Sabine Lisicki is relieving her jetlag in Bali by painting pottery which will be auctioned off for charity. In her blog for the WTA Tour, the German reveals that her parents are also in Bali. Lisicki's mother Elisabeth, a painting and ceramics artist, enjoyed doing art with her daughter, while father Richard was busy taking the pictures for Sabine’s Facebook page. Read more »

Now that the WTA Championships in Istanbul have come to a close, let's shift our attention to the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions which is about to start on November 3 in Bali. The Tour actually announced the draw of the really-season-ending tournament on the day the much more important season-ending tournament commenced (how awkward is that?), but I decided to postpone the Bali talk until Istanbul finishes.

You know that in order to qualify for the event in exotic Bali you have to win an International-level WTA tournament in the ongoing season and not qualify for the WTA Championships in Istanbul which features the best eight singles players of the year. To make things even more complicated, Marion Bartoli did not qualify for Istanbul and was therefore eligible to play Bali, but as the first alternate in Istanbul she did eventually play the event because of Maria Sharapova's withdrawal. Nevertheless, Bartoli is still qualified to play Bali. Pretty messed up. But hey, let's see who's in. Read more »

In an interview before the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open, the tournament where Ana Ivanovic reached the second round with a 7-6(2) 6-4 win over Virginie Razzano, but lost her following match to Anne Keothavong 6-3 6-2, the 23-year-old said that she was still troubled by the back injury which started bothering her in Beijing, but she would not skip the tournaments finishing the season, including the Tournament of Champions in Bali where she’s a wildcard entry and defending champion.

In the mentioned interview Ivanovic stated she would continue to play despite the inflammation in her back, which had probably been present for some time but became evident during the China Open. The Serb said she would exercise caution with the injury and we can assume she didn't change her mind about traveling to Bali after today's loss to the 93rd-ranked Keothavong.

Britain's Keothavong recorded her biggest victory in terms of opponent's ranking by beating the former world No.1 Ivanovic, currently world No.23. The peculiarity of their encounter, their first career meeting, was also that Ivanovic's new coach, Nigel Sears, used to coach Keothavong. The Brit was open about the situation:

It felt a little weird too seeing someone who has helped me so much with my tennis over the years sitting in the opposition's box.

Sears was also discussed in the mentioned interview. Ivanovic has been satisfied with their collaboration, and they are working on improving her game with more structure and consistence. Her goal in 2012 will be to get back to Top 10 and win another Grand Slam. (via Beyond the Baseline, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Since the photos of players when they were kids is one of your favorite sections on Women's Tennis Blog, I decided to include it on the homepage, at least for a while. Actually, it's all the idea of our reader Tony (PennettaFan on Twitter). Under the title "Little tennis stars", below in the left sidebar, you can see young Monica Seles and links to all the other players' childhood photos that have been included on Women's Tennis Blog so far.

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Also, I was inspired to make a poll where you can vote for the cutest childhood photo of a WTA player. This list is of course by no means extensive. Feel free to share some cute photos of WTA players you may have come across, and I can feature them in future articles and polls.

Below are my photo favorites included in the poll:

1) Dinara Safina – I love her face expression here.

2) Sara Errani – Adorable curly blond hair, love the vintage look.

Read more »

When China Open defending champion Caroline Wozniacki took the first set from Flavia Pennetta 6-3, the Dane looked to be on a good way to progress to the semifinals, but the Italian fired back by bageling Wozniacki in the second set. After just 20 minutes into the decider, Wozniacki found herself trailing 4-1. Later she had her chances and was two points away from victory leading 6-5, but Pennetta won the game and the subsequent tiebreaker.

Pennetta had lost all five of their previous encounters.

The 3-6 6-0 7-6(2) win over the world No.1, who’s occupied the position for a year now, booked Pennetta a clash with No.11 seed Agnieszka Radwanska, whose opponent, Ana Ivanovic, retired.

Ana Ivanovic recorded three solid victories en route to the China Open quarterfinals, against Kimiko Date-Krumm, Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Vera Zvonareva, having lost just ten games to reach the final eight, but a left low back injury sustained in Tokyo last week forced her to retire in the second set against Radwanska and the Pole is through to the semis.

"I have been doing lots of treatments on it, but it hasn't been really getting much better," said Ivanovic about the injury due to which she left the tournament while trailing 6-3 3-2.

Radwanska had a milestone victory last week at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. (photos: sr_cranks)