Ana Ivanovic followed her successful weekend in Stuttgart, during which she scored great victories over Top 2 German WTA stars – world No.6 Angelique Kerber and world No.28 Mona Barthel – in the Fed Cup World Group Play-offs (even though the Serbian team eventually lost to Germany 2-3), with a good start at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix tournament in the same city, also on indoor clay and also against a high-profile German player, this time Andrea Petkovic, who is trying to come to terms with injuries.

Ivanovic beat Petkovic 6-3 6-2 in the first-round match and will next face eighth seed Nadia Petrova, who beat German Dinah Pfizenmaier 7-6(2) 6-4. If Ivanovic gets past Petrova, which she managed to do in four of their last five meetings, three of which were on clay, she will have a potential clash with top seed Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals. (photo: sr_cranks)

Thanks to Marine of Tennis Notebook I'm learning that Adidas by Stella McCartney is dropping the idea of being represented exclusively by one player. The brand was first promoted by Russian beauty Maria Kirilenko, before she got replaced late in 2009 by more consistent and subsequent world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. Now, after Wozniacki's three-year exclusivity with Stella, new faces are joining the story: Laura Robson and Andrea Petkovic. Read more »

Could Andrea Petkovic be any less lucky with health? The German's 2012 was double injury-marred, with a back injury that forced her to skip most of the first half of the season and then after playing just one match in Stuttgart she had to withdraw with a right ankle injury and stayed away from tennis for another fourth months. Then she played seven tournaments to close the season, lost early in the first five, before reaching the semifinals of Luxembourg and Pune.

Petkovic started the 2013 season with the fun mixed competition event, the Hopman Cup, but even that turned out not to be an enjoyable warm-up for the Australian swing, as she injured her right knee in her first match! On Thursday, Petkovic had a surgery on her torn meniscus and will skip the WTA tournaments for at least two months. Read more »

It was a tough, but sweet first-round victory for Andrea Petkovic at the New Haven Open at Yale. After being out for most of the season, first with a back injury and then with an ankle injury, the German defeated Timea Babos 6-3 5-7 7-5, after leveling from 4-5 in the third set and then winning eight of the last nine points.

Between the back and the ankle injury, Petkovic played just one and a half matches, in Stuttgart, in April, but the latter injury she wanted to handle on her own, without a sports psychologist.

As a result of the absence, Petkovic's ranking has fallen from No.10 in January to the current No.43, but she used her down time to catch up with friends and all the concerts she always wanted to go to.

Next for Petkovic at the New Haven Open is sixth seed Dominika Cibulkova. It will be their first meeting. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Just hours after we reported that Kaia Kanepi withdrew from the upcoming Olympics with an Achilles injury, world No.18 Andrea Petkovic is tweeting:

Really sorry to announce that I will not be competing at the Olympic Games. I'm heartbroken and sad as can be but I'm just not ready yet. 

This whole season Petkovic played just eight WTA matches, losing four of them, and in her last one, in the second half of April, she retired against Victoria Azarenka in Stuttgart, because of falling and twisting her ankle, and that very injury is now shattering the German's Olympic hopes. The match against Azarenka was only Petkovic's second since her comeback from a back injury that had troubled her since January and caused her to miss the Australian Open. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)