Maria Sharapova was criticized a lot lately since she withdrew from the Fed Cup on two occasions in 2007; actually the 20-year-old is yet to make a Fed Cup appearance for her native country.

Both times the highest-ranked Russian player pulled out because of injuries, but after the second withdrawal, which was at the last minute, Russian tennis officials accused her of putting her own interests ahead of her country.

"I'm telling you, just forget about all these promises," said Russia's chief tennis coach Vladimir Kamelzon. "Her closest advisers are Americans and they would never allow her to play for Russia," he added. Read more »

Click here to check out who are currently the most beautiful female athletes and vote for your favorites. At the moment, they are all in the first round, but then they can advance to so called “Sexy 16”, “Elite Eight”, “Fab Four”, “Women’s Final”, and in the end one of them will be named the “Hottest Athlete”.

Out of WTA players there are Maria Sharapova, Daniela Hantuchova, Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic, and Maria Kirilenko.

You can hardly name a tournament Jelena Jankovic didn’t play in 2007, so if anyone needed a vacation it was her. This summer she went to Marbella, Spain, and spent there one week swimming, jet-skiing, playing golf with friends, and enjoying wonderful beaches.

“The most important thing is that my injury from the Fed Cup in Kosice has been healed. This vacation means very much to me and now I am ready for the new challenges in my professional career,” said the 22-year-old.

After the vacation, Jankovic spent very short time in her home city of Belgrade, and was quickly back in an airplane to fly to the United States where she’ll firstly play the Acura Classic, a Tier I event in San Diego. (source: Blic Online)

Doubles specialist Liezel Huber became an American yesterday. "It's amazing," Huber said about her new citizenship. "I'll be playing in the US Open as an American. So, that's a dream come true." World No.4 in doubles has lived in Houston for some time, and together with her husband was actively engaged in helping the victims of Katrina and Rita in Louisiana.

Note: Liezel Huber and her doubles partner Cara Black of Zimbabwe are currently ranked No.1 in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships. (sources: Women Who Serve, ABC)

World No. 11 Marion Bartoli lost her first chance to prove that she is not just a one-hit wonder. The Frenchwoman was beaten in her first match since the Wimbledon final.

Bartoli left the court in tears after a 7-5 4-6 3-6 loss to American Lilia Osterloh at the Bank of the West Classic. The 22-year-old said that her body was too tired and had no energy due to busy past two months.

I still believe that Wimbledon final was not the last great achievement of Marion Bartoli. She possesses courage and determination to be admired. Don’t forget that she beat world No.1 Justine Henin and world No.3 Jelena Jankovic despite the pressure of playing at a Grand Slam! Remember what happened to Ivanovic in the same situation? In addition, Jankovic still hasn't beaten Henin.

In think that Bartoli deserves all the respect, and shouldn’t be underestimated. (via BBC)

Samantha Stosur won’t play at the next week’s Acura Classic, in order to fully recover from the virus she has been suffering (which also forced her to withdraw from Fed Cup earlier this month). The Australian No. 1 will return to the tour on August 6, at the Tier II event in Los Angeles. (via Stosur's website)

Tatiana Golovin is glad that seven-times grand slam champion Mats Wilander will be her coach from the beginning of the East West Bank Classic presented by Herbalife tournament until the US Open. The Frenchwoman had a good start to the season, winning her first career title at Amelia Island in April before re-injuring her right ankle, which forced her off the tour for two months.

Golovin is hoping that the experienced Swede can teach her some new tricks:

"He doesn't like the part of women's tennis where we hit as hard as we can and not really think out there,

"He's going to make me think more, see the court better and play more like a guy, which could be better." (via Reuters)

Having a thumb injury and therefore not being able to play tennis, Serena Williams has focused on getting media attention and visiting major Hollywood events. Here’s what she’s been doing lately:

- Got her clothes off for Jane magazine, wearing only silver heels and having flowers as a cover. In the caption Serena says: "I’ll take off my shirt in a second – locker room girls don’t have much shame. Once I was getting ready to go out and my hitting partner, who is my best friend and, like, Greek god – handsome, walked into my hotel room, it wasn’t awkward for me, but he freaked out."

- Hit the ESPY Awards red carpet

- Showed up at Louis Vuitton & Details magazine event

- Came to Europe's Soccer Stars Chelsea Football Club exclusive Hollywood party

- Attended the exclusive Beckham Welcome to LA Party, hosted by Tom Cruise & Katie Holmes and Will Smith & Jada Pinkett Smith

Serena must be spending whole days at beauty salons. Notice just how many times she's changed her hairstyle lately! (via Down the Line)

After a one-sided French Open final when Justine Henin demolished Ana Ivanovic, and after Venus Williams earned Wimbledon crown without using too much power to defeat Marion Bartoli, I vote for the introduction of best-of-five-set Grand Slam finals.

However, it seems that it won’t happen any time soon. Chairman and chief executive of the WTA Tour Larry Scott said: "My own view is that it's probably counter to the direction we've been heading in from player-health and well-being standpoints.” What he refers to is that it collides with the idea to give the players a longer off-season and reduce tournament commitments because of numerous injuries and hence too many withdrawals. (via SeattlePI) Read more »

On Sunday, Anna Chakvetadze won the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati, Ohio, with a 6-1, 6-3 victory over Akiko Morigami. The Russian needed less than an hour to beat Morigami, the finalist in Cincinnati for the second time (in 2005 she lost to Patty Schnyder).

After winning the third title this year, previous two being Hobart and 's-Hertogenbosch, Chakvetadze improved to 5-0 lifetime in finals and raised to career-high ranking of No.7.

Next tournament for the 20-year-old Russian is the Bank of the West Classic, a Tier II event in Stanford, where she’s seeded at the top. Like all of the top four seeds, Chakvetadze will receive an opening-round bye, before facing the victor in the match between American wildcard, Amber Liu and Greek No.1 Eleni Daniilidou.