World No.11 Nadia Petrova has been hospitalized with viral meningitis, and won’t play the ASB Classic in New Zealand where she was supposed to start the 2009 tennis season.

"It’s a shame Nadia will not be coming, I know she was looking forward to playing the ASB Classic, but in this situation she is obviously in need of medical care and our thoughts go out to her," says ASB Classic tournament director Brenda Perry.

Besides the ASB Classic, Petrova might miss some other scheduled tournaments in Australia too.

In 2007, Petrova won two titles: Cincinnati and Quebec City. (source: On the Baseline, photo: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

It’s been awhile since we got an update on Kim Clijsters. The last time we wrote about her was when she was on the cover of Dag Allemaal magazine with her husband and baby Jada back in March.

Kim Clijsters attended the Sports Gala in Ostend, Belgium's most prestigious sporting award ceremony, where another Belgian former world No.1 Justine Henin received a lifetime career achievement award.

Clijsters showed up with her husband Brian Lynch, and a new detail – daughter Jada's name tattooed on her wrist.

By the way, you can see more nice pictures of little Jada at kimclijsters.be. (via Down the Line)

Former world number four Jelena Dokic, who is working hard on her comeback, got upset on the second day of the round-robin Australian Open wildcard play-off.

The 25-year-old Dokic, who previously defeated Gold Coast teenager Sophie Letcher 6-3 6-0, fell to an emerging Australian talent Monica Wejnert 4-6 6-3 6-4 on day two, and so Dokic's hopes of obtaining a wildcard into Australian Open 2009 took a step back.

The field is divided into four groups, with the top two in each group progressing to the quarterfinals on Friday. Dokic's next opponent is Marija Mirkovic. (via Tennis Australia, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Maria Sharapova is still working on her modeling career. This time the Russian was pictured for the cover of the January issue of Women's Health magazine.

The issue also features this black and white photo of Sharapova.

Thank you Fabi for letting me know about this! (via Siberian Siren)

Former world number one Justine Henin was given a lifetime tennis achievement award on Sunday night in Ostend, Northern Belgium at the nation’s prestigious Sports Gala occasion.

Besides award, the Belgian tennis star received video messages from American tennis legend Pete Sampras and Justine's male childhood tennis idol Stefan Edberg.

"I have no regrets. I can't regret a life which gave me so much", explained Henin, who unexpectedly retired in May. "I learned so many things about myself. It's important to have the wisdom to stop at a time when it's the moment to move on. I have only good memories." Read more »

Serena Williams has updated her website with the insight into her interesting training regime. Here’s how you should warm up to become a Grand Slam champion. Seems we all have a chance!

Read more »

World No.1 Jelena Jankovic is not only intensively preparing for the 2009 tennis season, but she seems to have a New Year’s resolution of finally cutting down on tournaments.

Prior to the Australian Open, the 23-year-old will warm up just at the JB Group Classic exhibition in Hong Kong.

When I remember how Jankovic’s 2008 season started, at the very begging she was struggling with injury at the Hopman Cup, I find it miraculous she managed to obtain the season-ending No.1 ranking and have a successful season. However, now we seem to have a new, more careful and reasonable JJ.

As you know Ana Ivanovic is currently in her hometown of Belgrade where she unveiled the 2009 Verano calendar. We’ve already shown you a sneak peek at the calendar, and as promised, here are some more images from the photo shoot.

Ana is satisfied with the outcome, and said the photo shoot was a challenging task since they were limited to only one day. Read more »

Is it possible? Ana Ivanovic left Spain! The 21-year-old tennis star visited Belgrade in order to unveil the 2009 Verano calendar. Verano Motors is the distributor of Peugeot automobiles in Serbia, Montenegro and Bosnia, and Ana signed a three-year sponsorship deal with the company last year.

Ana today attended a cocktail reception at the Zira Center shopping mall, where the images for the calendar were shown to the world for the first time.

The photo shoot for the 2009 Verano calendar took place in Belgrade recently.

Stay tuned. More images will be posted soon. (source: Ana Ivanovic's website)

Jelena Jankovic is not the only one doing serious work in preparation for the 2009 tennis season. Amelie Mauresmo is training with new coach Hugo Lecoq and her personal website has a nice set of photos to prove the two-time Grand Slam champion is not about to retire yet.

I can't wait to see what the next season has in store for Amelie.