Once again there was more fuss about a tennis dress than we actually got the chance to watch it in action: seed No.14 Maria Sharapova was defeated on the first occasion she wore her long-anticipated two-layer Nike dress.

The 2008 Australian Open champion lost the battle of two Russians and two Marias 7-6 (7-4) 3-6 6-4 as Maria Kirilenko advanced to the second round.

Sharapova, who missed last year's Australian Open because of a shoulder injury, committed 77 unforced errors and made her earliest exit at a Grand Slam since 2003, struggling with her serve and mobility.

"A bad day's not going to stop me from doing what I love. I'm still going to go back on the court and work hard and perform. I'll be back here on a Saturday of the second week, so you'll watch," said Sharapova, who is ranked 44 spots higher than Kirilenko. (photo: Getty Images)

Tennis players took part in what proved to be a very successful tennis charity event called "Hit for Haiti", which raised over $185,000 for the victims of the recent earthquake.

Women's tennis players Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters and Samantha Stosur joined men's tennis stars Roger Federer, Lleyton Hewitt, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Andy Roddick.

The exhibition was organized on Roger Fereder's initiative, in less than one day, and still, the 15,000-seat Rod Laver Arena was packed.

Some players didn’t play in the exhibition, but donated the money. For example, Maria Sharapova contributed with $10,000. (source: The Canadian Press, photo via Great Tennis Photos)

The dress we showed you in November will definitely be the one Maria Sharapova will wear at the 2010 Australian Open.

The two-layer blue dress is the first piece from the Maria Sharapova Collection produced in collaboration with Nike. Seven dresses and a number of tank and skirt combinations will make their debut during 2010.

Other WTA players such as Taiwan's Kai-Chen Chang, Germany's Julia Goerges, Russia's Anastasia Pirovarova, and American Madison Keys will wear the collection throughout the season.

Here’s a nice video of Maria Sharapova showing the dress and explaining everything about it in detail.

Accompanying the dress will be the Tiffany & Co. Paloma Picasso gold drop earrings and the Nike shoes pictured below.

(sources: Down the Line, Tennis Served Fresh)

Ukraine’s Alona Bondarenko claimed her second career WTA title by beating Israel’s Shahar Peer 6-2 6-4 in the final of the Moorilla Hobart International.

Despite dropping serve twice in the second set Bondarenko won her first title since Luxembourg in 2006.

Peer wasn’t satisfied with her performance, saying she couldn’t find her rhythm throughout the match. Last year Peer won back-to-back titles in Guangzhou and Tashkent, after a three-year drought.

Bondarenko is seeded 31st and Peer 29th at the Australian Open which starts on Monday. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Russian Elena Dementieva won the Medibank International Sydney title for the second successive year with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Serena Williams in the final.

Williams was troubled by a sore left knee, but said to have suffered just a little bit and gave all the credit to Dementieva, who won the match on the first of her three match points.

The American is not worried about her fitness for the upcoming first Grand Slam of the season and said that the knee hurts just a little bit and that strapping can ease the pain. (source: BBC, photo GREG WOOD/AFP/Getty Images)

World No.1 and defending Australian Open champion Serena Williams tops the list of 32 seeds at the 2010 Australian Open.

The seedings follow the WTA rankings from numbers 1-15, then skip Yanina Wickmayer who has to qualify because her doping ban was lifted after the entry deadline, and hence every player ranked from No.17 onwards is seeded one spot higher than their ranking.

Here's the full list of women's seeds:

1. Serena Williams (USA)
2. Dinara Safina (RUS)
3. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
4. Caroline Wozniacki (DEN)
5. Elena Dementieva (RUS)
6. Venus Williams (USA)
7. Victoria Azarenka (BLR)
8. Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
9. Vera Zvonareva (RUS)
10. Agnieszka Radwanska (POL) Read more »

Serena Williams and Elena Dementieva reached the final of the Medibank International Sydney. The American did it the more complicated way, while the Russian cruised past her semifinal opponent.

The top-seeded Williams had lost the first set against France's Aravane Rezai and trailed 5-2 in the second set before her vast experience once again took charge and she recovered to win 3-6 7-5 6-4.

Contrary to Williams, defending champion and fifth seed Dementieva wasn’t threatened in her semifinal match, and defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-1.

Williams has a 7-4 career record against Dementieva. They played as much as six times last year and both of them won three matches. (Photo by Dima Korotayev/Epsilon/Getty Images)

Women's Tennis Blog is back from vacation. I spent more than two wonderful weeks in China and now it's time to resume posting. Thank you all for being so supportive and not minding the long break without women's tennis news here.

First of all, I would use this opportunity to once again thank all of you for voting for Women's Tennis Blog in 2009 Baseline Awards, as thanks to you my blog won the in the Best Tennis Blog category.

Secondly, I missed quite a few tennis events and stories during my time off, and I would like to do a little wrap-up of what happened while I was away. The Brisbane International and the ASB Classic are over and here's what happened there.

Brisbane saw an all-Belgian epic final, with Kim Clijsters defeating Justine Henin 6-3 4-6 7-6(6). En route to victory Clijsters saved two match points and wasted three.

Just after the Brisbane final, Henin withdrew from the Sydney International because of the left leg injury sustained in that title match. Henin wanted to make sure she was healthy for the upcoming Australian Open.

The other WTA tournament I skipped to cover was the ASB Classic in Auckland. The titlist at the event was Yanina Wickmayer who defeated top seed Flavia Pennetta 6-3 6-2 in the final. The victory was the best moment of Wickmayer’s career as she entered the Auckland draw after a court overturned a year's ban imposed by the Belgian doping authority.

The most exciting off-court piece of news is that Nike signed an eight-year, $70-million endorsement deal with Maria Sharapova. In addition, the Russian will be getting a percentage of sales from the line she'll help develop. Wow! And by the way, Sharapova beat Venus Williams 6-3 6-4 at an exhibition event in Thailand.

Feel free to mention in the comments some stories that I missed to write about that you find interesting. I would love you to enrich this post by your links and perspective on the past two weeks. (photos via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

I'm glad to share with you that Own the Zone, the first sponsors of Women's Tennis Blog, are back and the latest in their offer are Rudy Project sunglasses which they want to let you know about.

Own the Zone Sporting Goods, the maker of the OTZ band dampener, has become the online distributor for Rudy Project sunglasses for the tennis market. Besides being technically cool looking, Rudy Project sunglasses with ImpactX technology offer a breakthrough in optical excellence. Made in Italy, these sunglasses provide superior eye protection and are guaranteed unbreakable for life.

Read more »

Dear readers,

I feel obliged to write this short note to update you on what's going on. I'm still on vacation, for six more days. I'm really sorry I haven't had much time to update Women's Tennis Blog, but as soon as I return everything will be back to normal. I hope you understand.

Right now I'm in Shanghai again. I visited Beijing for four days, and I spent one day in Hangzhou. I'm having a great holiday and I hope you understand that I can't spend much time on the Internet. In addition, here in China there is no access to Facebook and similar websites, so I can't be active there as well.

I promise I'll answer all your comments and emails when I come back.

And of course, thank you all so much for voting for Women's Tennis Blog in 2009 Baseline Awards! I'm so happy my blog has won this award for the first time. It's all thanks to your support!

See you in a few days!

All the best,

Marija