki could not find any rhythm to her game, and had trouble winning points in the first 5 games of the first set. The second set was much closer with both players using the drop shot to win points. Timea served for the match at 5-4 but was broken and had to wait until the score was 6-5 in her favour before she eventually served to win the match.

“I’m really happy with the way everything went today. I played in a smart way and just went for it. I wasn’t nervous at all,” Bacsinszky said. “It’s great to win my first title. I don’t think I’ve realized what it means for me yet. For now I just want to stay focused because I have another tournament next week.”

“Timea played well. My leg was hurting a bit but I still tried to fight. I rushed too much today and I could tell that I was tired from my semifinal,” Lisicki said. “I didn’t take my chances but you can always learn from something like this.”

Lisicki v. Bacsinszky in Luxembourg final.

Switzerland’s Timea Bacsinszky defeated fifth-seeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, 3-6, 6-2, 7-5 on Saturday to make the finals of the Luxembourg Open.

Bacsinszky struggled in the third set to keep her lead, as Wickmayer fought back to tie the set 5-5 before the Swiss player won the match after the Belgian hit the ball into the net. Wickmayer was suffering from too much tennis in too few weeks. She continually lost her focus and concentration, and at times seemed tired and disinterested. This loss brings to an end her phenominal win streak that will place her in the top twenty when the WTA rankings come out on Monday.

Bacsinszky will play for her first WTA Tour single’s title on Sunday against sixth-seeded Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Lisicki fought hard to come back from 2-4 in the third set against Shahar Peer to force a tie breaker which she eventually won for a 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 victory.