Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Arantxa Parra Sontonja, Carla Suarez Navarro, Nuria Llogostera Vives  and Lourdes Dominguez Lino are refusing to play the first round of 2011 Fed Cup competition against Estonia because of the "lack of support, communication and enthusiasm" of the Spanish Tennis Federation.

Last year, the Federation agreed to improve conditions for women’s tennis, including better medical care, more hard court surfaces and greater support for Spanish tournaments, but nothing has changed so far and the women feel forced to boycott playing for their country. A reduction in prize money is also something they are protesting against.

Update: the Spanish Tennis Federation has promised to take action and said that lack of support was due to the economic crisis. (sources: Women Who Serve, As.com)

Many of you may have noticed that Kim Clijsters has fallen in the rankings, from No.3 to No.5, right after winning the US Open. On the other hand, the loser of the final Vera Zvonareva is now ranked higher, having risen from No.8 to No.4. Forty Deuce provided us with a wonderful insight into how this has happened and how it is actually perfectly fair and legitimate.

The rankings measure performance over the past 365 days, not just the current year and apparently not your whole career. Clijsters has had a better 2010 season than Zvonareva and it shows in the Race points, which sum up your points from the ongoing tennis season, that is from 2010 only. In the Race Clijsters is at No.3 ranked one spot higher than Zvonareva.

However, when we look at the last 365 days, Zvonareva has had better results. For example, Clijsters won the 2009 US Open and didn't play for the rest of the season, while Zvonareva earned some points in that period. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Italy’s Flavia Pennetta and Argentina’s Gisela Dulko earned their first appearance in the season-ending WTA Championships by virtue of their great doubles results this season which include five doubles titles (Miami, Stuttgart, Rome, Bastad. Montreal), quarterfinals or better at all four Grand Slams, and a 40-8 win-loss record as a team.

They are the first doubles team to have qualified for the prestigious and generous ($4.45 million) tournament which will take place in Doha from October 26 to 31. Check out the ranking of the other doubles teams in the Race to the Sony Ericsson Championships. (photo: sr_cranks)

There was a lot of talk about fashion at the 2010 US Open, especially about the very short Stella McCartney dress Caroline Wozniacki was wearing and Venus Williams’ too movable outfits. The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour dedicated one photo feature to Tracy Austin, that I recently had an interview with, and I came across this very interesting photo showing that exposed shorts are nothing new. I simply had to share the picture of the outfit, because it's so unique and strange. Imagine Wozniacki wearing it today. The photo dates back to the Eastbourne tournament in 1978.

The gallery also featured a photo we could add to our collection of young pictures of women’s tennis players. You can see a 14-year-old Austin playing Chris Evert in the round of 32 at Wimbledon in 1977.

I'm happy to announce that another contest on Women's Tennis Blog has passed very well and the winner this time is Daryl. The Best of The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour 2010 Zagat® Guide signed by Samantha Stosur is yours, Daryl! Congratulations! I will contact you shortly in order to obtain your address. If you don't reply in ten days I will have to pick another winner.

Of course, the correct answer to the question "What was Samantha Stosur's best result at the US Open in singles prior to 2010?" was "second round" and all of you answered correctly, but Daryl was the luckiest one and got picked in the random selection.

I would like to thank all of you who participated and don't be disheartened if you didn't win this time as Andi from the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour who provided me with the prize gave me a hint that she'll eye more things to put aside and send me for my contests.

The US Open may be over, but why not return to the third round and remind ourselves of how the Russians were doing. Twin brothers Jerry and Clyde (Stone and Stone) talk about Russian women’s tennis players with a funny play on words like "winner will face Whateva Slevtova". Click the image to watch the video clip or simply click here.

The US Open women’s doubles final between the teams of Vania King/Yaroslava Shvedova and Nadia Petrova/Liezel Huber was suspended on Sunday due to rain and postponed for Monday. At the moment the match had to stop King and Shvedova were three points from defeat, with King serving at 4-5, 0-15 in the third set.

However, the American and the Kazakh, seeded sixth, saved a match point shortly after play resumed and then went on to win the third set tiebreaker against their second-seeded opponents. Final score: 2-6 6-4 7-6(4). (photo via Yahoo)

Kim Clijsters made last year’s US Open one of the most interesting ones as she won the title playing only her third tournament after a three-year-long break from tennis. The 27-year-old Belgian has now put icing on the cake by defending her title in the shortest women's final since officials started keeping track of match times in 1980 and the most one-sided final in 34 years, since Chris Evert demolished Evonne Goolagong in 1976.

The second-seeded Clijsters defeated Russian Vera Zvonareva, No.7 seed, 6-2 6-1 in just 60 minutes, without dropping even one service game. The match started with consistent play from both players as the score went to 2-2, but from then on Clijsters won seven straight games and barely looked back. Clijsters, who won her third US Open title, had words of consolation for Zvonareva who easily lost her second straight Grand Slam final: "Vera just keep it going, it will happen." Read more »

Carl Bialik from the Wall Street Journal made an interesting analysis of the time players take inbetween serves, which is often longer than 20 seconds ("a maximum of twenty (20) seconds shall elapse from the moment the ball goes out of play at the end of the point until the time the ball is struck for the first serve of the next point"). Players do not really pay attention to the rule, probably because it is not enforced much.

Here’s the average among 20 women timed by stopwatch at the US Open: 22.7 seconds and 12.2 pre-serve bounces of the ball. Interestingly, women’s tennis players need shorter breaks before serving after they have won a point – average of 21.6 seconds and 11.2 bounces. However, they need longer preparation after losing a point – average of 22.8 seconds and 12.5 bounces.

And one more thing, even though the second serve should follow an unsuccessful first serve "without delay", female tennis players take 11.5 seconds and 6.2 bounces. (via: Women Who Serve, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Kim Clijsters edged Venus Williams 4-6 7-6(2) 6-4, reached her third straight US Open final (2005, 2009, and now 2010) and will be looking for her third successive US Open title.

The third-seeded Williams won the first set 6-4 by converting on the only break point in that set. Then the second-seeded Clijsters established a 5-2 lead in the second set, but Williams produced a comeback of her own and a tiebreak was played. However, Williams double faulted two of her service points and eventually lost the set. In the decider, after another exchange of breaks, Clijsters cracked through Williams’ service again for a 5-4 lead and then served out for the victory.

The 2010 US Open final will therefore feature defending champion Kim Clijsters and Vera Zvonareva, who stopped top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the earlier semifinal. Clijsters own a positive career record against Zvonareva, 5-2, but all the wins Clijsters recorded came prior to her two-year-long retirement. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)