Twice defending champion and top seed Vera Zvonareva suffered a straight sets defeat to Daniela Hantuchova in the semifinals of the PTT Pattaya Open. To make matters worse for Zvonareva, the match point that Hantuchova converted came when Zvonareva was penalized for swearing (after having been warned for smashing a racquet).

The 7-6(3) 6-4 victory has enabled the fourth-seeded Hantuchova to be one match way from her first title since Linz 2007. Her last obstacle will be eighth seed Sara Errani.

The final at the Open GDF Suez in Paris will feature seed No.1 Kim Clijsters, who will become WTA No.1 on Monday, and fourth seed and world No.18 Petra Kvitova. Clijsters defeated Kaia Kanepi 6-1 7-5 in the semifinals, while Kvitova cruised past Bethanie Mattek Sands 6-2 6-0.

Both Clijsters and Kvitova have already clinched a title this season: Clijsters won the Australian Open, while Kvitova won the Brisbane International. So far they have faced each other two times, both matches were in 2010, and Clijsters was victorious on both occasions, losing a total of just five games. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

As our reader Brenda from Argentina asked for my overview of the 2011 Australian Open tennis fashion, here it is – a little bit of every brand, a little bit of good and bad.

Let's not save the best for the last. Let's start with by far the biggest fashion attention-grabber of the tournament – Venus Williams. The American played three matches (actually two, but she started her third one) and showcased the same number of outfits. The following one is the unofficial ugliest tennis outfit of the decade.

Venus, a graduate in fashion design and the person behind clothing line EleVen, made the outfits herself.

Believe it or not, Venus' dresses, or whatever they can be called, have gained a fan base. Whoever likes Venus' latest EleVen dresses, please leave a comment! I'm sure the world would love to hear your reasoning.

I'd like to continue with Nadia Petrova, the representative of Ellesse. Petrova has also had some colorful and imaginative styles (remember her US Open 2010 outfit that had stripes of all the possible colors?). There might be sound logic behind Petrova's support of EleVen.

Another fashion favorite is always Aravane Rezai. Even though this time her family drama attracted more attention than her dress, the Frenchwoman stayed faithful to the touch of crazy uniqueness. Although, she definitely can do better!

Let's move on to adidas – plenty of it. Read more »

We always use this period without tournaments to review tennis outfits from the season behind us, as well as to give you a glimpse of what top brands are planning for WTA players for the year to come. Thanks to Emily from WTA Tour Insight, I learned about the new adidas adilibria line whose most famous representatives are Ana Ivanovic and Daniela Hantuchova.

We have photos of two outfits from the line: the dress and the tank and skort. You may already know that I am a great fan of purple, and green is also towards the top of the list of my favorite colors, and since the colors are accompanied by nice details and good designs I absolutely love the 2011 adidas adilibria line. I can safely say that currently adilibria is the best women’s tennis fashion has to offer. Their yellow and red dresses, as well as the white and pink dresses (to name just a few), from the 2010 season were also beautiful. What do you think?

The tank and skort pictured above have the white and green version as well.

Additional info: Emily also shared some sketches of what Nike players may wear in 2011.

Daniela Hantuchova played the season-ending tournament in Bali, and didn’t go home to Monte Carlo right after – first she stopped in Hungary for two days to pose for charity calendar aimed at helping a hospital for children with HIV in Cambodia. The hospital is called "The House of Smile".

I was extremely happy to do this, as it's going to help many kids in a hospital I've supported for quite some time now. With this, I hope we'll raise even more money to try to improve their health and education, and do many other things that need to be done. It was a long two days of work but it was fun and because it was all for charity I didn't mind at all!

All the proceeds from the 2011 calendar will go to the hospital. You can buy the calendar as of December 2010. (source: Hantuchova's official website)

Women's tennis fashion is attracting a lot of attention, especially at Grand Slams when clothing sponsors and players try to showcase the best they have. So let's see what they've come up for the 2010 US Open.

I'll start with adidas, my overall favorite, as they always make outfits that have a glamorous touch but can also be easily worn at everyday practice.

Daniela Hantuchova and Ana Ivanovic are sporting pink adidas Women's Fall adilibria Dress.

Russians Dinara Safina and Maria Kirilenko are clad in adidas Barricade Top and Skort.

Caroline Wozniacki is looking great in Stella McCartney Tennis Performance Dress, contrasting nicely with Tennis Performance Bra Top. Elena Dementieva and Yonex once again failed to impress with design and fellow blogger C Note, who saw the dress live at the US Open, said that it even looks two sizes too big on Dementieva.

As usual for a Grand Slam, Maria Sharapova has two versions of a Nike dress – one for day matches and a darker piece for night. When we reviewed the dresses from the photos prior to the Open they looked somewhat questionable, but when seen on Sharapova they are a perfect match. You can see the dresses closer here and here.

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