she was beaten by the eventual champion and first seed, Maria Kirilenko. She then made only her second final at the WTA level at the Tier III Japan Open in Tokyo. She defeated Lucie Šafářová, Yanina Wickmayer, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, and eighth seed Aleksandra Wozniak, before losing in the final to Danish then world No. 16 and top seed, Caroline Wozniacki, in three sets. She was named the 2008 Best Female Athlete of Estonia by the Association of Estonian Sports Journalists. 2009 Kanepi reached her career-best third round at the Australian Open, but lost miserably to then world No. 3, Dinara Safina, in straight sets. She had an epic match with Kimiko Date, former world No. 4, in the first round. She was a member of the Estonia Fed Cup team in rounds played in February. She was paired with Maret Ani, and the Estonian team beat Bulgaria, Croatia, and Belarus. Kanepi won all the singles rubbers that she played (including a win over then world No. 15 Victoria Azarenka). She set a new personal serve record in the tournament, among the fastest ever served by a woman. She continued her season at the Open GdF Suez, a Premier tournament, but lost in the second round to Émilie Loit. At the top-level Dubai Championships, she advanced to the third round to set up a match with former world number one, Jelena Janković whom she defeated in straight sets. She was the highest-seeded player Kanepi had by that time defeated. Kanepi then beat Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals, in straight sets. She was, however, denied a place in the finals by Virginie Razzano. Kanepi then participated at the Rome Masters. She defeated Patty Schnyder in the third round, but lost to Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals. Her next tournament was the Madrid Open, where she was seeded 16th. However, she retired in the first round against Lucie Šafářová. In the French Open opening round, Kanepi was defeated by Yaroslava Shvedova in the first surprise of the day. Her first round loss led to a drop in her ranking, as she fell to world No. 24. She was then scheduled to play at the Birmingham Classic as the second seed. However, she then withdrew because of a knee injury. Kanepi was seeded 25th at the Wimbledon Championships, but lost to Carla Suárez Navarro in the first round. Kanepi lost her opening matches at