Second seed Marion Bartoli of France won her 300th career singles match and first title this year, beating China's Li Na 6-4 6-3 in the final of the Monterrey Open in Mexico.

Bartoli’s biggest competition on paper was top seed Agnieszka Radwanska, but she was upset in the first round by unseeded Li.

The Monterrey Open title is Bartoli’s fourth career singles title. The 24-year-old won Auckland, Tokyo and Quebec City in 2006. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Now it’s official: Maria Sharapova will start her return from shoulder injury by playing doubles at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells.

Besides confirming that she’s playing doubles at the next week’s tournament, Sharapova commented on the recovery process on her official website:

I am excited to be playing competitive tennis again. The healing process takes time, and requires things to move more slowly than I would like, but I am taking things one step at a time. I look forward to playing at the BNP Paribas Open, it is definitely one of my favorite tournaments in the world. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Yesterday we had unofficial information that Maria Sharapova won’t return from her injury at Indian Wells, but the latest news at TennisReporters.net is that she will play the BNP Paribas Open, but only the doubles competition.

Sharapova, who hasn’t played doubles since mid-2005, will team up with Elena Vesnina for the first time, but is expected to return to singles at the following event in Miami at the end of month.

The 21-year-old’s surgically repaired right shoulder still gets fatigued after three consecutive days of two out of three set matches and her doctors aren’t convinced that it’s a good idea to push it in singles during the next two weeks.

Sharapova has won three doubles titles in her career: 2004 Birmingham with Maria Kirilenko, and 2003 titles in Tokyo and Luxembourg with Tamarine Tanasugarn. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Maria Sharapova’s skipping of tournaments is continuing. According to the Siberian Siren blog and their insider information, Sharapova will miss the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Not a big surprise, I have to say.

Seeing Sharapova practicing at the Nick Bollettieri’s Tennis Academy gave us hope that she would make her long-anticipated return at Indian Wells. However, the Russian is apparently not ready for high-level competition yet and is waiting to be absolutely fit.

Sharapova has slipped to No. 23 in the rankings, not having  competed since July 2008 because of a shoulder injury. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

World number one Serena Williams has given her official website a completely new look, yay!

Those of you familiar with the website's old design must be welcoming the change. The website seems much more professional now, it’s easier to navigate, the color palette is way more beautiful (actually, I love it!), and it has quite enough information on Serena including her upcoming and past schedule, photo gallery, Serena TV, biography, and more.

Serena’s welcoming us to her redesigned website saying:

I'm so excited for my new site to be up. It's been a long, withstanding effort to get it just right. I hope you all enjoy it!

My favorite website of a women’s tennis player is still Ana Ivanovic’s (I believe she’s unbeatable in that department), but I’m very pleased with Serena’s efforts. Good job!

You probably already know that Serena and Venus Williams don’t want to play at Indian Wells ever again, because they detest the tournament claiming they were booed and suffered racial abuse there in 2001.

The big problem has emerged this year, however: the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells is now a premier event and any player who declines to play one of the four premier events without a legitimate medical excuse – which the top 10 players are required to play – would be suspended for the next two premier events. So everyone was wondering how the problem with the Williams sisters would be resolved.

World No.1 Serena Williams and world No.5 Venus Williams will not play tennis at the event, but will perform promotional activities for the tournament, as new stipulations were put into place that any player declining to play an event for personal reasons would be allowed to do so under the conditions mentioned.

Therefore, the Williams sisters will avoid suspension by performing some activities, which will be determined by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in due course. (source: Tennis Head, photos via Tennis Channel)

Serena Williams has partnered with WeMix.com, the online music creation community for independent musicians, to create an original theme song to be used at tennis matches, public appearances and a variety of other outlets by Serena.

Independent artists can submit their work inspired by Serena Williams to the "Serena's Song" contest and the tennis star herself will select her personal favorite songs as finalists. The winner will be chosen by online communities at WeMix.com and Serena’s official website.

Finalists will be chosen in early May, while the winning song will premiere at the Bank of the West Classic in late July. (source: Black Tennis Pro's)

World No.1 Serena Williams defeated older sister Venus 6-4 6-3 to win the $1.2 million BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup, a one-night exhibition event held at Madison Square Garden.

The Williams sisters pleased the home crowd of 12,026 by reaching the final. Firstly, world No.5 Venus Williams advanced with a 6-4 victory over third-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the four-women show, and later Serena Williams shook off an early challenge from seventh-ranked Ana Ivanovic and won 6-3 in the second semifinal.

Winning the tournament, Serena took home $400,000, Venus settled for $300,000, while the Serbs got $250,000 each.

Some women’s tennis players have united to raise funds and morale of those affected by bushfires in Victoria, Australia.

Dinara Safina, Casey Dellacqua, Daniela Hantuchova, Ana Ivanovic, Samantha Stosur, Rennae Stubbs, Ai Sugiyama and Serena Williams have donated personal items of value, which will be auctioned off to raise money for the Tennis Bushfire Relief Appeal.

"What has happened in Australia is shocking and so sad, and I would like to send my deepest sympathies to everyone who has been affected by this tragedy," said 2008 Australian Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic.  "I have family in Melbourne and was very concerned for the safety and welfare of their friends in Victoria.  Australians have a great spirit, and my thoughts are with them."

"My prayers go out to everyone involved. It's such a sad and unfortunate event to happen and the loss of life has been tragic," said 2009 Australian Open champion Serena Williams.  "I admire the heroism of those who risked their lives to help others." (source: Tennis Australia, photos: Ralf Reinecke)

Venus Williams followed up last week's win in Dubai with a 6-1 6-2 defeat of Flavia Pennetta in the final of Abierto Mexicano TELCEL presentado por HSBC.

Williams has won four of her last five tournaments and 20 of her last 21 matches. She won titles late in 2008 at Zurich and the Sony Ericsson Championships, plus Dubai and now Acapulco this year.  A second round loss to Carla Suarez Navarro at the Australian Open is that one loss Williams had.

Williams, the top seed, was serving amazing during the final. She lost just 13 points in her eight service games, five of those coming from double faults. Williams was great on the return too, breaking Pennetta four times, and finishing the final in only an hour and two minutes.

"What happened to me? Venus Williams is what happened to me. The No.5 player in the world is what happened to me!" joked the second-seeded Italian, who was playing her sixth straight Acapulco final. "She was just playing so strong, serving so well, it was hard to fight against her power. I didn’t feel I played badly, she just overpowered me." (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo via Yahoo)