Nadia Petrova defeated Serena Williams at Madrid Open 2010 Tennis Tournament.

3 of the four top and hottest players on the Women’s Tour will join Serena Williams and 13th seeded substitute for Serena Williams, Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli, in the semifinals of the Sony Ericsson Miami Open on Thursday.

Number one seed, Svetlana Kuznetsova, was up to the best Hungarian Agnes Szavay could play on Saturday and the top seed proved she was up to the task. The impressive 6-2, 6-3 win lifted Kuznetsova to the final 16 in the Sony Ericsson Miami Open.

Quietly and serenely Venus Williams is cruising through 2010. She continued her 11-match win streak Thursday in the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami rolling smoothly through game Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-4, 6-3 in an efficient 78 minutes.

Top remaining seed, Princess Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark is doing her best to uphold the integrity of tennis royalty at Indian Wells. It is full time job, which some of the top seeds and former world number ones, now struggling beauty queens, do not understand. The 19-year old has now finished two consecutive tight matches with convincing third set wins.

Number two seed, Dane Caroline Wozniacki, continued her fine play while 4th seeded Elena Dementieva and impressive Aussie Samantha Stosur joined five other winners in the quarterfinals at the BNB Paribas Open. Only Dementieva and Wozniacki remain of the top seeds at Indian Wells.

Two Russian beauty queens bit the dust on Sunday at the BNP Paribas Open. Former Indian Wells Champion and world number one, Maria Sharapova, continues to struggle with her comeback effort. The 22-year old battled China’s up and coming upset queen Zheng Jie for three hours only to come up short in the 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 third round match. Sharapova broke Zheng twice in the final set but was unable to improve her inconsistent serve as Zheng broke back each time.

Fellow tour players did not have enough time to see how Kim Clijsters would return to the tour late last season. After three summer tune-ups, the 36 time tour winner and two-time Grand Slam Champion stole the show in New York at the U.S Open. A sentimental favorite, Clijsters had taken more than two years off to be with her newborn child. With her September victory, she became the first mother, since Yvonne Goolagang (1980) to win a major title.

In Melbourne, one of the most dominant signs read Just In Time, a tribute to Justine Henin’s return to the tour.

Melanie Oudin is up to her old tricks. The spunky American mounted an unlikely rally and surged past veteran Agnes Szavay in the quarterfinals of the $700,000 Open GDF Suez in Paris on Friday. An enthusiastic crowd wildly encouraged the underdog who at one point trailed 2-6, 1-3 against the savvy and seemingly dominant competitor. […]