In the beginning of the year our loyal contributor John Bolan made a prediction of how Top 10 would look like at the end of the season and a lot of readers presented their Top 10 picks in the comments. Now that the tennis 2011 has ended, I thought it was perfect time to ask John to do a comparison of the prediction and the actual season-ending rankings. He was eager to accept my proposal. Continue reading to see the shocking changes over the last 11 months, such as Justine Henin and Dinara Safina not playing any more and Petra Kvitova, who was never even mentioned, joining the elite big time.

On January 8, 2011 the Women’s Tennis Blog published my article "Who will be Top 10 players at the end of 2011?".  My picks were listed with reasons why I chose them. Many fans used the comment section to submit their picks. Now that the year is over, let’s find out how we did.

Most of us only named about 5 out of the 10 Top finishers. The reason that we did so poorly was the injury factor. Five of the top players were injured for most of the year – Justin Henin, Kim Clijsters, Dinara Safina, Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Most of us had at least 3 of these injured stars on our Top 10 list. The most difficult factor in picking the Top 10 is trying to guess who will not be able to play a full season and 2011 was an unusual year with so many of the top stars injured for so long.

No one picked the number 2 finisher – Petra Kvitova. Only one person picked Marion Bartoli and only one picked Andrea Petkovic. These omissions hurt the overall accuracy of our picks. Read more »

This blog likes to give its faithful readers an opportunity to contribute and show their take on women's tennis, so here's Omair's analysis of our year-end Top 10 players and their 2011 results at Grand Slams, Premier tournaments and the WTA Championships. Have a look at what the numbers suggest.

Just to note, in the following tables CW is Caroline Wozniacki, PK is Petra Kvitova, VA is Victoria Azarenka, MS is Maria Sharapova, LN is Li Na, SS is Samantha Stosur, VZ is Vera Zvonareva, AR is Agnieszka Radwanska, MB is Marion Bartoli and AP is Andrea Petkovic.

WIN-LOSS RECORD OF THE YEAR-END TOP 10 PLAYERS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN 2011

The win-loss record is in itself self-explanatory, showing who has been the most dominant player - Petra Kvitova. Please also note the number of wins by a player against Top 5 players, especially for Top 5 players.

OVERALL WIN-LOSS RECORD IN 2011

Kvitova is not the leader only in the percentage of wins over fellow season-ending Top 10 players, but is also the leader in yearly win-loss record overall.

2011 GRAND SLAM WINS OF TOP 10 PLAYERS

Read more »

During the WTA Championships in Istanbul Caroline Wozniacki secured season-ending number one ranking for the second year in a row, and her golfer boyfriend Rory McIlroy has gotten closer by reaching a career-high world ranking of number two on November 6th. The high-profile sports couple, more and more called Wozzilroy, celebrated their new achievement by posing with hand gestures signifying their rankings. Read more »

I'm regularly reviewing fashion at Grand Slams (take a look at this year's tennis outfits at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) and this time I've decided to add the season-ending Championships, as another great tennis stage. The singles field at the $4,900,000 tournament this year played in Istanbul consists of eight players, so only the mere quantity of players significantly reduces the diversity of outfits. Therefore, nothing can outclass Grand Slams as the best stages for all the fashion fun, although some stars had brand new looks prepared for the WTA Championships.

Li Na and Victoria Azarenka are sporting neat outfits, but they are nothing new, we've seen them in previous tournaments. Li is wearing Nike Women's Holiday Smash Classic Top and Pleated Skort. Azarenka already gave a lot of exposure to her Nike Women's Holiday Set Point Graphic Tank and a matching skort during her run to the Luxembourg title and Tokyo semifinals.

Petra Kvitova, another Nike representative, is just like Azarenka wearing purple and grape tones. Caroline Wozniacki is wearing the best of her recent Adidas by Stella McCartney dresses, which she should've worn at the US Open, in my opinion, instead of the similar dress in white. Read more »

The situation in the Red Group of the WTA Championships is dramatic, as it’s very complicated to calculate who will pass the round-robin phase and reach the semifinals. Our reader, Daniel Bellin, a 61-year-old retired tennis fan from Princeville, Kaua'i Hawai'i, currently living in Bucharest, made a mathematical prediction for us.

Agnieszka Radwanska's victory over Vera Zvonereva sets up a probable 3-way tie between her, Zvonareva and Caroline Wozniacki. Petra Kvitova will probably beat Radwanska. If Kvitova wins in straight sets, then all three of the remaining Reds are 1-2 in matches and 3-5 in sets. Zvonareva beat Wozniacki, but Wozniacki beat Radwanska who beat Zvonareva so there is perfect symmetry there. Read more »

In a clash of two 21-year-olds, one a reigning Wimbledon champion and one a definite world No.1, it was the Grand Slam titlists Petra Kvitova who absolutely outplayed her opponent Caroline Wozniacki and is now 2-0 in the round-robin phase of the WTA Championships.

The world No.3 Kvitova faced no break points and solidly marched through the match without ever having her game endangered. In the very beginning of the match the Czech broke Wozniacki's serve and steadily went on to win the set 6-4. She started the second set in a similar fashion and soon found herself leading 4-0 and winning the match 6-4 6-2.

In her first match of the WTA Championships Kvitova, the debutante at the tournament, defeated Vera Zvonareva 6-2 6-4. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Despite losing her last match at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships, by virtue of Maria Sharapova's withdrawal, Caroline Wozniacki secured the year-end No.1 ranking already during the round-robin phase of the tournament. Except for a brief No.2 position for a week, when Kim Clijsters overtook her ranking, Wozniacki has been the world No.1 women's tennis player during the entire year. Additionally, last year she also finished No.1, which makes her only the eighth woman in history to achieve the feat in two successive years. Read more »

Vera Zvonareva worked her way to the victory over Caroline Wozniacki in the last match of the second day of the WTA Championships which finished close to midnight local time. Despite the loss, Wozniacki is now certain to stay No.1 when the year-end rankings are released, as Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament.

Zvonareva raced to a 4-0 lead and soon after to victory in the first set by taking the last, eighth game of the set to love. Zvonareva hit 18 winners to Wozniacki's only three, and nine unforced errors to Wozniacki's five. Read more »