Playing only her second match at a WTA tournament after being sidelined with a lower back injury for three months, Andrea Petkovic tore ligaments in her right ankle in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart against world No.1 Victoria Azarenka and a scan on Friday revealed that she would not be able to play for another three months. Andrea herself is not mentioning the state of her injury on her social networking profiles, this piece of information is from Tennis.com. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Because of a back injury, world No.12 Andrea Petkovic had been away from the competition from Sydney in the beginning of January to the last weekend's Fed Cup tie against Australia, which is full three months. And now playing only her second match in a WTA event since the comeback, the German suffered an ankle injury and retired in the second set against Victoria Azarenka.

The top-seeded Azarenka won the first set 6-2. With the score tied at 4-4 in the second set Petkovic twisted her right ankle and it swelled up immediately. Tomorrow's tests will show how great the damage is.

This Petkovic's quote assures me that she's staying positive:

It is definitely unlucky, but I will be back again.

After the three-month layoff Petkovic lost to Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-1 in the Fed Cup, then in the first round of Stuttgart she defeated Kristina Barrois 6-1 6-4, and now she's on the sidelines again. Hopefully the injury is not too serious! (photo: sr_cranks)

Women's Tennis Blog is back! Sorry for this week of absence. I traveled to Brussels and I had expected I would be updating my blog, but access to the Internet was too expensive and complicated so I decided to make a short break. Anyways, there was only the Fed Cup going on over the weekend and Serbia and the Czech Republic became the finalists when Serbia defeated Russia 3-2 and the Czechs defeated Italy 4-1 in the semis. The Fed Cup final will be played in the beginning of November.

Let's see what else happened this past week:

• Kim Clijsters is still recovering from her hip injury and will skip the French Open.
• Svetlana Kuznetsova shocked with a new haircut.
• Jelena Jankovic is reportedly on a trial with coach Zeljko Krajan, who has stopped working with Dominika Cibulkova this month. Krajan is most famously known for his cooperation with Dinara Safina.
• Andrea Petkovic returned to action for the first time since Sydney, playing the Fed Cup, but lost her singles rubber to Sam Stosur.
• Caroline Wozniacki released music video for "Oxygen".
• Maria Sharapova turned 25 on April 19. Yes, just 25!

Referring to her statement in the Telegraph:

I think tennis players are actually underpaid, but I might be a little biased. I like to think we are rewarded for the hard work we put in.

Thanks for the patience, friends. From tomorrow I'll resume normal posting.

The 2012 has gained its full swing with the Australian Open, and our loyal contributor and reader John Bolan would like to share his predictions of how the Top 10 rankings will look like at the end of the season. Don't forget to share your Top 10 picks in the comments, as John will send the person whose predictions turn out to be the closest to the actual 2012 year-end Top 10 a picture with an autograph of a Top 10 player. Nice incentive!

Once again, it is time to pick the Top 10 players in the order they will finish on December 31, 2012. We have had a few weeks to observe which players have played well this year. Logic, injuries and where the players finished for 2011 are the main criteria used to make these picks.

My pick for number 1 in 2012 is Victoria Azarenka (I also picked Victoria for number 1 in 2011). She squeaked by Maria Sharapova for third place last year, but is definitely a rising young star whose time has come. Maria is my pick for the runner-up spot – number 2. Let’s hope she stays healthy for the remainder of the year.

Three players who have already been injured this year are Kim Clijsters, Serena Williams and Andrea Petkovic. Do we take a chance and put any of them in the Top 10? Kim is my #3 pick and Serena #4. Although Andrea is the most sensational player in women’s tennis, she is seriously injured and will miss months on the tour in 2012. Read more »

Andrea Petkovic has a lower back stress fracture, which forced her to have an injury timeout during her 7-5 6-4 loss to Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round of the Apia International Sydney, and will not play the upcoming Australian Open.

The tenth-ranked Petkovic would have been seeded No.10 at the Grand Slam. Last year the top German played the quarterfinals of three Grand Slams, including the Australian Open.

Petkovic’s withdrawal came just after Venus Williams confirmed she would have to skip the tournament due to her Sjogren's syndrome. (photo: sr_cranks)