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)

Ana Ivanovic asked for a wildcard for the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions and the organizers were glad to make her the first wildcard pick. The Serb played the tournament last year and won the title in the final against Alisa Kleybanova, who is now battling a serious illness of Hodgkin's lymphoma.

The $600,000 Bali tournament gathers eight best performers of the season from International-level events. November 3-6 this year will see the third edition of the tournament. The inaugural Bali was won by Aravane Rezai. (photo: sr_cranks)

To reach the quarterfinals of the China Open in Beijing Ana Ivanovic showed her mastery of consistent aggressive tennis and good focus against third-ranked Vera Zvonareva and scored her first Top 5 victory since June 2008 when she beat fellow Serb, then world No.3, Jelena Jankovic in the semifinals en route to the French Open title.

In the 6-2 6-1 win over Zvonareva, Ivanovic hit 29 winners to Zvonareva's four.

In the first round Ivanovic blew away Kimiko Date-Krumm 6-1 6-1, then powered past Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-2 6-3, and now she's in the the quarterfinals where she will face either Sofia Arvidsson, who upset Wimledon champion Petra Kvitova, or Agnieszka Radwanska, who won the Tokyo Premier tournament last week. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Unseeded Maria Kirilenko continued her surge through the Tokyo draw, following up her upset of fresh US Open champion Samantha Stosur with a 6-3 6-1 victory over 12th seed Ana Ivanovic in the third round.

One break of serve was enough for Kirilenko to take the first set, in which she herself fended off three break points. The 27th-ranked Russian then dominated the second set, winning 91% of points on first serve and breaking Ivanovic three times.

Another seeded player is Kirilenko's next obstacle – her quarterfinal opponent will be fourth seed Vera Zvonareva, who beat Iveta Benesova 6-1 6-2 in the third round. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

The Partizan Tennis Club and Serbian Tennis Association will organize a WTA event in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2012. Prize money will be $220,000. The exact date of the tournament is still under consideration, but it will take place just before the French Open or US Open.

Participation of Serbian tennis stars Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Bojana Jovanovski is expected, as well as of former Serbian representative, now an Australian national, Jelena Dokic, who has reconciled with her family, primarily with her father Damir who lives in Serbia. (source: Blic)

Besides the second set against Victoria Azarenka in the third round, Serena Williams has faced no real challenge at the US Open, including her today's encounter with Ana Ivanovic – the former world No.1 was just another unmemorable target on Williams' surge through the tournament.

The 28th-seeded Williams is already in the quarterfinals, having dropped her serve only two times on the way. Knowing the state of Williams' and Ivanovic's tennis, Ivanovic can unfortunately be happy that she was one of the two players who broke the American's serve this US Open and that she won seven games during the fourth round match, 6-3 6-4.

Next for Williams will be first time US Open quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who defeated seed No.7 Francesca Schiavone 5-7 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 41 minutes after they committed a combined 21 double faults and dropped serve 16 times. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

In the midst of talks about the golfer-tennis player relationship between Caroline Wozniacki and Rory McIlroy we’re having another one renewed. Ana Ivanovic's golfer ex-boyfriend Adam Scott was sitting in the players’ box during the former world No.1's victory over Ksenia Pervak in the first round of the US Open on Tuesday.

When asked about the rekindled love Ivanovic said:

It was really nice to see him there. Now we're just happy, and that's all that matters.

Ivanovic was dating the Australian golfer for a year and a half from the beginning of 2009. Somewhere in September 2010 we were pretty sure they had broken up. Here are some past sightings of the couple: in Mallorca, in New York, at the Scottish Open, at Wimbledon 2009.

Ivanovic's previous love match was with ATP player Fernando Verdasco, which was excessively followed by the media.

The US Open match against Pervak was not significant only tennis-wise and romance-wise. Ivanovic dedicated the win to her grandfather Milovan who died over the weekend.

I'd like to thank our reader Bb for referring me to the story!