I was approached by Lisa who is working on spreading the word about the multiple benefits girls get from playing sports and asked to blog on Rally for Girls’ Sports Day, December 8th. As a women's tennis blogger I've joined the initiative and I would like to remind you of how sports can benefit you in many ways, not only those obvious ones.

Participation in sports decreases girls’ chances of becoming obese and developing heart disease, osteoporosis, and breast cancer. Female athletes have higher levels of self-esteem, a lower incidence of depression and a more positive body image than non-athletes. Girls who play sports have higher grades, better test scores, and are less likely to drop out. They also have more opportunities to apply for athletic scholarships, which can help them attend college. Female athletes are also more likely to participate in traditionally male-dominated occupations, which are typically higher paying. In addition, more than four out of five executive businesswomen played sports growing up, and the vast majority reported that the lessons they learned on the playing field contributed to their success in business.

By playing sports, girls win more than a game, and I couldn't agree more – playing sports as you grow up makes your more disciplined, more confident, more organized, you get the sense of responsibility, you meet a lot of people, practice team work and social interaction, and not to mention numerous health benefits. I can also confirm that playing sports helped me with my school as well, as I easily finished both school and university studies.

This particular initiative is focusing on the girls, so I apologize to all the male readers who may feel left out, but I would say the same applies to boys.

What benefits have sports brought you? Can you name a few?

Serena Williams died digitally on December 1 for Alicia Keys’ foundation and now that over $1,000,000 has been raised, Serena is digitally alive again and is posting on Twitter.

Buy Life is thanking all the donors whose donations will help bring critical care and medicine to the millions affected by HIV/AIDS in Africa and India. However, they are saying that many people still need help and you can continue to buy life.

But there's another "however". I noticed it, but sort of didn't believe it and overlooked it, so I didn't even mention it in the first place, but now that I see people blogging about it, I realize it wasn't a bad dream. Serena's Twitter profile was actually updated during the time it should have been dead!

And that's not all, fellow tennis blogger Forty Deuce played Sherlock Holmes and gave us a shocking and disappointing revelation on who donated the large portion of the money.

The WTA has recently announced the winners of their yearly awards and, as with everything, some people agree with their selection and some don’t. Our great contributor John Bolan thinks the WTA made some questionable choices, especially if you look at the rankings, and the following article shows his extensive research backing up his opinion.

The WTA Player Award winners have been announced. They were excellent picks, but was Francesca Schiavone really the most improved player? She was the most improved if only the top 10 players are considered.  Her ranking increased from 17 at the start of 2010 to 7 at the end.  That is excellent improvement. Looking further down the rankings, Shahar Peer was even more improved moving from 31 to 13 at the end of the year. Rounding out the top 20 is Maria Kirilenko who is clearly the most improved player in the top 20 moving from 63 to 20, an improvement of 43 ranking points!!! Shouldn’t Maria have won the most improved? Using a totally bias free mathematic computation, she was by far the player with the most improved ranking.

Why stop with the top 20. Looking at the next twenty players, finds Alexandra Dulgheru who improved 22 ranks from 51 to 29. Andrea Petkovic moved from 56 to 32, an improvement of 24. Petra Kvitova went from 62 to 34, a gain of 28. Petra won the Newcomer of the Year award even though she has been in the top ranks for three years. Julia Goerges went from 78 to 40, a gain of 38. Tsvetana Pironkova is the big winner in the top 40, moving from 99 to 35 for a gain of 64 ranking points!!! Shouldn’t Tsvetana have won most improved? She is a top 35 player – why shouldn’t she have an award? Read more »

There is a big diversity in brands that top women's tennis players are wearing, and in this year's retrospections we have already covered Fila with Kim Clijsters, adidas by Stella McCartney with Caroline Wozniacki, Yonex with Elena Dementieva, but let's see how probably the strongest brand out there, Nike, contributed to tennis fashion in 2010 on the example of their highest-ranked representative – Serena Williams.

Serena may have missed the whole second part of the season, and her participation in tournaments was scarce in the first half of the year, but her on-court style and diversity didn't suffer for that.

Nike had a new dress for Serena's every tournament, except for the below pink dress which she wore both in Rome and Madrid. The second photo shows Serena's doubles outfit for Madrid.

Read more »

Elena Dementieva retired this season during the WTA Championships in Doha and I decided to do this tribute to the well-known cooperation of the Russian and Yonex, as part of our yearly retrospections of players outfits.

As much as we fans loved Dementieva, most of us didn't like her Yonex clothes. Unlike Fila which nurtures that simple and sporty look successfully, Yonex's simplicity makes outfits too bland, and I would say it's mostly due to unflattering cuts. Dementieva has a nice figure and Yonex's outfits simply didn't take advantage of that. I believe they even failed to accentuate her pretty face, because they were so uninspiring.

Read more »

The WTA announced the winners of the 2010 WTA Player Awards and Kim Clijsters was honored both for her tennis achievements and her off-court kindness.

Clijsters’ five titles in 2010, which include the US Open and the WTA Championships in Doha, earned her the Player of the Year award for the second time in her career (the first time she won it in 2005).

Clijsters was also given the Player Service award, which recognizes the player who has done the most to support her fellow players through the WTA Players' Council or other initiatives. What more can you ask for than to be honored by your colleagues the same year you had such great career results.

Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta, who clinched seven titles together in 2010, won the Doubles Team of the Year award. They are the No.1-ranked team in the year-end rankings and those seven titles include the WTA Championships in Doha.

Other award winners:

Newcomer of the Year – Petra Kvitova
Comeback Player of the Year – Justine Henin
Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award – Elena Dementieva
Humanitarian of the Year – Maria Sharapova
Most Improved Player – Francesca Schiavone

There were also awards based on fan votes, and as you can see Maria Sharapova basically won all of them: Read more »

Today is World AIDS Day and Serena Williams died a digital death for Alicia Keys’ initiative called Buy Life, aimed at financing medical care and support services for children and families affected by HIV and AIDS in Africa and India. It’s all part of Keys’ charity organization, Keep a Child Alive.

By digital death it’s implied that Serena will not update her social media accounts, most famously Twitter, until fans donate $1 million. Of course, Serena is accompanied by other top celebrities in this fund-raising.

Alicia Keys is calling to action: "You’re always texting your friends. Now, you’re going to text to Buy Life."

What do you think of dying a digital death? Even though at first glance it doesn’t look as much of a sacrifice, when you think about it it’s a great initiative. Firstly, social media accounts of celebrities have great influence. Secondly, it is the first fund-raising of the kind. And finally, it seems to be having success, as BuyLive.com is dying as well, because a lot of people are buying life.