The tennis stadium for the Beijing 2008 Olympics is all set up and we’re only 316 days away from the huge sports event.

All over Beijing you can see cute little cartoon mascots. They are called “fuwa”, which is literally translated as “good luck dolls”. There are five types of these mascots, and each kind represents a different element of the natural world. They draw their individual colors from the Olympic rings.

Tennis is being represented by Yingying, the earthy yellow male figure, depicting health. Its animal is the Tibetan antelope.

Check out the other mascots too, they are sooo cute. I really like this Chinese style. (via Off the Baseline)

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Maria Sharapova has been ruled out of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart because of a shoulder injury she has been carrying since March.

"I was really looking forward to the Stuttgart tournament and I'm very sorry my injury hasn't cleared up in time," Sharapova said.

"I'll do everything I can to return to the tour as quickly as possible." Read more »

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World number one Justine Henin will compete in only three more tournaments this season: the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, the Tier I Zurich Open and the year-end Sony Ericsson Championships in Madrid.

However, fans in Belgium will get to see Henin - and three special guests – play a Christmas holiday exhibition which will be held in Charleroi from December 15-16, 2007. The Belgian's fellow top ten players Anna Chakvetadze and Nadia Petrova have already confirmed their participation in the sixth Women’s Tennis Trophy event, and the final player will be either Ana Ivanovic, Martina Hingis, Shahar Peer, or Francesca Schiavone. Read more »

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World No.19 Tatiana Golovin gave an exclusive interview for a French newspaper L’Équipe, more precisely for L’Équipe Féminine, which is accompanied by beautiful photos of the tennis star. I very much like the way she looks, the clothes and make-up are unique and look fantastic on Tati.

If you understand some French, you can read her interview here, by clicking on the pages scanned.

On Sunday, Golovin won her second career title, a Tier IV event in Portoroz, Slovenia. Currently, the Frenchwoman is at the FORTIS Championships Luxembourg, where she's seeded eighth, and her first round opponent will be Sorana Cirstea of Romania.

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France’s Tatiana Golovin and Russia’s Maria Kirilenko both clinched WTA singles titles on Sunday.

Top seed Golovin beat home favorite Katarina Srebotnik 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 to win the Slovenia Open in Portoroz for her second career title, while fourth seed Kirilenko won an innovative Sunfeast Open trophy (traditional Indian painting) in Kolkata, defeating Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine 6-0, 6-2 in the final.

World No.19 Golovin lost in the first round of the US Open, so she played the smaller Portoroz event in an attempt to regain her rhythm.

"My form is up again," said the 19-year-old Frenchwoman. "I have a feeling that my strikes are like at the start of the season."

World No.35 Kirilenko faced no difficulty in outplaying a first-time singles finalist Koryttseva who made too many errors.

"It's been a great week. I didn't expect the final to be so easy," said Kirilenko. (sources: Tennis X, ESPN; photos via Tennis Fairy, TSF)

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