Caroline Wozniacki opened her competitive tennis season at the Apia International Sydney and after surviving the three-set challenge against Dominika Cibulkova in the second round, the top-seeded Dane fell in the quarterfinals to Agnieszka Radwanska. On the other hand, world No.2 Petra Kvitova stormed into the semifinals with a 6-0 6-4 victory over Daniela Hantuchova, last week's Brisbane finalist, and is now only two matches away from overtaking the top ranking from Wozniacki.

In the previous round Wozniacki worked her way past Dominika Cibulkova  7-5 2-6 6-4, the player she lost to in her opening match in Sydney last year. In the quarterfinals, Wozniacki was serving for the match at 6-3 5-4, but Radwanska complicated the scenario by winning three straight games to take the match to the third set. Somewhere in the middle of the third set Wozniacki had her left wrist strapped and looked more and more affected by the injury. Finally she lost 3-6 7-5 6-2 and the seriousness of her injury will be determined tomorrow.

Last year's Sydney champion Li Na, who defeated Lucie Safarova 6-2 7-6 (3), will be Kvitova's opponent in one semifinal, while the other semifinal will be played between Victoria Azarenka, who beat Marion Bartoli 7-5 6-4, and Agnieszka Radwanska. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

In the video above you can see the footage of world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki's practice with her new coach Ricardo Sanchez in Dubai. Interestingly, her father Piotr, mother Anna and boyfriend Rory McIlory were all there to watch on the best-ranked WTA player. And now that we've mentioned the ranking, these days there have been quite a few high-profile diagnosis for Wozniacki's lack of Grand Slam titles and pieces of advice for her 2012 season.

Nick Bollettieri accused Wozniacki of being too predictable, despite praising her abilities:

If she wants to win a Grand Slam, she should do anything other than what opponents expect of her. They have figured her out [...] She has a good foundation to play an elaborate game. She moves extremely well, [but] she can only win a Grand Slam if she disregards the thought that says that she can only get the ball back and be a steady player.

Bollettieri also made a hilarious statement about the patience of Wozniacki's new coach who used to collaborate with Jelena Jankovic:

Anyone who has managed to work with Jelena Jankovic for long time deserves a medal—it’s not easy to be with her.

Sven Groeneveld, who has helped coach Wozniacki over the past few years, believes that in order to finally win a Grand Slam the Dane has to reduce her schedule.

Does she need to play Madrid, Rome and Brussels in row right up to Roland Garros? And is it really necessary to play a hard-court tournament (Copenhagen) before Wimbledon? The key is to stay focused before and during a Grand Slam.

In addition, in the latest article on Tennis.com by Steve Tignor, Wozniacki is called the "biggest women's disappointment".

Hm, even though Wozniacki should do her best to add a Grand Slam title to her biography, she's not as bad as it's been widely presented in the tennis world, and analysis of actual numbers here on Women's Tennis Blog have been proving it, such as "Part 1: Comparison of the five slamless No.1s and the origin of the phenomenon". Part 2 entitled "Hingis and Davenport were just as slamless No.1s as Jankovic, Safina and Wozniacki and nobody criticized them" will be even more revealing! Part 2 will be posted in a few days. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Omair, our stats expert, is using numbers to clarify our never-ending debates. This time he will examine the emergence of players who reached the top of the WTA rankings without winning a Grand Slam - Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina and Caroline Wozniacki – and closer investigate their performance in the years they became number ones. Part 2, to be publish next week, will look into the slamless No.1 years of players that had crowned their careers with major titles. You'll see, it's a revealing perspective!

A lot of debate has been going on over the last few years regarding the coveted world No.1 spot in the WTA rankings. Issues have been raised that the WTA ranking system is flawed, that the player must win a Grand Slam before she gets to the top. Is the WTA ranking system really flawed? And is it mandatory for a player to be a Grand Slam winner before she attains No.1 in the rankings? If yes, then why? And if no, then why has the hype been created?

These are the questions that will be debated on forever. As for me, being the best player in the world does not mean that you have to win all the tournaments or you have to win some specific events. For me, the best player in the world is the one who has been the most consistent throughout the year. You should not be ranked the best player in the world if you win all the four majors and do poorly the rest of the year. A player doing well in all the tournaments has all the right to be the best player in the world. How do you define the best player? What is your opinion on who should be the world No.1 player?

THE BEGINNINGS OF "SLAMLESS NUMBER ONES": WHO WAS THE FIRST AND WHEN WAS THE TERM COINED?

The term "slamless No.1" first appeared in August 2003 when Kim Clijsters became the first Belgian ever (man or woman) to be ranked world No.1. During that stellar season, Clijsters compiled a 90–12 singles record. Her singles win total was the highest single-season total by any woman since Martina Navratilova in 1982. Clijsters was also the first woman to play more than 100 singles matches in a year since Chris Evert in 1974.

Amelie Mauresmo followed in the footsteps of Kim Clijsters in 2004, when Mauresmo became the first French player to attain the top spot in the WTA rankings. Jelena Jankovic then repeated the same feat in 2008 and clinched the year-end top spot as well. Dinara Safina followed in 2009 and Caroline Wozniacki in 2010.

While Clijsters did go on to win her first Grand Slam at the 2005 US Open, and Mauresmo did it at the Australian Open 2006, Safina, Jankovic and Wozniacki are still in the hunt of their first ever major trophy. Will they ever be able to win it, only time will tell us.

Let's have a look at the seasons of the these five players, during which they first attained the top spot. Let the numbers do the talking, and let yourself be the judge as to who do you think did the best during her season that saw her attain the world No. 1 ranking for the first time. Do comment on how do you people see the seasons of these five players.

PERFORMANCE OF SLAMLESS WORLD NUMBER ONES IN THE YEAR THEY REACHED THE TOP RANKING

GRAND SLAM RESULTS OF SLAMLESS WORLD NUMBER ONES IN THE YEAR THEY REACHED THE TOP RANKING

Read more »

When in May 2011 Caroline Wozniacki laughed at her friend's remark that "boys are like parking lots, all the good ones are taken", she didn't even imagine that one taken guy would soon become hers. Probably less than two months after the discouraging quote, the young Danish world No.1 hooked up with a successful young golfer Rory McIlroy and the two are famous for always being eager to show the world their happiness and tell everyone how well they understand each other as fellow top athletes.

However, behind the story of the two high-profile love birds is the broken heart of Rory's ex-girlfriend of six years - Holly Sweeney. The 21-year-old opened up in an interview for the Irish Sunday Mirror and said how hurtful the unexpected breakup was and how all the publicity of "Wozzilroy" makes it even worse.

It killed me – that's why I went away to Dubai as soon as we split up, so I didn't have to look or think about it. But when you're on a beach with nothing to take your mind off things, it still crops up. So you couldn't get away from it no matter what you did, it was still all over Twitter as well. So even if I was trying to take my mind off it, it still snuck its way back in.

Read more »

In her first match in four months Kim Clijsters, feeling "perhaps fitter than ever", defeated world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in a singles match-up at the 2011 Diamond Games exhibition, 6-2 7-6(5). The Belgian continued with a 6-2 6-1 victory in doubles, playing with her younger sister Elke Clijsters, an ITF Junior Doubles World Champion, while Wozniacki was teamed up with Belgian world No.26 Yanina Wickmayer.

The 10,000 spectators at the Antwerp Sports Palace were treated to a number of entertaining stunts.

Wozniacki and Clijsters were imitating infamous WTA screamers: Read more »

Ricardo Sanchez is Caroline Wozniacki's new coach and he will work with the Danish world No.1 alongside her father Piotr.

Wozniacki is glad to have a coach who is familiar with her game and the games of her opponents, while Sanchez made him dream come true by partnering with the 21-year-old.

Here's how Wozniacki commented on the new cooperation:

We know him very well, and he has been watching so many of my matches and created tactics against me, so he really knows me as a player. He also knows all the other girls on the tour very well.

Sanchez is thrilled about his new assignment:

It's like a dream come true. Like Pep Guardiola must have felt when he was allowed to coach FC Barcelona. I have seen many of Caroline’s matches, and she has become my idol because of her personality and hard work. Piotr and I will work closely together about everything. I have a lot of respect for the work he did with Caroline. She picks up new things very quickly, and without injuries and with everything well organized, we will go to Australia and try to win there.

Read more »

Let's kick-off the 2011 retrospections of WTA players' outfits with world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. We've followed the Dane since her days with Adidas Adilibria in 2009 and closely throughout her cooperation with Adidas by Stella McCartney which was launched at the 2009 US Open.

Once again Wozniacki finished the year No.1 and we got to see her on the courts a lot, but the variety of her outfits wasn't wide. Wozniacki played 22 tournaments in 2011, won six of them (Dubai, Indian Wells, Charleston, Brussels, Copenhagen, New Haven), and all her new outfits were either blueprint, white or coral (or some combination of the three colors). A refreshment came only at the end of the season with a light yellow shade of a beautifully-designed dress. Also, notice that at three Grand Slams she wore a white dress!

The 21-year-old started the year in Sydney with last year's yellow top contrasting a dark skirt. At the Australian Open she sported a white ballerina dress. As a reminder, check out what the other women's tennis players wore at Melbourne.

In Dubai and Doha Wozniacki wore a white skirt and a coral top. Long-sleeves were there as well.

The blueprint ruffle dress was introduced during the Indian Wells. In my opinion, the dress is nice, but the ruffles, supposedly its highlight, are spoiling it. Read more »

On Monday our guest poster and stats lover Omair dug us into the numbers of his detailed analysis about the number of wins year-end Top 10 players scored over Top 10 players in 2011 and their best tournaments. Now it's time for Part 2 and a different perspective – results of the Top 10 stars approached through their losses.

First have a look at the table showing average rank of players who defeated each of the year-end Top 10 players and the lowest-ranked player to beat year-end Top 10 players during 2011. 

Vera Zvonareva needs to be mentioned here for her consistency as she is the only one of the Top 10 who was not beaten by a player ranked outside Top 35, while the rest of her colleagues from this elite group were beaten at least twice. The lowest-ranked player to defeat Zvonareva during 2011 was Tsvetana Pironkova, ranked 33rd (seeded 32nd) during the third round of Wimbledon.

Of Zvonareva's 22 losses only three came at the hands of players ranked between 30 and 35 and interestingly they came at the hands of players ranked 31, 32, and 33. Also, a total of only three losses came at the hands of players ranked between 21 and 29, while the rest of 16 came at the hands of Top 20 players. Average rank of Zvonareva's conquerors was 15, while the average rank of the conquerors of all the remaining Top 10 players was not even within Top 20.

Victoria Azarenka also needs to be mentioned here, because only five of her 17 losses came at the hands of players ranked outside Top 20, and of those five losses two came at the hands of Serena Williams who had low ranking due to her health problems and lack of play. Average rank of Azarenka's conquerors in 2011 was 23.

Read more »

Off-season is time for looking back on the tennis year behind, and we're doing that by our reflections and analysis, but it's also the time of preparation for the next year and sports designers are already working hard, actually numerous models that the WTA stars are expected to wear in 2012 have already leaked.

Maria Sharapova is expected to go for white with green details for the Australian section of the season. And that's not all – here you can see even more new Nike clothes.

As for Adidas, this week the brand launched their new Barricade 7.0 shoes and in the promo Andrea Petkovic showcased several pieces from the Adidas' new collection, in purple, light blue and red. I was confirmed that those are the designs we'll be seeing on the courts in 2012. Read more »

Last month Women's Tennis Blog informed you that Dominika Cibulkova and Caroline Wozniacki were about to play the Tennis Classic 2011 exhibition in Bratislava. The event took place yesterday and our reader Marine visited it, which she has readily documented on her Tennis Notebook blog.

It was a day of relaxation for the tennis stars, especially for Wozniacki who didn't take her singles match with Cibulkova seriously and initiated the activities such as champagne drinking, dancing with cheerleaders and impersonation of WTA and ATP players. The crowd found Wozniacki's moves entertaining and the world No.1 even had a few marriage proposals. As Marine reports, Cibulkova didn't have an easy task keeping up with Wozniacki's energy. Read more »