Jelena Jankovic and Anna Chakvetadze both suffered first-round exits at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome, but luckily the fact that they are in one of the most beautiful cities in the world has helped them ease their woes to an extent. As Jankovic shared on Twitter, she went sightseeing and shopping with Chakvetadze. Also, the fun-loving Jankovic showed a photo of them looking "cool trying out some sunglasses".

The former world No.1 Jankovic, who has this week dropped to the edge of Top 20, followed up her Stuttgart and Madrid first-round exits with the same outcome in Rome, crashing out to Sorana Cirstea in a 6-3 4-6 7-6(4) nail-biter. Former world No.5 Chakvetadze, currently ranked 337th, lost to Sloane Stephens 6-2 2-6 6-4.

We were all happy to welcome Anna Chakvetadze back on the tennis courts this week at the Hobart International, and seeing her win two matches, her first victories since April, made us root for her even more. However, the Russian has joined dozens of WTA players that are already injured this early January and retired from her quarterfinal against Shahar Peer with a severe left leg cramp.

After ousting third seed Monica Niculescu 6-0 6-4 and Tsvetana Pironkova 6-3 6-2, the 24-year-old Chakvetadze won the first set 6-4 against the sixth-seeded Peer, but even during that set she started experiencing the injury. Chakvetadze then lost the second set and retired after dropping serve initially in the decider at the score 4-6 6-4 1-0.

Chakvetadze was once No.5 in the women's standings but the horrifying robbery, string of injuries and illness dragged her down to her current 234th position in the WTA rankings. Hobart was the Russian’s first tournament since Wimbledon in June. During her golden career year of 2007, Chakvetadze won four WTA titles, including Hobart, and played the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Anna Chakvetadze has recently become engaged in politics and she’s already been voted the sexiest woman in the field. On top of that, we’re receiving good news regarding her tennis career – the 24-year-old will play the Moorilla Hobart International tournament in January 2012.

Russian internet users were asked to vote for a Russian politician they find the sexiest and Chakvetadze took the honor, beating some all-time favorites on the way.

When news of Chakvetadze's political engagement surfaced in September it made us question her further interest in tennis, as she already hadn’t played much during the 2011 season due to health problems. However, Chakvetadze is returning to tennis in a month, at the Hobart tournament she won in 2007, the brightest year of her career, when she reached her career-high ranking of No.5 and won four WTA titles.

In the entire 2011 the Russian played just 14 matches and won only six of them. She's currently No.231.

Additional info: On December 4 there were State Duma elections and Chakvetadze's Right Cause Party did not cross the 5% election threshold for a seat in the Parliament. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Russian Anna Chakvetadze would like to try something new aside from her tennis career and is one of the three parliamentary candidates of the Right Cause Party, a pro-business party which has the support of about 2% of population.

Women’s rights and children’s sports are areas Chakvetadze would focus on. Here’s what the 24-year old said about her political engagement:

I joined the Right Cause party because it's a young party. All of its members are young people, who have many fresh ideas. I believe I also can bring some fresh ideas into this project. I'd like to be involved in deciding the questions concerning the sports sphere in case we manage to enter the State Duma. I am especially interested in children's sports. I believe the state should support the children's sports activity, making it completely free of charge.

In 2007 the fifth-ranked player in the world, Chakvetadze is now number 157, having not played because of health problems since losing in the first round of Wimbledon to Maria Sharapova. In March, April and May she had also skipped tournaments because of illness.

Recently I read some rumors that Chakvetadze might retire. No mention of that now, but if she gets really absorbed in politics it will be hard to balance it with tennis career, and fellow Russian Maria Sharapova stated she was "not really sure" whether Chakvetadze was still going to play or commit herself to politics. (source: Fox Sports, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

As Marine of Tennis Notebook promised, she's extended her list of emotional WTA players, based on your suggestions. You're welcome to leave a comment on her guest post.

After the great feedback on the article "Top 5 emotional players in womens tennis", with many of you providing some perfect tips on other potential candidates, I have compiled a follow-up on the previous chart.

Dinara Safina

In any sport pressure of expectations and criticism can either make you or break you. Dinara’s story is unfortunately based on the second scenario. Hot temper runs in Safin family, just look at her older brother Marat who also could put on quite a "show" back in his playing days. Mental resilience is not Safina's strength. Especially her Grand Slam performances had shown how much the pressure can get to her head. Instead of a great triumph at several Grand Slam finals, fans saw her playing an unusually mediocre game after a series of great performances.

Victoria Azarenka

It is nothing more frustrating for the player than to lose a match which they started off in an impressive fashion or were very close to winning. There was a time when no lead was safe in Victoria’s hands and she often ended up in an emotional turmoil because of that. Sometimes venting helped because she raised the level of her performance, but sometimes she just broke a few rackets. Read more »