Unseeded Shahar Peer of Israel, who wasn’t even allowed to play at last year’s Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships due to visa denial, upset top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark in the third round of the tournament.

The world No.22 Peer beat seed No.13 Yanina Wickmayer in the first round, then last year's finalist Virginie Razzano in the second round, and has today defeated Wozniacki 6-2 7-5. Wozniacki, top-seeded at an event of this size for the first time in her career, faced break points in all of her 10 service games and was broken eight times. In the end she showed a lot of resistance, but Peer finally closed it out on her fourth match point.

Second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova also lost today. Her conqueror was world No.99 and fellow Russian Regina Kulikova, who had never before defeated a Top 30 player. After three hours and 16 minutes qualifier Kulikova, known as a marathon woman because one of her matches is the second longest women’s singles match in the Open Era, upset Kuznetsova 5-7 7-6(2) 6-4.

Third seed and reigning champion Venus Williams is the highest seed left in the $2,000,000 tournament. The American saw off Belorussian Olga Govortsova 7-5 6-0 in the third round.

Besides Wozniacki and Kuznetsova, three seeds fell in the third round on Wednesday: seed No.11 Marion Bartoli, No.6 Jelena Jankovic, and No.10 Flavia Pennetta. However, the three of them lost to other seeded players: No.8 Li Na, No.12 Vera Zvonareva and No.7 Agnieszka Radwanska. (photo: angela n.)

Thanks to Lilly who asked me to feature Caroline Wozniacki, the 19-year-old Dane is making her debut in our well-known retrospections of players’ outfits.

Wozniacki’s style is especially interesting for reviewing because this year, at the time of the US Open, she made a switch from adidas Adilibria line to adidas by Stella McCartney.

I’m a huge fan of Stella’s designs and Caroline is very pretty, but she is yet to impress me in her new sportswear. From the little we’ve seen so far, Stella’s dresses just don’t feel right on Wozniacki, for some reason. However, I’m sure the future will bring a lot of good things.

What's your favorite Wozniacki's on-court look in 2009? Do you like her in Stella McCartney?

It may be somewhat of a surprise, but my absolute favorite Wozniacki's outfit is the Wimbledon one. It's so sporty and simple, and it makes Wozniacki look powerful.

Have you noticed, Wozniacki sported very few outfits during the 2009 season, and she played a lot of tournaments? (photos: Jean & Nathalie, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Women Who Serve, Not enough megapixels, jc_nyc)

Nothing of this is confirmed, but here are some previews of what women's tennis players may be wearing at the start of the 2010 season. Apparently, the new season is just around the corner.

Ana Ivanovic will supposedly wear this orange adidas adilibria dress, which has a yellow version as well.

Jelena Jankovic may be looking like a lemon and strawberry ice-cream if this is really her new ANTA outfit.

Dinara Safina will stick with classic adidas look. Read more »

Our dear reader Teerin is contributing to Women's Tennis Blog once again, this time by creating a countdown of the best moments in the 2009 tennis season.

Teerin would like to have been able to include more memorable situations, but YouTube videos can't be more than 10 minutes long. Which WTA moments would you add to Teerin's Top 10? I would include the emotional retirement of Ai Sugiyama and also, I would put Kim Clijsters' US Open win on top of the list.

Teerin, thank you so much for your continuous and active support of Women's Tennis Blog.

When I saw it on ESPN that "WTA Tour says withdrawals down" I was very confused, especially in the light of the last tournament, the Sony Ericsson Championships, which was all about injuries.

The Championships saw Caroline Wozniacki suffer from severe leg cramps, Serena and Venus Williams had their left legs strapped, alternate Vera Zvonareva's nose was bleeding and she pulled out after playing just one match, Victoria Azarenka also retired, top seed Dinara Safina retired with a serious back injury, and remember only ten singles players took part in the Championships (eight + two alternates).

Still, WTA Tour chairwoman and CEO Stacey Allaster states that the innovative scheduling system introduced in 2009 proved to be "a fantastic success". She said the Roadmap increased attendance at Premier tournaments by 11% and decreased player withdrawals by 34%. In addition, prize money was increased by 34%, despite the global economic crisis. (photo via Sony Ericsson Championships)