Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea has become a client of IMG Worldwide, which already has contracts with stars such as Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic, and others.

The 20-year-old Cirstea has won one WTA title, Tashkent Open in 2008, and four ITF titles. In her second Tour main draw appearance, Cirstea reached the finals at Budapest and became the first Romanian to reach a Tour singles final since Dragomir Ilie in June 2000.

Cirsea's best Grand Slam result was the quarterfinal appearance at the 2009 French Open where she defeated Carly Gullickson, No.21 seed Alize Cornet, No.10 seed Caroline Wozniacki, No.5 seed Jelena Jankovic before falling to No.30 seed Samantha Stosur in the quarters. That same year in August, Cirstea reached career high ranking of No.23. Currently she is ranked world No.41. (photo: sr_cranks)

The biggest Israeli tennis star Shahar Peer led the annual March of the Living in Poland on Monday to pay tribute to the victims of the Auschwitz concentration camp and to tell the world that "Denying History Will Lead to its Repetition."

Peer was accompanied by her grandmother, a survivor of Auschwitz, high officials and 10,000 students from around the world. Israeli Ambassador Zvi Rav-Ner held speech in Hebrew, English and Polish, standing by the biggest reminder of the dreadful events that happened in Auschwitz, the infamous gate with the sign reading "Arbeit Macht Frei," or "Work makes you free" .

Besides being a top-ranked Israeli tennis player, Peer is also famous for crossing boundaries by playing at this year’s tournament in Dubai, under tight security restrictions, thus becoming the first Israeli woman ever to compete in the United Arab Emirates, while last year she was denied visa for that country. To remind you, not only did Peer take part in the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, but she reached the semifinals of the $2-million tournament. (source: The Jerusalim Post, photos via Tennis Forum)

The controversy hit celebrity couple of Indian tennis star Sania Mirza and Pakistani cricket captain Shoaib Malik exchanged wedding vows on Monday, April 12th, three days prior to the date initially planned.

The 23-year-old bride wore a beautiful red sari that her mother wore at her wedding 25 years ago, while the 28-year-old groom wore a black tunic. The ceremony took place at the Taj Krishna Hotel in Mirza's hometown of Hyderabad, in the southern India.

The pairing has been controversial for too many reasons:

1)    Mirza and Malik come from different countries that don’t have the best relations
2)    Mirza had ended her previous engagement just months before announcing her new future husband
3)    Mirza’s new partner happened to have had a valid marriage established over the phone eight years ago, and he divorced his first wife just a few days ago in order to be able to marry Mirza
4)    Mirza and Malik are one of the biggest sports celebrities in the region

The couple will live in Dubai, where Malik has a residence.

A lot of you like to know what our favorite players will be wearing at majors ahead of us, and here's what a poster over at Tennis Forum says will be Elena Dementieva's dresses for the tournaments to come: the first image in this post is showing the Russian's dresses planned for Roland Garros 2010, the white one is for Wimbledon, and the third image is displaying two dresses intended for the US Open.

I find Dementieva's on-court style predominantly boring and conservative, even though none of her dresses can be considered ugly, but these new ones seem much more fresh and modern. Alright, the Wimbledon dress is still that same old Yonex style, but the dresses intended for Roland Garros and the US Open seem to bring a touch of new in Dementieva's look.

Compare these new pieces to all the dresses Dementieva wore last year, and tell me if you share my opinion that we're having an improvement here.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki evened her win-loss record in WTA singles finals to 7-7 by winning her second straight title at the MPS Group Championships in Florida. The world No.2’s opponent in the final was Belorussian Olga Govortsova.

The 52nd-ranked Govotsova failed to win her first singles title on the Tour, fell to 0-3 in finals on the pro circuit and lost her first ever match-up with Wozniacki. However, even though Wozniacki was a clear favorite in the final, Govortsova had a 4-1 lead in the second set, and a set point at 5-4. Still, she was defeated by the Dane 6-2 7-5.

The prize money the finalists took home is the same as in the other International-level tournament that ended today (with Flavia Pennetta as winner and Carla Suarez Navarro as runner-up), Woznicki earned $37,000 and Govortsova $19,000. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.16 Flavia Pennetta of Italy has played 19 finals on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and has today won her ninth one by defeating Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain 6-2 4-6 6-3 at the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella.

Suarez Navaro lost the last year’s final at the Andalucia Tennis Experience to Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic, and this year the eighth-seeded Spaniard also failed to succeed in making that last step, although she was the first one to take a set from the second-seeded Pennetta on the red clay of Marbella this year.

The 28-year-old Pennetta, the losing finalist in Auckland in January, earned $37,000 by taking the Andalucia Tennis Experience trophy, while Suarez Navarro received $19,000 for her spot in the finals, which can be of little comfort since she will still have to wait for her first WTA Tour singles title. (photo: sr_cranks)

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki has advanced to the final of the MPS Group Championships with a victory over fourth-seeded Elena Vesnina 1-6 7-6 (4) 6-4. The defending champion and world No.2 Wozniacki rallied from a set down in this encounter with Vesnina, while last year, also at the semifinal stage of the same tournament, Vesnina had four match points before losing to Wozniacki in a third set tie-break.

Wozniacki’s opponent in the MPS Group Championships final will be unseeded Olga Govortsova, ranked 52nd in the world. Govortsova booked her place in the title match by upsetting third seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-4 7-5 in their first career meeting.

Govortsova will be looking for her first WTA singles title in her third such final. Wozniacki has played 13 WTA finals so far, and has won six. The Belorussian and the Dane have never played each other. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Eighth seed Carla Suarez Navarro will have a shot at winning her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title in the clay-court final of the Andalucia Tennis Experience against second seed Flavia Pennetta.

Last year Suarez Navarro played her first WTA Tour final at the same tournament, in her home country of Spain, and this season she has repeated the success by overcoming fifth-seeded compatriot Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez in the semifinals, 2-6 6-3 6-2. Suarez Navarro clawed back from 6-2 3-1 down by winning five straight games before cruising through the third set.

Italian Flavia Pennetta also played a compatriot in the semifinals, world No.43 Sara Errani, and defeated her in just seconds less than an hour with the score 6-1 6-1. Besides winning just two service games, Errani had game points only in two other games.

Suarez Navarro and Pennetta are tied in their head-to-head at 1-1. Pennetta, however, is much more experienced in finals, having played 18 so far. (photo:  © Neal Trousdale)

Belorussian Victoria Azarenka, No.1 seed at the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella, had to retire from the tournament at the quarterfinal stage because of a left thigh injury.

The world No.9 Azarenka had a 4-0 lead in the quarterfinal against fifth seed Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez of Spain when she started feeling pain. Despite receiving treatment courtside, Azarenka retired from the match just minutes after the massage of her leg.

Martinez Sanchez, ranked 28th, has now reached the semifinals, where she will face eighth-seeded compatriot Carla Suarez Navarro. (photo:  © Neal Trousdale)

Kim Clijsters’ first appearance in a clay-court tournament in three years and her first one since coming back to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour wasn’t successful.

The former world No.1, who is back in the Top 10 as of this week, flew over the Atlantic Ocean to the Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella fresh off her last week’s victory at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. However, the third-seeded Belgian quickly ended her successful ways by falling to 258th-ranked Spanish qualifier Beatriz Garcia Vidagany 7-5 4-6 6-4 in the second round.

Clijsters, a wildcard at the event in southern Spain, had survived a three-setter in the first round against Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru.

The 21-year-old Garcia Vidagany is making her WTA Tour main draw debut. Her first Tour-level victory came against world No.87 Kristina Barrois in the first round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience and she quickly followed her first Top 100 win with a Top 10 win. (photo: sr_cranks)