Second seed Maria Sharapova won two matches on Thursday, one of which lasted for three days, and she continued with winning on Friday to reach the semifinals of the AEGON Classic, the tournament she has won two times.

Sharapova first beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round, in a match greatly affected by rain, then she defeated fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3 6-1 (their first encounter after Kudryavtseva upset Sharapova in the second round of Wimbledon and later on stated how she got the extra motivation from hating Sharapova’s outfit), and today she has eliminated Sesil Karatantcheva, who had upset tenth seed and defending champion Magdalena Rybarikova in the previous round.

In her seventh successive semifinal at the tournament, Sharapova will face 185th-ranked qualifier Alison Riske of the United States. The 19-year-old Riske is an interesting opponent because she came to Birmingham without even one main draw victory on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, but at the 2010 AEGON Classic she first upset 9th seed Aleksandra Wozniack, then Anna Chakvetadze, and then third seed Yanina Wickmayer in the quarterfinals. (photos by Richard and © Neal Trousdale)

Twice Birmingham champion Maria Sharapova had to play her rain-interrupted second round match for three days to finally beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham.

The match was first supposed to be played on Tuesday before being cancelled, then the rain delayed it for Wednesday when it was disrupted again at 4-0 40-30 in favor of the second-seeded Sharapova. Finally, the match was completed on Thursday with the score 6-0 6-3.

Due to these rain delays Sharapova is forced to play her third round right after her second round, and at the moment she is playing against fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva. (photo by our reader Richard)

You may think it’s difficult to create something different when all you can do is make a white tennis outfit, but Aravane Rezai has succeeded and followed up her gold and black dress with an equally memorable and eye-catching white outfit for Wimbledon 2010. We will get the full impression when Aravane takes off that embellished jacket, but from what we can see of the skirt, it follows the same style as her last outfit, which is pretty much a bad thing, although it can be argued that it matches Aravane’s personality, which is always a good thing.

If Aravane’s outfit with lots of strange details imposed some stress on you, here’s a perfect relaxation – Justine Henin and adidas. There’s nothing disturbing about Justine’s Wimbledon outfit, although, you may get frustrated with the fact that Justine’s always wearing the same type of clothes. Still, some of her outfits are better than the others, and I see this Wimbledon piece has a touch of elegant on top of being simple and sporty.

Ana Ivanovic will wear adidas’ Women's adilibria Dress, as you already know, but now we get to see an addition – leggings for cold days. Wonder if Justine will also wear them. I think better not. (sources: Down the Line, WTA Women Tennis)

Francesca Schiavone became the first Italian woman to claim a Grand Slam title by winning the 2010 French Open at the weekend and she deserves nothing less than to get recognition from Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. Schiavone and Berlusconi met at Palazzo Chigi in Rome to celebrate the great moment for both Schiavone and Italian sport.

The victory propelled Schiavone into the Top 10 for the first time, precisely to No.6, which makes her the highest-ranked Italian ever. (via Down the Line)

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The 2010 French Open title has insured Francesca Schiavone’s rise of 11 spots in the Sony Ericsson WTA rankings, and the first-time Grand Slam champion is now at a career-high of No.6, which makes her the highest-ranked Italian ever. And that’s not all. The new rankings are the first occasion that two Italian players are ranked within the Top 10, as Flavia Pennetta (the first Italian Top 10 player) rose from No.15 to No.10.

Samantha Stosur, runner-up at the French Open this year, hasn’t changed her position in the rankings and is still at No.7. Last year’s finalists Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina have suffered major slips. The 2009 champion Kuznetsova fell from No.6 to No.19 after her third round exit this year, while the 2009 runner-up Safina fell from No.9 to the last spot in the Top 20 after going out in the first round this year. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Thanks to our reader Jacob we have information about the most probable fashion choices of Nike and adidas for their players and the upcoming Wimbledon.

Maria Sharapova will wear the Striking Lawn Dress. The Russian is apparently still in the mood for layers and elegant dresses. Personally, I preferred her other phases, but I can’t say her recent designs have been bad. The straps of this white Wimbledon dress are crossing at the back.

Much more appealing to me is the dress that Ana Ivanovic and Flavia Pennetta will most probably wear – adidas’ Women's adilibria Dress. Again, at first glance it looks more sporty and simple than Sharapova's Nike, and I prefer the cleaner lines. This dress is also available in pink, and looks even better than the white version. (source: ProTennis)

When people were discussing possible favorites for the 2010 French Open, many players where mentioned, but Francesca Schiavone wasn’t really on top of anyone’s list.  The world No.17 Schiavone won the battle of the first time Grand Slam finalists against Australia’s Samantha Stosur 6-4 7-6(2) and became the first Italian women’s tennis player to win a Grand Slam title.

The seventh-seeded Stosur, who reached the final with high-profile victories over four-time Roland Garros champion Justine Henin, 12-time Grand Slam champion and world No.1 Serena Williams, and one of this year’s top favorites Jelena Jankovic, started the match strong by winning her service game to love. Actually, until 4-4 players were good on their serves and there were no break points. However, in the ninth game Stosur’s errors gave Schiavone triple break point. Stosur saved two of those, but double faulted on the third one to hand Schiavone the game and soon after the set. In the second set, the 29-year-old Schiavone rallied from 4-1 down and took the clinching tiebreaker on her first match point to become the oldest woman to win her maiden Grand Slam title since Ann Jones at Wimbledon in 1969 at age 30.

Schiavone’s road to title: Regina Kulikova, Sophie Ferguson, Li Na (11), Maria Kirilenko (30), Caroline Wozniacki (3), Elena Dementieva (5) [retired], and finally Samantha Stosur.

Interestingly, Schiavone and Stosur met at last year’s French Open, but at the completely opposite stage of the tournament, in the first round already. That encounter was won by Stosur, 6-4 6-2, who went on to reach the semis where she fell to the eventual champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. (photos: Stephane Martinache )

Top seeds Serena and Venus Williams defeated seeds No.12 Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik 6-2 6-3 in the French Open doubles final and became only the third doubles partnership in the history of women’s tennis to win four consecutive Grand Slams. The sisters started the succession with the 2009 Wimbledon doubles title, and followed it up with the 2009 US Open, 2010 Australian Open and 2010 French Open.

Not only did the Williamses win their 12th Grand Slam title together, and their second French Open one, but they have also assured to be ranked No.1 in the new doubles rankings. This implies that Serena will be top-ranked in singles and doubles at the same time, which is the feat that only five other women’s players managed to achieve.

Additional info: Katarina Srebotnik may have lost the women's doubles final, but she captured the mixed doubles crown with Nenad Zimonjic. (photo: © FFT)