World No.1 Serena Williams defeated older sister Venus 6-4 6-3 to win the $1.2 million BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup, a one-night exhibition event held at Madison Square Garden.

The Williams sisters pleased the home crowd of 12,026 by reaching the final. Firstly, world No.5 Venus Williams advanced with a 6-4 victory over third-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the four-women show, and later Serena Williams shook off an early challenge from seventh-ranked Ana Ivanovic and won 6-3 in the second semifinal.

Winning the tournament, Serena took home $400,000, Venus settled for $300,000, while the Serbs got $250,000 each.

Some women’s tennis players have united to raise funds and morale of those affected by bushfires in Victoria, Australia.

Dinara Safina, Casey Dellacqua, Daniela Hantuchova, Ana Ivanovic, Samantha Stosur, Rennae Stubbs, Ai Sugiyama and Serena Williams have donated personal items of value, which will be auctioned off to raise money for the Tennis Bushfire Relief Appeal.

"What has happened in Australia is shocking and so sad, and I would like to send my deepest sympathies to everyone who has been affected by this tragedy," said 2008 Australian Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic.  "I have family in Melbourne and was very concerned for the safety and welfare of their friends in Victoria.  Australians have a great spirit, and my thoughts are with them."

"My prayers go out to everyone involved. It's such a sad and unfortunate event to happen and the loss of life has been tragic," said 2009 Australian Open champion Serena Williams.  "I admire the heroism of those who risked their lives to help others." (source: Tennis Australia, photos: Ralf Reinecke)

Serbia's Ana Ivanovic has finally found a full-time coach, and the world has been curious to see will Craig Kardon help Ivanovic’s game. So far, we have only one tournament to analyze, and from what we’ve seen at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, the world No.7 seems to be moving in the right direction.

Let’s see what Ivanovic herself said about Kardon’s coaching methods:

Craig and I have been working well together on the court. He is very positive and I like his coaching philosophy so far. For example, he is more concerned with tactics and dominating opponents instead of looking closely at technique and videos; I think this suits me.

Dubai was good progress for me. I felt like I was getting my confidence back and playing some aggressive tennis. It was a good start to our coaching relationship and hopefully I can continue to improve in America over the next month.

Haha, now that I’m thinking, maybe Ivanovic performed well in Dubai simply because she was enjoying a stay at the Burj Al-Arab hotel. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

From what I've seen so far, the most beautiful off-court photos of women’s tennis players are taken by celebrity photographer Lorenzo Agius. I loved his last year's work, especially with Anna Chakvetadze.

Lorenzo photographed WTA stars again, and thanks to Gulf News we have some behind-the-scenes photos from the recent shoot in Dubai. Read more »

Eighth seed Ana Ivanovic defeated Alisa Kleybanova in the second round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships and in that way avenged the loss to the Russian in the third round of the Australian Open last month. The world number eight Ivanovic beat Kleybanova, ranked 27th, 7-5 6-4.

Ivanovic established a 3-0 lead in the first set, but Kleybanova managed to return from being one break down and eventually leveled at 4-4. Ivanovic, however, managed to break once again, in the 12th game, and take the first set 7-5. The second set saw no breaks of serve until the final game when Kleybanova surrendered to Ivanovic and lost the match on Ivanovic’s second match point.

The 21-year-old Serb, who is playing her first tournament since hiring coach Craig Kardon, will play either Urszula Radwanska or Camille Pin in the third round of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships.