Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Jankovic, Li Na, Kim Clijsters, Victoria Azarenka and Agnieszka Radwanska all advanced to the fourth round of the Australian Open and only Azarenka lost more than four games in a set.

Wozniacki and Jankovic will meet in the fourth round, after Wozniacki moved on with a commanding victory over Monica Niculescu 6-2 6-2 and Jankovic cruised past Christina McHale 6-2 6-0, playing well in crucial moments and saving ten break points. Even though Jankovic lost her last three meetings with Wozniacki, the Serb said it was in her overall bad period, and now her motivation and confidence are much greater.

A rematch of the last year's final is also awaiting in the fourth round as Clijsters faces Li. Clijsters beat Daniela Hantuchova 6-3 6-2 in her third match of the tournament, while Li advanced when Anabel Medina Garrigues retired with an ankle sprain after only three games. In the 2011 title match Clijsters defeated Li 3-6 6-3 6-3, in what was a positive experience for both players and the two are excited to repeat the challenge.

Victoria Azarenka, who will play Iveta Benesova in the fourth round, faced a fresh first-time WTA titlist Mona Barthel and won the first set against her in just 31 minutes, hitting only three unforced errors. Barthel brought more resistance in the second set, but after four match points Azarenka defeated her 6-2 6-4.

Julia Goerges moved into the second week of a Grand Slam for the first time after overcoming Romina Oprandi 3-6 6-3 6-1, the Italian who upset tenth seed Francesca Schiavone in the second round. Next for Goerges is Agnieszka Radwanska, the 6-2 6-2 winner over Galina Voskoboeva.

The second set of third round matches awaits! (photo: Tidalist)

At a Polish website dedicated to style, the country's No.1 player Agnieszka Radwanska presented her modeling skills and talked about her early life, family and the way she handles money. Thanks to The Slice we have rough translations of several Radwanska's statements.

Even though the 22-year-old likes to pamper herself with a Louis Vuitton bag when she wins a tournament, she's not shy of wearing cheap clothes as well and the majority of what she earns is invested in more stable assets:

Money is primarily invested in real estate.

As for tennis, just like most WTA players, Radwanska has never known for anything else in her life:

There were difficult moments, but overall I was happy. Besides, I knew no other life, I never wondered if I could do something else. Read more »

A big tennis exhibition featuring six WTA stars (including two Top 10 members) took place on December 16-18 in Singapore and Italian Flavia Pennetta walked away with a victory bowl, defeating Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in the final 6-4 7-5. Pennetta ended the tournament with a 3-0 win-loss record and besides the older Polish sister she defeated Daniela Hantuchova and 2011 US Open winner Samantha Stosur. Read more »

On Monday our guest poster and stats lover Omair dug us into the numbers of his detailed analysis about the number of wins year-end Top 10 players scored over Top 10 players in 2011 and their best tournaments. Now it's time for Part 2 and a different perspective – results of the Top 10 stars approached through their losses.

First have a look at the table showing average rank of players who defeated each of the year-end Top 10 players and the lowest-ranked player to beat year-end Top 10 players during 2011. 

Vera Zvonareva needs to be mentioned here for her consistency as she is the only one of the Top 10 who was not beaten by a player ranked outside Top 35, while the rest of her colleagues from this elite group were beaten at least twice. The lowest-ranked player to defeat Zvonareva during 2011 was Tsvetana Pironkova, ranked 33rd (seeded 32nd) during the third round of Wimbledon.

Of Zvonareva's 22 losses only three came at the hands of players ranked between 30 and 35 and interestingly they came at the hands of players ranked 31, 32, and 33. Also, a total of only three losses came at the hands of players ranked between 21 and 29, while the rest of 16 came at the hands of Top 20 players. Average rank of Zvonareva's conquerors was 15, while the average rank of the conquerors of all the remaining Top 10 players was not even within Top 20.

Victoria Azarenka also needs to be mentioned here, because only five of her 17 losses came at the hands of players ranked outside Top 20, and of those five losses two came at the hands of Serena Williams who had low ranking due to her health problems and lack of play. Average rank of Azarenka's conquerors in 2011 was 23.

Read more »

We can soon start calling our reader Omair a stats expert. After seeing his "Comparative analysis of Top 10 players and their performance at big tournaments in 2011" received so well, Omair eagerly rushed to thrill us with more analysis, this time focusing on the year-end Top 10 players and the ranking of opponents that they beat in 2011 (Part 1) and on the ranking of opponents that beat them (Part 2). Let the tables do the talking!

The table above shows the number of tournaments where a year-end Top 10 player defeated more than one Top 10 player. Petra Kvitova tops here with three tournaments, at two of which she defeated three or more Top 10 players en route to the title (Madrid and WTA Championships). World number one Caroline Wozniacki is the only Top 10 player who did not beat two Top 10 players in a single tournament.

Let's continue with tables showing tournaments won by each Top 10 player and tournaments where the player (though did not end up winning the event) ended up beating two or more Top 10 players.

Read more »