The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s 2009 Roadmap calendar features drastic differences to the current one and some tennis players expressed their dissatisfaction.

The aim of the historic reforms and the new calendar is to create a more fan friendly and healthier system, to more consistently deliver stars to top events and reduce withdrawals. But do players agree?

Ana Ivanovic and Agnieszka Radwanska believe that the new rules are constraining the players too much.

The WTA’s new Roadmap is supposed to reduce the number of tournaments and shorten the season for the players’ benefit, but here’s what Ana Ivanovic thinks:

"I do believe it’s going to be a lot of tournaments we have to commit to and it’s maybe going to be a little bit harder in that sense. We don’t have much opportunity to choose, and at the end of the day it might be that we play more matches than we did in previous years. Read more »

Third seed Venus Williams edged past second-seeded Ana Ivanovic 4-6 6-3 6-4 in the semifinals of the Tennis.com Zurich Open.

Ivanovic may have lost the match, but the Serbian world No.4 could consider the defeat a sort of victory as she produced probably her best performance since winning Roland Garros in June. In the match against seven-time Grand Slam champion, Ivanovic was a challenging opponent and seemed quite recovered from whatever problems forced her string of disappointments in the recent past.

Ivanovic went toe-to-toe with Williams, and even fearlessly saved three successive match points in the third set, but four first serves in the following game by the 28-year-old American were too much for Ivanovic.

Williams will play Flavia Pennetta in the Tennis.com Zurich Open final, while Ivanovic will head to Austria for the Generali Ladies Linz tournament. (via Ana Ivanovic's site, photo: Getty Images)

Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic has won German Tennis Magazine's Michael Westphal Award which is given to the best tennis personality each year as voted for by readers.

Ivanovic is the first women’s tennis player to receive the award named after German tennis player Michael Westphal who tragically died at the age of 25.

In March the tennis star also won the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's Karen Krantzcke Sportsmanship Award (voted for by players), while in July she was named Women's Tennis Player of the Year 2008 by the International Sports Press Association (AIPS). (source: Ana Ivanovic's website)

This hurts! Still no winning streak for former world No.1 Ana Ivanovic. The Serb suffered yet another early loss, this time to Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova.

The fourth-seeded Ivanovic had a first round bye, and was upset 3-6 6-2 7-6 (4) right away in the second round of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, falling to the world No.20 Cibulkova.

To make things worse, Ivanovic had two match points in the 10th game of the deciding set, but failed to convert them.

More bad news for Ana's fans: At the 2008 Kremlin Cup, Ivanovic played her first doubles match in tournament play since June 2007. On Wednesday, after her singles defeat, she also lost in the doubles competition, paired with Italy's Francesca Schiavone. They were beaten 6-2 4-6 10-7 by top seeds and world No.1s Cara Black and Liezel Huber in the quarterfinals. (via Ana Ivanovic's website, photo: ivanovic-ana.com)

Carlos Rodriguez, best-known as the former coach of once dominant women’s tennis player Justine Henin, was interviewed by Matt Cronin for FOXSports.com and gave harsh reviews of some currently top WTA players.

Ok, the Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova can be satisfied, but Jelena Jankovic could feel more than offended. However, we can’t blame Carlos for being honest; I doubt he wanted to insult anyone. Read more »