Serena Williams' expected comeback at the Generali Ladies Linz is not to be, as she suffered "a physical problem" which appeared in her last training session for the tournament. The American decided to undergo some more medical tests and later withdrew from the $220,000 Austrian event. Will the Munich restaurant foot injury keep Serena away from the Sony Ericsson Championships as well?

Caroline Wozniacki and Vera Zvonareva are also not in action, but due to rain in Beijing which has postponed matches until Monday. Wozniacki and Zvonareva, top two seeds at the China Open, are playing the finals as the Dane overcame Shahar Peer in the semis 7-5 6-2, and Zvonareva beat home favorite Li Na 6-3 6-3.

Update: Serena said she restrained her foot because of training too hard and there is a possibility she will miss the rest of the season. (photo: sr_cranks)

The eight-woman singles field at the 2010 Sony Ericsson Championships is now wrapped up as world No.7 Jelena Jankovic and world No.9 Elena Dementieva became the last two players to qualify for the season-ending tournament which includes only eight players who had the best results during a tennis year.

It will be Jankovic's fourth successive appearance at the Sony Ericsson Championships. In 2008 and 2009 the Serb reached the semifinals which she both lost to Venus Williams who will not play this year. Jankovic's 2010 season has been highlighted by the Indian Wells title, the final of Rome and Roland Garros semis. Read more »

Luckily for Caroline Wozniacki, who is to become No.1-ranked WTA player on Monday, she didn't lose her first match since it became known she would replace Serena Williams on the top of the rankings, but rather confirmed her status, disputable as a lot of tennis fans would say, by beating former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals of the China Open. In the previous round Ivanovic managed to stay on track and defeat seventh seed Elena Dementieva after two tiebreaks.

In the quarterfinal against Ivanovic, Wozniacki took just three of 11 break point chances and, after winning a closely-fought first set, survived the Serb's late charge in the second set when she bettered her score from 5-2 down to 5-4 down. Even though Wozniacki pulled off the 7-6(1) 6-4 victory, there is place for concern about her health – she twisted her knee in the second set which left her motionless on the floor for a few moments.

Wozniacki's opponent in the semifinals will be No.16 seed Shahar Peer who defeated Timea Bacsinszky in the quarterfinals 7-6(4) 6-4. The other semifinal match will feature second seed Vera Zvonareva and home favorite Li Na. Zvonareva advanced with a 6-0 6-2 win over fifth-seeded Francesca Schiavone, while Li defeated Anastasija Sevastova 7-6(6) 6-3. The quarterfinal win in Beijing was Zvonareva's 45th win this season, and will ascend her to a career-high of No.3 in the new rankings on Monday. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

On the same day it became known Serena Williams would lose her number one ranking to Caroline Wozniacki, it was announced that the American would return to the Tour for the first time since July. The tournament Williams is scheduled to play is the Generali Ladies Linz which starts on Monday, October 11.

Serena hasn't been playing competitive tennis because of a foot injury and surgery she had to have as a consequence of stepping on glass at a restaurant. Having been very selective as to which tournaments she would play and also because of the injury, Serena has approached the end of the 2010 season with only six tournament appearances (Sydney, Australian Open, Rome, Madrid, French Open, Wimbledon). However, her winning percentage is awesome: out of the six tournaments she has played so far this year, Serena has won two, and those were none other than Grand Slams.

Now that Serena is returning, Caroline Wozniacki’s top ranking could be short-lived, because Serena has qualified for the prestigious Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha as well. (source: ESPN, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

As of today it's certain that women's tennis will have a brand new world number one player when the rankings are refreshed on Monday, October 11th. As you must already know, it will be 20-year-old Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark.

The moment has been anticipated for a long time because of Wozniacki's consistency, and especially after she won the Tokyo tournament last week, when it became a fact that she would reach the top of the rankings if she advances to the quarterfinals of the following event in Beijing. Well, that's exactly what happened – Wozniacki beat Petra Kvitova 6-3 6-2 in the third round of the China Open, earning her impressive 56th match win in 2010.

Wozniacki, who started her professional career in 2005, will become the 20th player in the history of women's tennis to reach the top position in the rankings and will end Serena Williams' reign over the number one spot which will have lasted for 49 weeks, since November 2nd, 2009. The Dane has won 11 WTA singles titles, including five this season, and played the final of the 2009 US Open.

In the quarterfinals of the China Open Wozniacki will play former world number one Ana Ivanovic who won two tiebreaks to overcome seventh seed Elena Dementieva 7-6(2) 7-6(4). The two-set match featured a pair of tiebreaks even though Ivanovic served for the first set at 5-3, and even though Dementieva had a set point at 5-4 in the second set. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Samantha Stosur and Francesca Schiavone, two players that played the final of the 2010 French Open, have now qualified for the singles competition at the Sony Ericsson Championships for the first time in their careers, although they had competed in doubles before.

Highlight of their season and of their careers is for sure the French Open final, which Stosur lost and Schiavone won, thus becoming the first Italian to win a Grand Slam title. In addition to the success in Paris, Stosur won her biggest career title at the Premier-level event in Charleston, while Schiavone won the tournament in Barcelona. Read more »

Two weeks ago Serena Williams gave Oprah Winfrey a pedicure and they chatted about how doing nails has always been Serena’s passion (of course, they also talked about love, how it sucks , and other things). Well, when you are Serena Williams you can realize whichever dream very quickly – the latest news is that the American tennis star, who just got her nail-tech license, is working with OPI on a line of nail polishes. Teen Vogue's beauty director Eva Chen has spread the word about it on Twitter.

(sources: Tennis Served Fresh, New York Media)

Venus Williams hasn’t competed since losing to Kim Clijsters in the semifinals of the US Open and it’s now official that the seven-time Grand Slam champion will not play until the start of the new season. The reason she put an end to tennis tournaments in 2010 is a left knee injury and you can see some recent photos of Venus walking with the help of crutches.

The fact that Venus will be out of the competition for the remainder of the season encompasses both the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha and the Fed Cup final against Italy.

Here’s what the third-ranked Williams said about the situation:

I have been getting treatment and therapy on my knee and have been making progress, but unfortunately must continue to keep weight off my knee for the short term and won't be ready to return to competition in 2010. I am looking forward to returning to full health in time for the start of 2011 season and hopefully having the opportunity to play in both the Fed Cup and WTA Championships next year.

(source: AP, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Caroline Wozniacki beat Sara Errani 6-4 6-2 in the second round of the China Open and if she wins her third round match against Petra Kvitova she will become the first Danish player to reach the No.1 ranking. By overtaking Serena Williams at the top position, Wozniacki would become the 20th WTA player ever to raise to the highest spot in the rankings.

Wozniacki and Kvitova have faced each other three times, but never on hardcourts. The 35th-ranked Czech allowed Wozniacki to win only two games in their last meeting, this year on Wimbledon grass.

The victory over Errani was the world No.2 Wozniacki’s first win at the China Open in four attempts, and let’s see if she’ll pull off the crucial second one. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Serbian teenager Bojana Jovanovski scored her first Top 10 victory at the China Open and it was against none other than countrywoman Jelena Jankovic – former world number one, former champion and third seed this year. However, one more big win was too much for the 93rd-ranked Jovanovski as she won only three games against world No.18 Shahar Peer in the third round. The match lasted 59 minutes and ended with score 6-1 6-2.

In the first set Jovanovski converted one of six break points she had, but in the second set she had no such opportunities. Peer on the other hand broke Jovanovski's service five times during the match.

Despite this third round loss, Jovanovski can be glad that she eventually decided not to skip the China Open after a string of disappointing results. The Serbian No.3 made headlines with the biggest victory of her career here and even earned a feature in the well-known Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's "Getting to know… ". The most interesting thing I got to know from the article was that Jovanovski would like to have a serve of Ana Ivanovic (including the ball toss?) and the movement of Jelena Jankovic. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)