The 2009 Australian Open finalist, Dinara Safina, was eliminated from the Australian Open big time – in the first round, after just 44 minutes, without winning a single game and without earning a single break point. The conqueror on the other side of the net was another former world No.1 and third seed at the 2011 Australian Open, Kim Clijsters. It must be devastating for Safina, especially because this year she lost in the first round of all the three tournaments she played.

Safina, whose 2010 was one of the worst of her career, will have some thinking to do:

To lose two tournaments in a row 6-0 6-1 and 6-0 6-0 — it's really to scratch the head and to think what the hell am I doing. I want to come back and I want to play better, but now to find answers how I can come back.

All the other seeds in action on Day 2 advanced, except for seed No.27 Alexandra Dulgheru and No.19 Ana Ivanovic who fought hard, saved five match points, but lost to Ekaterina Makarova 3-6 6-4 10-8. The world No.49 Makarova won her first WTA title last year in Eastbourne, as a qualifier and without dropping a set.

Serbia may have lost one of their big names in the women's draw, but their new hope advanced to the second round — 58th-ranked Bojana Jovanovski beat Kai-Chen Chang 7-5 6-1 and will next play second seed Vera Zvonareva.

Besides a thrilling match, the encounter of Agnieszka Radwanska and the oldest player in the draw, Kimiko Date Krumm, featured this funny racquet breaking incident. The 12th-seeded Radwanska won the match 6-4 4-6 7-5 after receiving treatment for a back problem. Thanks DeShawn Besabella for sharing the video! (photo Patrik Nemes)

Women's Tennis Blog is back from a two-week vacation, just in time for the Australian Open. We missed a lot of action leading up to the first Grand Slam of the season, but now we'll make sure not to miss a bit of the Australian major. So let's see what happened on Day 1.

Top seed and world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, playing her first Grand Slam as a top-ranked player, won the first round against Gisela Dulko 6-3 6-4. The world No.52 Dulko scored 35 winners, but outweighed them with 38 unforced errors. Her conversion of break points was also bad – only 1 of 8.

Wozniacki’s opponent in the second round will be Vania King, who defeated Tamira Paszek to advance. Wozniacki and King have played each other only once so far, last year at Indian Wells, but it was an absolute battle as Wozniacki rallied from 4-1 deficit in the third set to get past her first match of the tournament.

Fourth seed Venus Williams is playing for the first time since the 2010 US Open semifinals and warming up is not an issue for her as in her opening match against Sara Errani she had 33 winners against 18 unforced errors, hit 8 aces and won 15 of 20 points at the net. Final score: 6-3 6-2.

Maria Sharapova, sporting her new Nike Oz Open Ace Dress with adjustable straps, started her match against Tamarine Tanasugarn nervously, as last year she also played the first round on Rod Laver Arena and lost to Maria Kirilenko badly. The 14th-seeded Sharapova didn’t let the history repeat, and although she lost her opening game to love, she beat Tanasugarn 6-1 6-3.

Another big name, Justine Henin, also advanced, but only after digging deep against always-tricky Sania Mirza. Seed No.11 Henin eventually managed to take control and win 5-7 6-3 6-1.

Many more seeds are also through: Yanina Wickmayer, Francesca Schiavone, Li Na, Victoria Azarenka, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Andrea Petkovic, Marion Bartoli, Dominika Cibulkova, Tsvetana Pironkova, and Kaia Kanepi. Daniela Hantuchova and Aravane Rezai suffered upsets – Rezai to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, and Hantuchova to Regina Kulikova. (photos via WTA Tour and Nike)

Vera Zvonareva relaunched her official website during the 2009 off-season, refreshing it with a new look and new features. So let’s see what we’ve got at www.zvonareva.ru.

There are expected features such as Zvonareva’s biography, her diary (updated only three times in 2010, though), gallery, representation of her team, her career statistics (including a nice graph of her 2010 ranking), the media section containing Zvonareva’s media appearances and videos, as well as a guestbook where fans can leave messages for Zvonareva.

There is also a section with links to various tennis websites, which doesn’t look very orderly, and it’s something I would leave out. However, it features this cool picture of Russian tennis stars.

The website also gives a look into Zvonareva’s involvement with UNESCO and her interest in helping find a cure for Rett Syndrome.

This is the fifth and the last part of our series featuring photos of female tennis players and their mothers. Here are the previous four parts: I, II, III and IV.

Marta, an account by profession, is the mother of two tennis stars, Agnieszka Radwanska (pictured above) and Urszula Radwanska.

Katarina Cibulkova is the mother of Dominika Cibulkova. Read more »

The things you notice right away when you visit Victoria Azarenka's official website are its energy, youthfulness, lively colors, palm trees and the dynamic sliding menu, similar to the one her friend Caroline Wozniacki has at her website. A video featuring on-court and off-court highlights and an interview launches automatically as you visit the homepage, and I'm not a fan of video/audio content playing without a visitors approval/will, but I suppose that Vika's website can get away with it.

There is a section called "Vika's Voyages", which is similar to a blog or a diary. Victoria is sharing her plentiful travel experiences with us, as well as what she's up to at the moment. Of course, there are other expected features such as photos galleries, videos, press, news, schedule, career highlights, etc.

Victoria is also active on social networking websites, and www.vikaazarenkatennis.com links to her Twitter, Facebook and YouTube profiles.

Let's continue our series of photos of WTA players and their mothers, with this second part especially dedicated to the mothers of retired women’s tennis stars (check out parts I, II and III).

Monica Seles' mother Eszter next to her husband Karoly.

Anastasia Myskina's mother Galina.

Anna Kournikova's mother Alla gave birth to the future tennis star at the young age of 18. Read more »

It may take a little bit more time for Justine Henin's official website to load initially, but when the homepage opens you see a nice, modern and sleek design, which manages to look attractive while not compromising the usability. Another great thing about www.justine-henin.be is that it is unique and completely different from all the other websites of women's tennis players.

There are features that are a must, such as news, calendar, biography and a photo gallery, but there is also fanzone (where you can subscribe to the news about Justine) and a guestbook where fans can leave their messages.

The website has versions in English, French and Dutch.

All in all, I really like Justine's official page, because it is a perfect blend of informative and user-friendly website, accompanied by contemporary design.

The 2011 season has just started and we're already thinking about the year-end rankings. Our friend John Bolan used a number of indicators to calculate how the Top 10 will look at the end of 2011. Isn't this a perfect time to get playful and test our projection abilities?

My friends and I play a game each year before the new tennis season begins: "Name the Top 10 players in order at the end of the year". We all have favorites, but I try to use a little logic in the picks.

First, see where the players finished this year. Then think about which good players have been injured for long periods during 2010. Finally, consider how many points players have to lose. Players with many points now must play better than players with fewer points to retain their ranking. Of course we all have personal favorites and think that different players will either rise or sink in the rankings.

My pick for number 1, Victoria Azarenka, has a combination of all the above factors – she has been injured, has fewer points to lose than anyone else in the Top 10, and is definitely a rising young star. Number 2, Justine Henin, and number 3, Maria Sharapova, also fit in the same mold.

One can’t forget to rank the Top 3 players from 2010. Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki and Vera Zvonareva are my next 3 picks. Although they have many points to subtract, they are the best 3 players in 2010.

Number 7 is Yanina Wickmayer. She is young and very strong. 2011 will be her breakout year.

Dinara Safina has very few points to lose, has been injured all 2010 and has more to prove than any other player. She will be back in the Top 10. Dinara is also my pick for a comeback player of the year 2011.

Ana Ivanovic is determined. She is working very hard.

In the last spot is Jelena Jankovic who will be steadier in 2011 and hold onto her Top 10 ranking.

There is no expectation on my part that any of you will agree with me on these picks! That is why we play the game! So use the comments and make your picks!

It will be interesting to get back to these projections when the 2011 season finishes. The time will come before we know it! (photos: Karla St John, John Bolan)

We are continuing our little series of women's tennis players and their mothers, and we're starting with one of the most famous tennis moms of the present – Jelena Jankovic's mother Snezana.

Here's a very nice video of Snezana and Jelena together, that the WTA Tour took last year for the Mother's Day. Snezana is talking about what Jelena was like as a child and how she got into tennis.

Another famous Serbian tennis mom is Dragana Ivanovic, also a very frequent site in the stands. Dragana is a lawyer, but more importantly, she's the mother of Grand Slam champion Ana Ivanovic.

The following photo shows Dinara Safina's mother, Rauza Islanova, who used to train her daughter when she was young.

Maria Sharapova's mother Yelena is less seen than her husband Yuri, so enjoy the following few photos of Sharapova and her family. Read more »

The first thing you see when you arrive at the website of Belgian Kim Clijsters is that it has three versions: Dutch, French and English. When you pick the language and proceed, you arrive at the homepage rich with glimpses of the latest content - from news, photos, and videos, to an extract from Kim's last blog entry, as well as the list of logos of Kim's sponsors and promotion of her social media profiles on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook (haha I see a lot of familiar faces in the people who follow Clijsters on Facebook). In addition, highlighted at the home page is the next tournament Clijsters is scheduled to play.

The "info" tab in the navigation menu features Clijsters' biography, some additional things about her, her records, her upcoming schedule, and also a very interesting section called "family". When you click on "family" you will be taken to a page where Kim's husband, former professional basketball player Brian Lynch, is promoting his music! There is a large introduction where Brian is saying what music means to him and how he is just an amateur, and you can hear his song "Beneath the Surface" which suggests that your life doesn't have to be perfect just because you're famous and rich professional athlete in the spotlight. Check it out, you can hear Brian rapping!

The website also features a forum, but I haven't used it, so I'm not sure how live it is.

And last but not least, the website is user-friendly and all the content is easily reachable.

Additional info: www.kimclijsters.be was voted "Site of the Year" in Belgium, in the athlete site category.