Anabel Medina Garrigues became the 11th player this year to join The Road to Bali when she defeated Ekaterina Makarova 6-0 6-1 to win the Grand Prix de SAR La Princesse Lalla Meryem, held on the red clay courts of Fès, Morocco.

While the Spaniard is a seasoned campaigner her Russian opponent was bidding for her first career title, and perhaps that accounted for the one-sided contest. Medina Garrigues managed to win the first 10 games before Makarova registered her first game, and ironically that was with a break of serve! Left-handed Makarova double-faulted six times in the first set, including one on set point.

Medina Garrigues, by contrast, was playing her 14th final, and she has now claimed her ninth title. Eight are on clay, so she might be hoping the court surface be changed if she qualifies for the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions, which will be played at the Bali Convention Centre, The Westin, Nusa Dua, 4th to 8th November.

Interestingly, Anabel became just the second player this season to save match point en route to a Tour singles title, saving three in her second round match against Klara Zakopalova. The first player to do so was Caroline Wozniacki, who saved four match points against Elena Vesnina in the semifinals of Ponte Vedra Beach before going on to win the title.

It wasn’t easy, but Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer defeated Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 7-5 6-2 to win the Estoril Open in Portugal and earn a place on the Road To Bali.

It was an amazing week for the 19-year old, whose previous best result had been to reach the Birmingham final in 2008, as she had to beat four seeded opponents on her way to her first career title. She is Belgium 's first Tour singles winner since Justine Henin won at Antwerp in February last year, and by coming into the tournament at number 88 she is the lowest-ranked Tour singles titlist so far this year. For her opponent it was a double-disappointment, as the previous week she had also reached the final in Fes but came away without the trophy.

"I'm really happy to have won my first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title," said Wickmayer. "I've worked hard for it. I don't really have many words to describe the feeling - I'm nearly speechless! I've been playing well for a few weeks now. I didn't have great results but I've been practicing really well. I felt this coming, not that I was going to win a title, but that I was playing well. I beat some good players this week so I'm very happy."

The Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions will feature top Tour players and next generation champions competing in an innovative 12 woman round robin singles format, offering $600,000 in prize money. The top 10 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour players who have won at least one International tournament during the year and who are not participating in singles at the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships will qualify for the event, along with two wild cards. The 12-woman event will feature four groups of three players in a round robin format, then a single-elimination semi-finals and final.