14 July 2002
It has been a bad day for Arantxa, losing in both the singles and doubles final. Overall though, it has been a very staisfying week for Arantxa, since it's been a long time since she reached both finals in a same event. She has managed to string rogether a few quality wins and in the end fell victim to fatigue as she said afterwards. Once again, it was her serve which let her down, though Casanova played superbly after a nervous start. Starting this week, Fed Cup competition returns and hopefully Arantxa will get to play again.

13 July 2002
Arantxa beat Emilie Loit 6-4 in the first set before the French woman retired with a shoulder injury. In fact, Loit had a 4-0 lead in the first set before Arantxa clawed her way back. For Loit, it may be due her shoulder actig up, but Arantxa did enough to overcome the 4 game deficit to win 6 games in a row and win the set. Although her opponent ended up retiring with an injury, it still counts as a win and this brings Arantxa into her first final of the year, where she will face 17 year old Swiss Myriam Casanova. Later, she and Tathiana defeated the second seeded pair of Callens and Schett to move into her seventh doubles final of the year. They will meet the unseeded pair of Schwarz and Woehr in the final.

12 July 2002
Magui Serna may be getting better at playing Arantxa but she is still unable to beat her in 6 meetings. This time, Serna loses 6-3 2-6 2-6 to the veteran Spaniard. Arantxa makes her first semifinal of the season with this win and will face French woman Emilie Loit for a place in the final. This will be the first meeting between the two. This tournament is really Arantxa's to win or lose as fellow Spaniard and Spain's No. 1 doubles player Virginia Ruano Pascual disposed of the second seeded Barbara Schett in three sets earlier.

11 July 2002
Arantxa is through to the quarterfinals after defeating fellow Spaniard Gala Leon Garcia 6-2 6-3 and sets up another all Spanish clash against Magui Serna. Arantxa has a 5-0 advantage over Serna in career head-to-head. Arantxa and Tathiana also completed their first round doubles match over Maret and Ramon Climent after it was suspended due to rain. They won 3-6 6-1 6-2 and advanced to meet Emilie Loit of France, and Catherine Barclay of Australia. Arantxa will play both matches today.

10 July 2002
Arantxa advanced to the second round in singles after defeating Chladkova 6-3 3-6 6-0. She will face fellow Spaniard Gala Leon Garcia in the next round. Arantxa and Tathiana play their first round doubles match today against Maret Ani and Mariam Ramon Climent. By the way, I just realised that this is the very venue where Arantxa won her first singles title. Back in 1988, Arantxa defeated Raffaella Reggi-Concato of Italy in the final of the Belgian Open to clinch her first ever WTA tour title. As the fourth seed, she did not drop a single set enroute to the title. None of the players she beat that year are active anymore, so it shows how long a career Arantxa's has been. Also, there is currently a thread in the WTA World forum discussing why Arantxa had a more successful career than Amanda Coetzer even though both ladies play such a similar game. An interesting read, so check it out.

08 July 2002
Arantxa has been awarded the top seed in the French Community Championships starting today and she plays Denisa Chladkova of Czech Republic in the first round. Arantxa is 2-0 against Chhladkova. In doubles, she has paired up with Italian Tathiana Garbin and will play Maret Ani of Estonia and Mariam Ramon Climent of Spain in the first round.