Jelena Jankovic is a player whose statements very often make me laugh or sometimes confuse me. Many times I just thought why hadn't she kept her mouth shut, but after all, I'm used to Jelena's personality and I will always like and understand her.

Since her statements are at the moment most inspiring of all the WTA players, I have been collecting them for a few months from a variety of sources, and decided to publish them today. I've been reading many articles and interviews every day, and whenever I found some funny quote of J.J., I took note of it. So, here's my modest collection:

After losing to Ana Ivanovic at this year's East West Bank Classic Jankovic said: "I felt like I was playing against a guy, the way her serves were coming at me. It's sometimes scary, and when she starts to scream, I'm like, Come on. She's quite a powerful, big girl." Read more »

When I found this photo of little Lindsay Davenport playing tennis I was very pleased that my collection, that could be called "Photos of Female Tennis Players When They Were Kids", is getting richer (slowly but surely). I've already published young pictures of Ana Ivanovic, Kim Clijsters, and Monica Seles.

(image of Lindsay found at WTA World)

Here’s one good read – an article about top Sony Ericsson WTA Tour players "Taking Stock: Bottom line for the top women", that Kamakshi Tandon, assisted by Robert Waltz, wrote for the Official Site of Tennis Magazine. The article deals with world’s top eight players (Justine Henin, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, Maria Sharapova, Anna Chakvetadze, Serena Williams, and Venus Williams), plus a few more.

Why it’s so valuable? Because it gives both statistical and descriptive look at the players, with additional information on how they stand compared with how they stood in 2006, and where they are headed. Also, each player was given a to-do list for the next season. For example, Ana Ivanovic should “Remember how to serve, even in Grand Slam finals”. True. (thanks to Women Who Serve who I found this through)

In an interview for Reuters, tennis great Billie Jean King revealed her opinion about Martina Hingis’ failed drug test.

"It just doesn't make sense… it's just not her," said King, a player who has been involved with tennis for almost half a century.

"She was going to retire anyway. I do believe Martina Hingis. If she says she hasn't taken it, I believe it.

"Maybe she went out to a party… and others had dope around and leave it on tables and if you get it on your hands and maybe you ingest it and you don't even know. There are so many possibilities now. It's just not in Hingis's character. I'd stand by her.”

Additional info: In the same interview Billie Jean King paid tribute to Justine Henin’s fantastic year saying that Henin is “the best for her size ever to have lived”.

Read the full interview here. (photo via My Hero)

The seven-time Grand Slam champ Justine Henin has been busy giving interviews recently. She let us take a glimpse into her personal and everyday life in a show on French Belgian RTL, as well as in an interview for BBC.

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Men’s tennis has been hit by a series of match-fixing allegations in 2007, however, tennis legend Billie Jean King doesn’t believe that the phenomenon exists in women’s tennis mainly because there is much less money in women’s game.

Asked if she had heard of any women players who had been offered money to throw a match, the American said: "Absolutely not, not even one."

"Men make more money so maybe they (the match-fixers) go there first. People follow the money in sports. In the '60s nobody cared because there wasn't any money."

Still, the 63-year-old King is aware of the fact that players can get involved in these illegal actions if they want to.

"No one is ever immune. You can fix anything in sport if you want. You definitely could do it and that's why we have to have honor and integrity," she said.

Current world number one Justine Henin has also never witnessed any activities related to match-fixing, but declared that she would give life bans to those caught cheating. (source: Guardian, photo: Wikipedia)

Tennis season is over, but it doesn’t mean that there is no news. Rumors are always there. Well, the latest one is that Serena Williams is dating rapper Common. The tennis diva, who appeared in Common’s most recent video I Want You, was spotted holding hands with him at New York party last week (the launch of Venus Williams' clothing line EleVen).

A partygoer at Manhattan hotspot Tenjune tells the New York Post's PageSix, "They were very friendly, arm-in-arm. All night they were sitting together. You could tell Common likes Serena. I asked a friend of his and was told they are dating."

If I come across any confirmation of this news, I will report it. (source: All things Serena Williams)

Maria Sharapova invests a lot of time in style, always working on being unique and creative. What Masha puts on herself must be fantastic, and Nike has helped her with that.

All of her dresses tell a story or are inspired by some particular thing. Her US Open day and night dresses depicted the New York skyline, while the Wimbledon dress was inspired by a swan.

I decided to make this retrospection because I like all of Sharapova’s outfits since they all greatly differ from one another in style, color, and amazing details. My personal favorite is the US Open red dress, mainly because of the color; but the latest dress, from Madrid, is also fascinating – nice combination of colors, extraordinary model, and unique retro style. On a women's tennis forum, the outfit that got most votes was the one Sharapova wore at Roland Garros. Tell me, which one is your favorite?

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Justine Henin wants tennis to be clean and therefore wouldn't give a second chance to players caught match-fixing. However, even though tennis has been hit by a series of match-fixing allegations recently, the 25-year-old Belgian has never witnessed such activities herself.

"I am zero tolerance about that. It is very important and this kind of thing should not happen," said world No.1 Henin.

"It's pretty sad," she added. "I can tell you I have never heard anything or no-one ever came to me, but if we talk about that it means it probably exists in the sport.

"It's not easy to find out what happened and if it happened because we have no proof about that at this time, but it is like doping for me – it is not more important or less important.

"The tour is doing a great job and we want to keep (tennis) a healthy sport." (source: BBC, photo: Marcel Hagmann)

World number one Justine Henin has always claimed that she would prefer another Roland Garros title over winning Wimbledon. However, her opinion has changed, and when asked "A fifth Roland Garros or a first Wimbledon?" she replied "Wimbledon!" without hesitation.

Henin’s coach, Carlos Rodriguez, has prepared a plan, some tactical and psychological changes, which will enable the Belgian to win the only Grand Slam title she misses.

Justine's father Jose said: "Carlos is right about the way to go for a better Justine next year. He is going to make her more and more positive, stronger in the head. She will be going to the net much more so that she can feel more comfortable making volleys. Wimbledon is the goal."

Even though Henin is the best female tennis player the world has at the moment, she feels there is room for improvement. "I think I can still improve a lot, in my attitude especially," said the 25-year-old Belgian. "I have to keep improving my aggressive game, moving forward and taking my opportunities." (sources: Daily Mail, Reuters)