Maria Sharapova is still busy shooting magazine covers. This time the Russian appears on the cover of December 2008 issue of California Style.

Enjoy more pictures from the magazine.

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The Australian Open has released its official television commercial for the 2009 event. The ad is featuring last year’s finalists Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic, plus a bit of Serena Williams. Of course, top men’s tennis players also appear in the ad.

Jelena Jankovic, And Ivanovic, Venus and Serena Williams will play an exhibition event in New York on March 2nd, 2009.

The indoor tournament set to take place at Madison Square Garden is called "Tennis Night in America", and is the inaugural BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup.

There will be two semifinals and a final on the same night. The semis will have no-ad scoring and will be played over one set; the final will be a best-of-three set match with regular scoring, although the deciding set will be substituted by a tiebreak.

The night, which will benefit the Dream Vaccines Foundation charity, will also feature a special tribute to women’s sports. (source: Ana Ivanovic's website)

It seems Slovak world No.19 Dominika Cibulkova totally overcame ex-boyfriend Gael Monfils.

The 19-year-old WTA player hooked up with another tennis player, Jurgen Melzer, probably during the US Open where they played mixed doubles together, and now we have a hot update – photos of Cibulkova and Melzer having fun in Maldives. Read more »

Serena Williams will visit Kenya for the first time so as to officially inaugurate a school built through partnership between the Build African Schools initiative and Hewlett Packard.

The opening of the Serena Williams Secondary School in Matooni will be held on Friday, November 14.

By  building  schools and equipping them with electricity, computers and other teaching  aids, Build African Schools and Hewlett Packard offer children educational opportunities and choices that will ultimately empower them to determine their own future.

World number two Serena Williams will spend three days in Kenya. (source: KBC, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The Women's Tennis Association has agreed to bring back byes to certain tournaments in 2009 in order to give players more time to rest between certain high-intensity events.

Rome is a 56-draw tournament followed by Madrid which is a 64-draw tournament. Similarly in the fall, Tokyo is a 56-draw tournament followed by Beijing. Several players were concerned there was too many matches in too few days.

The WTA responded by reintroducing byes for semifinalists in Rome and Tokyo, so that they can play one match less and have more time to rest. (source: Reuters)

Seventh seed Venus Williams clinched her first title at the Sony Ericsson Championships with a 6-7(5) 6-0 6-2 victory over Vera Zvonareva in the last match of the 2008 WTA tennis season.

Zvonareva started off very well, breaking Williams’ first service game, and holding the lead up until what could have been the Russian’s victory in the first set. Namely, Zvonareva served to close out the opening set at 5-3, but wasted four set points and Williams managed to return the break, and later to force a tiebreak.

In the tiebreaker American Venus Williams established what seemed to be a solid lead (5-1), but Zvonareva remarkably fought back, which I didn’t think she was capable of doing as I though the momentum totally switched to Venus. Eighth-seeded Zvonareva won six successive points to take the first set. Read more »

Wimbledon champion Venus Williams won the Whirlpool 6TH SENSE Player of the Year Award for 2008, being the player who has demonstrated the most intuition throughout the year, as voted in an online competition.

There were ten nominees, and fans from across Europe were voting. Along with Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic was the finalist. From the two of them, an expert panel chose the winner.

Therefore, Venus has demonstrated best the 6TH SENSE attributes – intuition, intelligence, and precision – in the year of 2008.

Past 6TH SENSE winners include fellow former No.1s Justine Henin (2005, 2007) and Maria Sharapova (2006).

Williams is currently at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha where she will play the Sunday’s final against Russian Vera Zvonareva. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

American Venus Williams defeated top seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-2 2-6 6-3 to reach the Sony Ericsson Championships final for the first time, having lost in the semis twice by now.

The seventh-seeded Williams was dominant in the first set, before a change of fortunes in the second. The Wimbledon champion rediscovered her first set touch at the start of the decider and moved into an early break. The 23-year-old Jankovic had a major chance in the sixth game of the third set, holding multiple break points. However, the world No.1 didn’t capitalize. Williams then confirmed her advantage and never looked back.

The 28-year-old Williams will face Russian Vera Zvonareva in the final of the Sony Ericsson Championships. Zvonareva, seeded eighth, is also playing her first final at the season-ending Championships, plus, her biggest career final. She advanced to the championships match with a victory over Elena Dementieva.

Neither Williams nor Zvonareva have lost a match this week. In the Maroon Group, Williams defeated three Top 5 players (Dinara Safina, Serena Williams, and Elena Dementieva), while Zvonareva beat two Top 5 players in the White Group.

Williams holds a 5-1 record against Zvonareva, having lost only the first meeting with the Russian. But don’t let the stats fool you. Zvonareva totally earned her place in the Sony Ericsson Championships final, and I wouldn’t be surprised if she lifts the trophy on Sunday. (photos: Getty Images)

Vera Zvonareva’s fantastic form continues to bring fruitful results, as the eighth seed defeated fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 7-6(7) 3-6 6-3 to reach the final of the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.

In the first set, which featured as much as eight breaks of serve, fifth-seeded Demetieva had a 4-1 lead, but Zvonareva recovered and forced a tiebreak which she won 9-7.

Dementieva then broke Zvonareva’s first service game in the second set, and holding that initial lead the fifth seed won the second set, in which Zvonareva, by the way, had only 38% first serve percentage.

In the third set, Zvonareva was the one who established a 4-1 lead, but later on, in the seventh game, Dementieva managed to break back. Zvonareva, however, rebroke right away, and served out the match in the following game to reach her first final of the Sony Ericsson Championships.

Prior to today’s meeting, Dementieva held a perfect record on hardcourts against her compatriot.

Zvonareva will next play either Venus Williams or world No.1 Jelena Jankovic, depending on whom of the two wins the semifinal. (photos: Getty Images)