I came across this video of 13-year-old Maria Sharapova talking about the role of her father Yuri in her life and tennis career. Today I admire Sharapova for her eloquence, so it's funny to see her from the times she was less articulate.

The interview of the young Sharapova is a perfect addition to our series dedicated to tennis stars when they were little, although Masha has been featured two times so far: in June 2010 when I showed you a bunch of her childhood photos and a few months earlier when I shared a video of a junior final between little Sharapova and Peng Shuai.

The first Women's Tennis Blog's fashion retrospection was dedicated to Maria Sharapova's Nike dresses in 2007 and the unofficial queen of tennis elegance remains an absolute must in our yearly overviews. During the five years we've been paying close attention to her outfits, we noticed that 2011 is the year she tuned down her glamorous and extraordinary looks and turned to more common dresses, wearable for everyday practice.

In the period between 2007 and 2010 Sharapova had at least one piece that absolutely stood out with uniqueness and extravagance - in 2007 those were the red and white US Open dresses with a chest area resembling a New York skyline (my all-time favorites!), in 2008 it was a luxurious Federer-style Wimbledon outfit, in 2009 the light layers of her dresses from the start of the season, in 2010 it was the seaweed Australian Open dress and again very unique US Open collar dresses.

In my humble opinion, Sharapova's 2011 dresses are all beautiful but more sporty, more simple than in the previous years. There still are a lot of details, but the designs are less striking than what we got used to associating with the Russian fashion queen. What's your view? Did you happen to notice the same? Read more »

When in May 2011 Caroline Wozniacki laughed at her friend's remark that "boys are like parking lots, all the good ones are taken", she didn't even imagine that one taken guy would soon become hers. Probably less than two months after the discouraging quote, the young Danish world No.1 hooked up with a successful young golfer Rory McIlroy and the two are famous for always being eager to show the world their happiness and tell everyone how well they understand each other as fellow top athletes.

However, behind the story of the two high-profile love birds is the broken heart of Rory's ex-girlfriend of six years - Holly Sweeney. The 21-year-old opened up in an interview for the Irish Sunday Mirror and said how hurtful the unexpected breakup was and how all the publicity of "Wozzilroy" makes it even worse.

It killed me – that's why I went away to Dubai as soon as we split up, so I didn't have to look or think about it. But when you're on a beach with nothing to take your mind off things, it still crops up. So you couldn't get away from it no matter what you did, it was still all over Twitter as well. So even if I was trying to take my mind off it, it still snuck its way back in.

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After Adidas by Stella McCartney, Nike, Adidas Barricade and EleVen, let's see what Lacoste designed for tennis players in 2011, on the example of their most famous representative, Australian Samantha Stosur.

The 27-year-old Stosur had a stellar season highlighted by the US Open trophy, but how successful her year was from a fashion perspective? The highest ranked Lacoste representative changed only a handful of dresses during the season, staying faithful to her unexperimental designs.

When you compare these 2011 clothes with Lacoste from 2010, you will see that even colors haven't changed much: red/orange, white and black are still predominant. Only that the detailing of the three small buttons was abandoned for the 2011 designs, which welcomed stripes for spring and summer. Read more »

In her first match in four months Kim Clijsters, feeling "perhaps fitter than ever", defeated world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in a singles match-up at the 2011 Diamond Games exhibition, 6-2 7-6(5). The Belgian continued with a 6-2 6-1 victory in doubles, playing with her younger sister Elke Clijsters, an ITF Junior Doubles World Champion, while Wozniacki was teamed up with Belgian world No.26 Yanina Wickmayer.

The 10,000 spectators at the Antwerp Sports Palace were treated to a number of entertaining stunts.

Wozniacki and Clijsters were imitating infamous WTA screamers: Read more »

Venus Williams may have played only 11 matches in four tournaments during 2011, but the abundance and shockingness of her outfits makes me have an impression she played at least 15 events this season. The tennis champion is a graduate in fashion design and has her own EleVen clothing line, but I advise you to dull your receptors before checking out what she had on offer during the 2001 season.

Even though Venus' designs in 2010 raised quite a few eyebrows and made a lot of tennis fans say "what?" and "why?", right at the beginning of the year the American pushed her own boundaries of tackiness with a dress whose top is some yellow net and bottom a blur of undefinable colors.

Even though she played only three matches at the January's grand stage, Venus had a different dress ready for each one of them. Fellow tennis fashion shocker Bethanie Mattek Sands may admire Venus for the fact that she designs her own clothes, but I can only assume that Bethanie is speaking for the minority. Read more »

Earlier this week I published an interview with Bethanie Mattek Sands, so now it's a perfect time to share some of her childhood photos. This first one is HILARIOUS! You know that I practically never use all caps in my writing, but I had to use them this time. The Indian-style Bethanie, with long blond pleats, super cute!

Read more »

Another fashion retrospection, another first-time honor. Women's Tennis Blog's apparel overviews date back to 2007 and on Sunday I featured Nike representative Petra Kvitova for the first time. Now let's have a look at one more hot player of 2011, new Top 10 member – Adidas-clad Andrea Petkovic.

We opened this season's fashion retrospections with Caroline Wozniacki and Adidas by Stella McCartney, but let's check out a more sporty Adidas – the colorful Barricade.

Petkovic opened the season with a runner-up finish to Petra Kvitova at Brisbane in an all-pink ensemble, and continued it by reaching the Australian Open quarterfinals switching two outfits from the Barricade line which was all about the refreshing green and red, and white. Have a look at my 2011 Australian Open fashion focus, Justine Henin and Maria Kirilenko also looked great wearing the line. Read more »

A year ago I interviewed Bethanie Mattek Sands about her favorite tennis outfit, her tattoos, her best friends on the WTA Tour, etc. This fall I had an opportunity to interview the American again and I asked her about her 2011 season, her leisure activities and of course her opinion on the on-court WTA fashion.

MARIJA: What will you remember the 2011 season for?

BETHANIE MATTEK SANDS: Even though my 2011 season ended early due to injury I was able to reach a career high ranking and still get some of my best wins to date. The win at Hopman Cup with my partner John Isner was an amazing start to my season and I really felt I was able to gain some momentum and confidence. Off the court I have to say the Wimbledon Player Party will always be memorable as I got to rock a custom Alex Noble dress on the red carpet.

MARIJA: How is your shoulder injury now? Will you be perfectly healthy for the start of the new season and the Hopman Cup?

BETHANIE MATTEK SANDS: I'm happy to say my shoulder has come along way from where it was. I've been able to practice the last couple weeks but the time off and rehab I was able to take really helped it heal up. I'm excited to be going back to Perth for Hopman Cup at the end of December. If it wasn't such a far flight I would be "down under" more often!

MARIJA: What was your favorite activity you had more time for during the rehabilitation process? I read that you enjoyed cooking? Read more »

Anna Chakvetadze has recently become engaged in politics and she’s already been voted the sexiest woman in the field. On top of that, we’re receiving good news regarding her tennis career – the 24-year-old will play the Moorilla Hobart International tournament in January 2012.

Russian internet users were asked to vote for a Russian politician they find the sexiest and Chakvetadze took the honor, beating some all-time favorites on the way.

When news of Chakvetadze's political engagement surfaced in September it made us question her further interest in tennis, as she already hadn’t played much during the 2011 season due to health problems. However, Chakvetadze is returning to tennis in a month, at the Hobart tournament she won in 2007, the brightest year of her career, when she reached her career-high ranking of No.5 and won four WTA titles.

In the entire 2011 the Russian played just 14 matches and won only six of them. She's currently No.231.

Additional info: On December 4 there were State Duma elections and Chakvetadze's Right Cause Party did not cross the 5% election threshold for a seat in the Parliament. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)