I'm surprised people haven't mentioned some of the brilliant play that happened at this event.

I'm still living on a high note in that my cable company now provides the Tennis Channel. So I was watching the kind of events, like this, I was never able to, before.

Oudin and Safarova were marvelous. Oudin pushed Dimentieva to three tough sets in the semis, and took out Schnyder and Szavay just to get the opportunity. Oudin looked like she did back at the USO. Her groundstrokes were lethal, and she was moving very well.

I can see why Two-Hander likes Safarova, and is frustrated as one of her fans. But he would have been happy seeing Safarova's play, especially against Penetta and Dimentieva. She was striking the ball as well as I've ever seen her.

Dementieva did well to survive the onslaught by Melanie and Lucie. All three of them played amazing, confident, ball-blasting, ball-chasing, and downright entertaining tennis. Both semis and the final were brilliant.

They also showed Amélie in the stands, and she's just as beautiful as ever.

Two-Hander...I hope you got to see some of your girl's excellent play!

On onward to this week's tournaments. We're already at the quarterfinals stage for the Dubai tournament. Venus must think of the Middle East as her second Wimbledon, since she seems to do very well here and in Doha as of late. Looks like she has potentially two matches in a row against players with winning records and 2-match current win streaks against her: Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and then Li Na in the semifinals (if she beats Peer). If Venus makes it to the finals, I think she has a winnable match against either Zvonereva or Azarenka, either of whom I would expect to make it out of their half (they actually play in the quarters, I believe).

Thanks TG I did. Lucie is amazing at that tournament. It's the same place where she beat Vaidisova, Kuznetsova, and Henin in straight sets in 07.

It appears she's destined to be bridesmaid in Coubertin, but I hope she builds from it this time. her game does have more facets and a little more touch than it used to, so who knows. I do wonder, though, if she's sort of like a Soderling -- someone who usually plays best indoors, where the potential of being distracted by the surroundings isn't as high.

Whatever the case, her forehand was gorgeous in the semi and most of the final. Dementieva won the match by retrieving multiple shots within single points that would have been winners if any other player save maybe Serena was on her side of the net.

It was interesting to see how much winning the Paris indoors was to Dementieva (and to Lucie). The tournament has more history than most WTA events.

Yay! Venus took out heir apparent Azarenka to defend Dubai. The field ultimately wasn't that tough as most of the other top seeds were upset earlier in the week, but still, it's good to see Venus back to her winning ways on hard court. After that mess in the quarterfinals of Australia, she seemed to be playing much better here. Not sure why she is insisting on Acapulco next week, but to each her own.

Venus played a great match vs Azarenka. Her movement was wonderful, her serve was on, her groundstrokes were consistent, and she really was able to handle everything Azarenka threw at her. There was a point early in the match in which Venus hit two backhands down the line to hold for 2-1 that were simply gorgeous. Its nice to see her get another significant title and defend Dubai since she won it last year. She said her emotional connection to Dubai helps her play better there. I just wish I could see her play better all year round. The Australian Open loss was still so disappointing. It seems like Azarenka has more confidence vs Serena which is strange.

Venus played very, very well (the 2 backhands are simply extraordinary and delightful to watch! Remember how she would play against Capriati?!). Again, and as some have already commented in the past decade, how many more titles and majors would she have won had Serena not also been blessed with a magic Tennis gene? In any case, she fully deserves her 42nd title and she is off to ¡Acapulco, México!