Second seed Elena Dementieva and third seed Jelena Jankovic advanced to the quarterfinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.

Dementieva played Agnes Szavay in the second round and despite being 4-1 behind in the first set, the Russian battled back to win the set in the tiebreak. Dementieva then cruised through the second set, but needed five match points to seal victory.

"I am still finding my feet on clay court. It is my first tournament of the year (on clay) and my footwork needs to improve," said Dementieva, who will next face Marion Bartoli, the winner over Caroline Wozniacki in the second round.

Defending champion Jelena Jankovic overcame Germany’s promising player Sabine Lisicki, who won Family Circle Cup this month, and beat 20th-ranked Patty Schnyder in the previous round in Stuttgart. The world No.42 Lisicki took Jankovic to three sets, but the Serb won 7-5 5-7 6-3 after two hours and 13 minutes of play.

Jankovic will encounter Flavia Pennetta or sixth seed Nadia Petrova in the quarterfinals. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Fourth seed Victoria Azarenka was upset 6-4 6-3 in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix by claycourt specialist Gisela Dulko.

The world number eight Azarenka came into the Stuttgart event off the back of three tournament wins this season: Brisbane, Memphis and Miami.

Defending champion Jelena Jankovic lost just two games to Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova to reach the second round. She will next face Sabine Lisicki following her 6-4 6-3 win over Patty Schnyder.

In other first-round matches fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova had a hard task against German qualifier Andrea Petkovic, winning 6-4 5-7 6-1. Nadia Petrova also needed three sets to beat Zheng Jie 6-4 5-7 6-4, while Daniela Hantuchova defeated Alize Cornet 6-3 6-1. Also, Flavia Pennetta advanced with a 6-2 6-0 victory over Anna Chakvetadze. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Dinara Safina won her first match as world number one by defeating Sara Errani 6-0 6-1 to reach the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix.

Safina, who celebrated her 23rd birthday in Stuttgart on Monday, defeated the 37th ranked Errani in just 51 minutes.

Meanwhile, Jelena Jankovic, whose experiments with fitness regime ruined her game, decided to keep her expectations low: "I won't be thinking about defending the title here, it's more important for me to just get back to playing good tennis."

It’s bizarre and still painful that in Jankovic’s case it would’ve been better if she hadn’t worked at all, than those overly difficult trainings in the wrong direction. However, JJ learned her lesson: "You listen to your team and you think it will bring results. But my body just did not accept it [...] I am not doing any more experiments."

Great news is that the fourth-ranked Serb feels that her game is recovering: "I feel I am coming back into form."

World No.17 Dominika Cibulkova is awaiting Jelena Jankovic in the first round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. (sources: BBC, Reuters; photo: safina-dinara.com)

Maria Sharapova is about to skip two more tournaments, failing to recover from the infamous shoulder injury.

The WTA said in a statement that the Russian has pulled out from next month’s clay-court tournaments Internazionali BNL d’Italia and Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open.

Sharapova hasn’t played a singles match since last August, while she made a brief return to competitive tennis at Indian Wells last month, playing doubles.

I have to say I kind of expected it. All her statements about the comeback have been somewhat vague. (source: Reuters, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Enjoy natural Ana Ivanovic in the latest set of photos for adidas’ "Me, Myself" campaign.

Ana looks best in sports clothes, with everyday hairdo and makeup. Read more »

Italy beat two-time defending champions Russia in the Fed Cup semifinals and will host the United States in the final in November.

Italy, the 2006 champions, defeated Russia after Francesca Schiavone's hard-fought 7-6 4-6 6-2 victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova gave Italy an unassailable 3-1 advantage (Italy eventually won 4-1).

That one victory of Russia, winner of four of the last five Fed Cups, came thanks to Svetlana Kuznetsova who blasted away Flavia Pennetta 6-0 6-3.

The United States edged hosts Czech Republic 3-2 in the other semifinal in Brno with Liezel Huber and Bethanie Mattek-Sands recovering from losing the first set to defeat Iveta Benesova and Kveta Peschke 2-6 7-6 6-1 in the deciding doubles rubber. (source: CNN)

Russian world number six Vera Zvonareva signed with IMG, global sports and entertainment company, for exclusive worldwide marketing and management representation.

"I feel like I have worked really hard and accomplished quite a lot on court the last six months and working with a company like IMG, that has such a worldwide presence will  help me capitalize on these results.  It will be great to have a global team guiding and helping me to take care of my business career so I can focus on my tennis," said the 24-year-old Zvonareva.

Fernando Soler, Head of IMG’s Tennis Division, added, "We are really looking forward to working with Vera at this exciting time in her career.  She is a very talented athlete with tremendous potential and we are thrilled she has chosen IMG to further develop her blossoming tennis career."

The only bad thing is that Zvonareva’s amazing form has been interrupted by an ankle injury sustained at Charleston this month. Her doctors have declared that she will be out from two to twelve weeks. (photo via Forty Deuce)

Maria Sharapova will be featured in a segment of the next edition of ESPN's primetime news magazine, E:60, on Tuesday, April 28, appearing with Matthew Stafford, the University of Georgia quarterback who will be a top pick — possibly #1 overall — in this weekend's NFL Draft on ESPN and ESPN2.

Extreme Makeover: The most glamorous women’s tennis player is for sure the best person to give the top NFL draft prospect Matthew Stafford a makeover before a cover shoot for ESPN the Magazine. Here’s the promo video with Maria showing the footballer how to work the camera.

Ana Ivanovic has finished 11th on the FHM 100 Sexiest Women in the World 2009 list, and is showing off her beauty in the new issue of Vanity Fair Spain.

The French Open champion is featured over six pages of Vanity Fair that went on sale this week. Ivanovic looks pretty and feminine, while the pictures are peaceful and nice.

As for the flattering 11th place on the list which is considered to be the most popular of its kind, it’s even greater when you see that the 21-year-old Serb is by far the highest-ranked sportswoman (second-best is Maria Sharapova at No.45). Plus, Ivanovic finished above the likes of Angelina Jolie, Scarlett Johansson, and Eva Longoria. (source: Ana Ivanovic's official website)

More family picture from the childhood of now top-ranked WTA player Dinara Safina have surfaced, and they’re always an absolute delight. So far we’ve seen a wonderful video of the three-year-old Safina playing tennis, and a couple of photos of the Safin family. Now we can see even more cute photos thanks to Tennis Info Blog.

Isn't it adorable? – Marat helping little Dinara with her homework. By the way, they're the only brother-sister duo to have been No.1 in professional tennis.

And look how cute Dinara's smile is while Marat is hugging her. Read more »