World No.12 Anna Chakvetadze took some time away from the courts during her visit to Beijing for the China Open to learn something about the country’s imperial past. The Russian visited the Forbidden City which consists of 800 buildings. Enjoy the short video with Anna Chakvetadze!

Eighth-seeded Chakvetadze fell in the second round of the China Open to Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 6-2.

It seems adidas will be less and less prominent brand in tennis.

There have been rumors that Ana Ivanovic will leave adidas when her contract expires in 2009, while Anna Chakvetadze already switched to Fila signing a deal during the US Open.

The Russian world No.12 will join Svetlana Kuznetsova and Agnes Szavay as Fila’s promoter.

Annoyed by adidas' boring designs, to say the least, fellow blogger from Down the Line commented: "I'm not even sponsored by adidas and I want to leave." Hahaha.

Three seeds fell on the first day of the 2008 US Open: Russians Anna Chakvetadze and Maria Kirilenko, and Shahar Peer of Israel.

Chakvetadze, seeded tenth, suffered her earliest Grand Slam defeat in more than three years falling 1-6 6-2 6-3 to compatriot Ekaterina Makarova, ranked 56th in the world. Chakvetadze took the opening set in 25 minutes and looked to be on a good way to victory, but in the end she became a first-round loser.

No.22 seed Kirilenko lost to Tamira Paszek of Austria 6-3 3-6 6-4 and this year’s result is her worst at the US Open, before she reached second or third round.

Peer, seed No.24, got eliminated by China’s Li Na 2-6 6-0 6-1 despite superb play in the opening set. "In the first set I felt like I was playing against a wall," said Li after her great turnaround. (photos: Getty Images)

The International Tennis Federation has released a 140-page publication called "Journey to Beijing – Tennis celebrates the Olympics" to promote the 2008 Beijing Olympic Tennis Event. Read more »

You simply must take a look at the beautiful photos of women’s tennis players taken in Dubai by photographer Lorenzo Agius. The tennis stars he captured in gorgeous dresses include Justine Henin, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, Anna Chakvetadze, Elena Demetieva, Agnes Szavay, Maria Kirilenko, Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko.

My favorites are the photos of Anna Chakvetadze, as well as the ones of Ana Ivanovic and Maria Kirilenko. But as I said, all the photos are beautiful, and you should check them out here [the web page is no longer available].