It’s high time we featured Dinara Safina in our retrospections of the WTA players' outfits. The Russian is not a fashionista like most women's tennis players, but during a large part of 2009 she was ranked No.1 and I think her adidas Competition outfits deserve to be included.

As you can see, Safina is wearing simple and sporty tennis clothes, without glitter and too many details. That sort of style suits the Russian perfectly and even though Safina's 2009 outfits brought nothing we hadn't seen before, they were very nice.

Read more »

Bróna, Ama and Zexy from Serbia wanted me to feature Jelena Jankovic in my retrospection of players’ yearly outfits, and I’m sure many others would like to see all the ANTA designs in one place and evaluate the new brand on the tennis scene.

As you remember, Jankovic switched from Reebok to Chinese ANTA in the beginning of the season, while she was still ranked No.1. The sports brand then became the first one from China to sponsor a top-ranked WTA player.

The whole season has passed, and I’m still not convinced Jankovic made the right decision. There was no ANTA dress that I really liked, although some of them looked cute on JJ and brought variety, like the one she wore in Beijing and Moscow. Read more »

Women's Tennis Blog is more than two and a half years old and I feel it would be wonderful to give some space to our readers to present themselves. A lot of different people visit Women's Tennis Blog, some come and go, some come occasionally, some are with us daily, and a few of them have been with us from the very beginning.

I think it would be wonderful to get to know you, to learn more about the community we have here and for you all to see who else is visiting the same place as you do.

I would like to know more about you. Where are you from? What are you doing in life? Do you play tennis and what's your level? How old are you? When did you start reading Women's Tennis Blog? Or even simpler, just share what you feel like sharing, and tell us something about yourself that you think describes your personality well.

Don’t be shy and come join the conversation!

I'm so excited to see the comments section! (photo: AlejoC)

Answering the wish of our readers Marcel and Ama, we are featuring the retrospection of all the dresses Venus Williams wore during the 2009 tennis season.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion is promoting her own clothing line called EleVen.

I see that many people like Venus' designs, but I'm not a huge fan. I like just some of the dresses, and I can always picture her wearing something much better. However, I think it’s really nice that this year she was wearing exclusively dresses.

Of the designs she sported on tennis courts during 2009 I like the yellow dress from the Australian Open and the Wimbledon one (especially the back). The other ones are fine, but the US Open dress is a total miss in my opinion, especially having in mind it was made for a great tournament such as a Grand Slam.

And notice this: the white and yellow dress from Dubai and Acapulco is actually last year’s US Open dress. Oops. Talking about 2008, here you can remind yourselves of Venus' 2008 EleVen fashions.

What do you think of EleVen? Would you prefer Venus in some other brand? Which 2009 Eleven dresses do you like, and which ones you don’t?

Addition: See what other top WTA players were wearing in tournaments. (photos via: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Women Who Serve, smagico, angela n.)

Dear readers,

I'm writing to announce that posting is likely to be slower in the next two weeks, as I'll be on vacation in Shanghai, China. I'm bringing my laptop and I should have the internet connection in my hotel, but I will probably be very busy exploring the metropolis and China in general.

I have prepared some nice posts in advance, such as the retrospections of players' 2009 outfits that I promised to some of you, and I'll also try to cover the new important stories that will come up. However, I probably won't have time to write as often and answer all your e-mails and comments right away.

Enjoy your holiday season!

Marija

I am happy to announce that we have the winner of the Wilson racquet with Justine Henin’s autograph: Leo's answer to our question was voted as the best one. Congratulations, Leo!

Twenty-six entrants qualified for winning the prize by completing both the steps requested. I’m very sorry that some of you provided in-depth answers to our question, but forgot to subscribe to Women’s Tennis Blog, and hence didn’t qualify.

Here’s the winning answer to "How will the comeback of Justine Henin change/affect the women's tennis scene in 2010?":

Thanks for having this contest.

The return of Justine Henin in 2010 will surely change the landscape of women's tennis. When she retired in 2008, the leadership of women's tennis is in a limbo. There was no assertive leader of the group. Gone was the time when the world no.1 would assert her supremacy in the game. Nobody question her accomplishments. But since the departure of Justine, a lot of questions were raised in women's tennis. The inconsistencies of Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Dinara Safina, the question of motivation of the part of the Williams sisters and the injury problems of Maria Sharapova to name a few. To put it simply, women's tennis lack excitement and intensity.

So what could Justine bring to the table now that she will be back full time in the women's tour? The answer: a lot…..

Here are some things that we can look forward to in 2010:

1. The return of Justine Henin will surely challenge those who are in the top 10. I'm pretty sure, the Williams sisters, Russian Armada and the Serbian ladies will prepare really hard this off-season to stay in shape and polish their game since the true queen of tennis will be back in full force.

Read more »

Australian Damian Prasad is Ana Ivanovic's new fitness trainer, supposed to work with the tennis star full-time.

Prasad and Ivanovic are currently in a trial period, and he will be there for her during the Australian part of the season.

Prasad has a Masters of Exercise Science and before joining Ivanovic's team he worked with WTA players such as Nadia Petrova and Eleni Daniilidou. Also, Prasad was an integral part of the Australian Institute of Sport Tennis Program. (source: Ana Ivanovic's official website, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The International Tennis Federation has named world No.1 Serena Williams the 2009 Women’s Singles World Champion, for the second time in her career, and in addition, together with sister Venus, the American received the honor of being the 2009  Women’s Doubles World Champion.

It is the first time since 1999, when Martina Hingis achieved the feat, that a player received both singles and doubles honors.

The awards will be given to the ITF World Champions at the annual ITF World Champions Dinner on June 1, in Paris, during the French Open.

Serena achieved a number of enormous successes in 2009. She won two Grand Slam singles titles (Australian Open and Wimbledon) and three doubles Grand Slam titles (Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open). In addition, the winner of 11 majors in singles and 10 in doubles sealed the No.1 ranking by triumphing at the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha. (source: On the Baseline, photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Elena Dementieva, Maria Kirilenko, Sania Mirza and Zheng Jie took part in an annual exhibition tournament the Glam Slam – Showdown of Champions in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our friend HCFoo attended the meet-the-fans session held on Friday and followed the rest of the event at home.

Dementieva and Kirilenko defeated Mirza and Zheng 3-0. The Russians won in doubles on Saturday 6-4 5-7 10-8. Then on Sunday, Kirilenko beat Zheng 6-3 4-6 6-4, and Dementieva completed Russian domination by downing Mirza 6-4 7-6 (7-0).

HCFoo's overall impression is that the Glam Slam – Showdown of Champions wasn't actually glamorous and that the organization should have been much better. In addition, the attendance was bad and there was lack of publicity. Still, the matches were worth watching, as the players took them seriously and fought hard.

Elena Dementieva left a lovely impression on HCFoo:

I've never met a player so friendly… she would look deep in your eyes, greet you and give you a big smile! *faint*

Casey Dellacqua defeated Olivia Rogowska 1-6 7-6(9) 6-3 at the Australian Open Play-off and earned her spot in the main draw of Australian Open 2010.

Dellacqua trailed 2-5 in the second set and even saved three match points en route to winning the wildcard.

Remember, Australia's Dellacqua was the story of her home Grand Slam in 2008, when she reached the fourth round defeating Patty Schnyder and Amelie Mauresmo along the way?

The 24-year-old missed practically whole 2009 season because of a shoulder surgery she had in February and tendonitis in her foot. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)