World No.1 and top seed Serena Williams won her twelfth Grand Slam and her fifth Australian Open one by ending Justine Henin’s hopes of a comeback title with a 6-4 3-6 6-2 victory in the final.

Serena used to win the Australian Open only on odd-numbered years, but today she ended the tradition and also became the first woman in the Open Era to win it five times.

In addition, Williams leveled Billie Jean King’s record in the number of major titles. The two are now ranked sixths in the list; Margaret Court, Steffi Graf, Helen Wills Moody, Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert are ranked better.

Henin was playing only her second tournament after her 18-month retirement and reached the final in both of them. Still, she didn’t manage to match the achievement of fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters who won the 2009 US Open, her first Grand Slam appearance after returning to competition.

"It has been a very emotional two weeks for me. I thought it would never happen again," said the 27-year-old Henin. Later, the seven-time Grand Slam champion assured the audience that she is here to stay: "I'll see you next year."

The former world No.1 Henin,who entered the Australian Open as an unranked wildcard, will remain without a world ranking for one more tournament, but her performance so far convinced us all that the heights of women’s tennis are reserved for her.

As for Serena Williams, what can we say, there is no greater champion in women’s tennis right now. Not only did she win in singles at the 2010 Australian Open, but she won the doubles competition a day earlier (for the fourth time in Melbourne!), and not to mention that she won both singles and doubles last year as well. Serena's taping on right thigh and left knee couldn’t stop her hunger to win and I am certain the American will add more Grand Slam trophies to her already impressive collection. (photos via Yahoo)

Venus and Serena Williams defended their Australian Open doubles title by beating Cara Black and Liezel Huber 6-4 6-3 in the final.

The Williams sisters have now won the Australian Open doubles competition four times, and collected their eleventh Grand Slam doubles title, which makes them the third most successful women’s doubles partnership in the Open era.

The top-seeded team of Black and Huber headed to the Australian Open with victories in Sydney and Auckland in the beginning of the season, but the second-seeded Williamses have now beaten the top-ranked pair in all three of their meetings. Serena and Venus actually have a perfect record in Grand Slam finals, and are 16-1 in finals overall.

The sisters now regret they didn’t focus on doubles earlier in their careers. "We were talking today about how we wished we had have played more when we were younger," said Serena, who is awaiting her Australian Open singles final against Justine Henin. (source: BBC, photo: WILLIAM WEST/AFP/Getty Images)

Top seed Serena Williams and returning wildcard Justine Henin eliminated their Chinese semifinal opponents to book their first meeting in a Grand Slam final.

World No.1 Serena Williams advanced to her fifth Australian Open final after a tense victory over seed No.16 Li Na. The Chinese showed great resistance to take the defending champion to two tiebreaks, but crumbled in both to lose 7-6(4) 7-6(1).

Unseeded former world No.1 Justine Henin blew Zheng Jie off court in just 51 minutes with a 6-1 6-0 victory in the semifinals. The 35th-ranked Zheng had very good first serve percentage of 81, and the score was that bad. Imagine what would have happened if her serve was worse.

Williams and Henin faced each other for the first time nine years ago. Only four of their encounters were in a WTA final in which they are tied at 2-2, and they are about to have their first one in a major. Williams leads their head-to-head record 7-6. (photos via Australian Open)

World No.17 Li Na went bungee jumping for the first time during this month’s ASB Classic in New Zealand and I thought it would be nice to share the video clip, as the Chinese is a player to watch at the moment.

I’m wishing Li Na to jump into the Australian Open final, Serena’s years are odd ones anyway. The two are facing each other in a few hours. Serena has a 3-1 record against Li. They faced each other at the Australian Open once, and although it was four years ago we can mention that Serena won, but in three sets.

The second pair of quarterfinals saw defending champion Serena Williams surviving a tough contest against Victoria Azarenka, while Serena's sister Venus got upset by Li Na, the second player from China in this year's Australian Open semifinals.

The four-time Australian Open champion Serena Williams was on the brink of defeat after losing the first set and trailing 4-0 in the second. Serena's trademark comeback abilities are always by her side, especially at Grand Slams, and this time the American top seed resorted to them again to eventually beat Victoria Azarenka 4-6 7-6(4) 6-2.  The 11-time Grand Slam champion has won three Grand Slam titles saving match points on the way, two of the times at the Australian Open.

In the earlier quarterfinal, Venus Williams lost to Li Na 2-6 7-6(4) 7-5, and the Chinese advanced to her first Grand Slam semifinal, joining compatriot Zheng Jie in the elite four. Venus was two points away from winning the match in the second set, but threw away a match-winning lead. Li had saved two match points in her third-round victory over Agnes Szavay and has now progressed further than ever in a major event.

The other semifinal will feature Justine Henin and Zheng Jie. What was once science fiction has become reality, as now we have a possibility of an all-Chinese final. (photos via Australian Open)

Part-time fashion designer Venus Williams is so unbelievably productive that she can win tennis matches while designing her EleVen outfits, right there, on the court. I’m impressed!

From Eurosport:

…the seven-times Grand Slam winner later clarified on her Twitter page that she was in fact wearing a flesh-coloured top and shorts that she designed herself during her fourth-round clash with Francesca Schiavone.

I wonder what Venus will design during her forthcoming quarterfinal against Li Na.

Thank you, Diane, for sharing this on your blog. (photo via Australian Open)

Former world number one Justine Henin, playing only her second tournament since coming back to the WTA Tour and her first Grand Slam since the 2008 Australian Open, beat 19th seed Nadia Petrova to reach the semifinals at the Melbourne Park. The Belgian’s opponent in the last four will be second-time Grand Slam semifinalist China’s Zheng Jie, one of the most responsible players for putting China on a tennis map.

The seven-time Grand Slam champion Henin, a wildcard in Melbourne, had to dig deep to beat Nadia Petrova 7-6(3) 7-5. Both players struggled to hold serve, but it was Petrova who made 41 unforced error to Henin’s 26. Nevertheless, Petrova’s 2010 Australian Open run will be remembered, as she took out third seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and 15th seed Kim Clijsters out of the tournament.

Unseeded Zheng Jie advanced by stopping Russia’s Maria Kirilenko 6-1 6-3 in the quarterfinals. Kirilenko had an astounding tournament, but in the match against Zheng she was always a step behind, and the fact that her thigh was heavily strapped didn’t help either. We should note that Kirilenko played singles, doubles and mixed doubles during the tournament, and she’s still alive in the doubles competition, partnered with Agnieszka Radwanska.

The remaining semifinalists will be known after the Serena Williams vs. Victoria Azarenka and Venus Williams vs. Li Na matches are finished. (photos via Australian Open)

The fourth round came to a close on Day 8 of the 2010 Australian Open. Both Serena and Venus Williams progressed, as well as Chinese Li Na and Belorussian Victoria Azarenka.

Top seed Serena Williams routinely defeated home favorite Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-2 in the fourth round. The impressive performance by the American saw her lose only seven points on serve throughout the match, including one double-fault in the second set.

Serena’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka who won the day’s final match, coming back from a set down to beat Russian Vera Zvonareva 4-6 6-4 6-0 in almost two and a half hours.

Venus Williams had more trouble advancing to the quarterfinals than her sister Serena. The sixth seed lost the first set and was a break down in the second before recovering for a 3-6 6-2 6-1 victory against Italian Francesca Schiavone.

Next for Venus will be seed No.16 Li Na of China who upset fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-3 to join countrywoman Zheng Jie in the last eight, thus making history for China – it is the first time two Chinese players are in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event. Li Na and Venus Williams have had only one career meeting, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the winner was Li.

Other quarterfinal pairs include Justine Henin vs. Nadia Petrova and Zheng Jie vs. Maria Kirilenko. (photo via Australian Open)

Here’s a bit of light talk away from the Australian Open. Nike has released new Nike Women Rock Victorious films featuring Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams. The films celebrate personal moments of victory and the dedication to training, and both players reveal what they consider their greatest wins. Just guess, they cited the same tournament!

World No.58 Maria Kirilenko, who took out Maria Sharapova in the first round of the Australian Open, reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal through Dinara Safina’s misfortune of a recurrent back injury.

The second-seeded Safina retired down 5-4 in the opening set of the fourth-round match, with the same low back injury that forced her out of the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha at the end of last season.

Safina’s injury is extremely painful: "I just cannot move anywhere. I mean, the physio asked me to lie on the table. I said, I cannot lie. I cannot make any movement. Whatever I try to move, it hurts terribly." And to make things worse, Safina thinks she may have even worsened the injury because she continued to play the match.

Kirilenko, on the other hand, has problems of her own. She turns 23 on Monday, but will have to postpone her birthday celebrations: "I don't want to get drunk before my next match. It's going to be difficult for me to play then."

Unseeded Kirilenko will play China's Zheng Jie, also unseeded, in the quarterfinals. Zheng holds a 4-1 head-to-head lead over the Russian. (photo via Australian Open)