Dear readers,

The time has come for a summer vacation and while I am super excited for the sun, sea and all the fun it brings, I am sorry that I will not be able to update my blog in the next ten days, until August 1. This time I haven't prepared posts in advance, so you will get some time to rest as well

Unfortunately I will not cover the inaugural tournaments of Baku Cup in Azerbaijan and Citi Open in Washington, and the Premier-level Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

See you soon!

Best,

Marija

Recently I met Florian Meier, who is coaching an up-and-coming women's tennis player and is running OnlineTennisInstruction.com. The especially interesting part of his website are detailed analyses of many professional tennis players' games. He wanted to share with the readers of Women's Tennis Blog his analysis of how Sabine Lisicki plays, what are the positive and negative sides of her tennis. The 26th-ranked German had a very successful month of June with the title in Birmingham and semifinals of Wimbledon.

GAME ANALYSIS

Sabine Lisicki’s game is all about power tennis. She is definitely one of the hardest hitters on the women’s tour and I believe she has a big future inside the Top 10 ahead of her.

SABINE LISICKI: POWERTENNIS AT ITS BEST

Let’s break down her game in detail.

TECHNICAL

A big reason for Lisicki’s incredible power is that she has great stroke mechanics.

FOREHAND

Sabine has a very strong forehand. She can hit winners from anywhere on the court with this shot and also mixes in some nice angles occasionally. Read more »

A tennis blogger (Omes_Tennis) was casually sitting in a London restaurant on Sunday when she spotted world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and 22-year-old golfer Rory McIlroy. Little did they know there was an excited blogger next to them, spreading the sighting on Twitter.

Caroline and Rory were sitting next to each other and later they were seen hugging. There is photo proof as well and it looks like they are dating. Read more »

Alla Kudryavtseva, who was the first to break the news about Elena Dementieva's wedding, took her reporting job seriously and didn't leave the story half told. Thanks to her we have the opportunity to see many pictures from the Moscow wedding and there is also a video from Russian Life News.

The 29-year-old Dementieva, remembered as one of the nicest WTA stars, looked like a princess in her wedding dress.

Dementieva's husband is a famous Russian ice hockey player, Maxim Afinogenov, and many athletes attended the wedding of this sports couple. As for Elena's colleagues, there were Vera Dushevina, Dinara Safina, Maria Kirilenko, Vera Zvonareva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ekaterina Makarova. Read more »

For the fifth time in her career Anabel Medina Garrigues won the title at the XXIV SNAI Open – Internazionali Femminili di Tennis di Palermo, thus bringing her number of clay-court titles to ten! This amazing feat brings the Spaniard ahead of Venus Williams, who used to be the leader among the active players with her nine clay-court tournament wins.

The 28-year-old Medina Garrigues won her 32th match in Palermo with a 6-3 6-2 victory over Polona Hercog, who claimed her maiden WTA title last week at the Swedish Open. "I think Polona was a little bit tired, because she won in Bastad last week and made the final here too, but I played a really good match," said Medina Garrigues, who won only one title on a surface other than clay (Canberra 2006).

The world No.39 Medina Garrigues has lost only three matches in Palermo so far, and in addition to this year she lifted the trophy in 2001, 2004, 2005 and 2006. (via WTA Tour, photo courtesy of Tony)

Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez won the NURNERBERG Gastein Ladies title today for her fourth career title on clay. The Spaniard is yet to win a title on another surface. Her previous three titles include Bogota, Bastad and her astonishing triumph in Rome last year. This year in Rome she fell in the first round though, and actually throughout the season she won only one or two matches per tournament.

In the final of the Gastein Ladies, Martinez Sanchez played Austrian wildcard Patricia Mayr-Achleitner and started off with a 6-0 1-0 lead. The 24-year-old wildcard, first-time WTA finalist, then won four straight games before Martinez Sanchez took charge again and won the match 6-0 7-5.

En route to the trophy, the 54th-ranked Martinez Sanchez defeated Paula Ormaechea, Sandra Zahlavova,Yvonne Meusburger, Kateryna Bondarenko and finally Patricia Mayr-Achleitner. (photo via Yahoo)

Alisa Kleybanova hasn't played tennis since May and on the day of the celebration of her 22nd birthday she decided to write a public letter revealing a serious health problem that has kept her off the courts for the long time. The young WTA star has been diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, a form of cancer, and is currently being treated in Perugia, one of the best places in Italy specialized in that problem.

The Russian is going through the most difficult time in her life, but she is sure she will be able to defeat the cancer. However, when talking about her return to tennis she was not absolutely certain: "There's a chance that I'll be able to play tennis again." A lot of effort and patience will surly be necessary.

The last tournament Kleybanova played was Rome, where she lost in the second round to Shahar Peer. At that time Kleybanova was ranked 26th, now she's not much lower, at No.28. The two WTA titles she won (Kuala Lumpur and Seoul) came last year.

Alisa, Women's Tennis Blog wishes you peaceful and full recovery. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Ana Ivanovic is intensively working on building a strong coaching base for her hopeful tennis resurgence. The Serb recently appointed Nigel Sears as her full-time coach and Scott Byrnes, who was Ivanovic's fitness trainer during the most successful time of her career, is back in the team.

Australian Byrnes, whose previous cooperation with Ivanovic lasted from July 2006 to July 2009, is looking forward to helping bring Ivanovic where she belongs. His statement:

We have some unfinished business on the WTA tour.

As a tribute to the good old times, check out the photo of Ivanovic's team, including Byrnes, dressed in Ivanovic's red Adidas dress in front of the Arc de Triomphe, after her 2008 Roland Garros victory. (photo: sr_cranks)

Today at the Gastein Ladies, Austrian world No.148 Sybille Bammer ended her career and her last match was a defeat to compatriot Yvonne Meusburger 6-2 6-1 in the second round. The 31-year-old from Linz had actually ended her career during Wimbledon 2011, after her first-round exit, but made a last-minute decision to play once more.

Bammer played her first WTA main draw in 2000 after five long years on the ITF Circuit and in qualifying rounds. In 2001 she got a baby and it was a positive thing for her career as the daughter helped her shift mind from tennis after matches.

Bammer considers the peaks of her career her two WTA titles (Pattaya and Prague), her 2007 Indian Wells semifinal, her 2008 US Open quarterfinal and her 2-0 head-to-head record against Serena Williams. The highest ranking Bammer reached was No.19 in 2007.

Now that she's retired, Bammer, who was often referred to as a successful mother on the WTA Tour, is looking forward to enjoying time with her family in Austria. Her daughter Tina will soon turn 10.

In the future, Bammer would like to become a coach. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Thanks to Alla Kudryavtseva and Twitter we're learning that Elena Dementieva is getting married, according to the tweet I suppose on Saturday, July 16th. Dementieva's husband will be her long-time boyfriend, 31-year-old Maxim Afinogenov. He is a professional ice hockey player.

This news is not a surprise at all. When Dementieva retired from tennis last October she hinted thinking about starting a family:

To be honest with you, I mean, if I would be a man I would never stop playing.  But in the age 29; I have to think about something else. I think I'm ready for the big change in my life.

(source: DeShawn Besabella, photo via My Fabe Tennis)