As you know, our reader Marine has recently started her own tennis blog, Tennis Notebook, and she already guest posted here on Women's Tennis Blog. Here article called Top 5 emotional players in women's tennis attracted a lot of comments and was even referred to in one of the most prestigious Serbian newspapers. Now Marine would like to share with you her experience from last weekend's highly dramatic Fed Cup tie in Bratislava, Serbia vs. Slovakia, especially marked by the doubles match which the Serbian team won 2-6 7-5 9-7 after 3 hours 17 min and a 6-2 5-1 and 30-0 deficit.

As I recently announced I went to see the encounter between Serbia and Slovakia so I wanted to share some of my impressions of the action with you.

The first little adventure was actually getting my tickets which I carefully booked a month before. How big was my surprise when I realized that I was supposed to pick them up within a certain time limit and 16th April they were no longer accessible! So the drama started even before the actual match did. I was frantically looking for help because I did not travel from as far as UK to see nothing at all. Fortunately the help came soon and a few minutes afterwards I was sitting comfortably at the arena which was quickly filling up with excited fans.

On the day one I watched both encounters in full. I preferred the match between Dominika Cibulkova vs. Bojana Jovanovski (4-6 6-3 6-1) not only because it was Dominika who won it but also because from that point I realized that the players came out to show the fans their best tennis. I loved Dominika’s fighting spirit and enthusiasm and Bojana’s performance was great too, she is on a good way to follow in JJ’s and Ana’s footsteps.

The encounter between Daniela Hantuchova and Ana Ivanovic (2-6 4-6) was exciting although quite one-sided because Ana started to dominate soon in the first set and since then never let Daniela steal her momentum. Read more »

Player parties provide a perfect venue for players to get in touch with their glamorous side (if they have one) and the blue red carpet on Tuesday night at the Paris Theater in Miami was one of the best such occasions.

Let's start with my favorites. Russian Anna Kournikova simply knows what to wear and how to work it, while her countrywoman Vera Zvonareva looks very pretty in a romantic purple dress.

Although I've been in the mood for floral prints lately, Anastasia Plavyuchenkova's dress is too much for my taste. Maria Sharapova is still faithful to her vintage-oriented style. Read more »

Bethanie Mattek Sands, Heather Watson, Alize Cornet, Sabine Lisicki, Sorana Cirstea and Dominika Cibulkova have been chosen to be a part of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Hot Shots campaign – a web-based TV show which will follow the tennis stars as they travel the world on tour.

The six participating players were announced in Miami, ahead of the Sony Ericsson Open, and Sony Ericsson brand ambassador, Maria Sharapova, was also there. Read more »

Tsvetana Pironkova, Dominika Cibulkova, Vera Zvonareva, Daniela Hantuchova and Jelena Jankovic took part in a photo shoot for Oriflame in Tokyo and I’d say it was a success. They all look great individually, but also as a group. Plus, it's nice to see Vera taking the spotlight.

Haha fellow blogger Forty Deuce has a sharp eye, Cibulkova taller than Hantuchova? In real life Cibulkova is 20 cm shorter, that’s about 7.9 inches!

This is the fifth and the last part of our series featuring photos of female tennis players and their mothers. Here are the previous four parts: I, II, III and IV.

Marta, an account by profession, is the mother of two tennis stars, Agnieszka Radwanska (pictured above) and Urszula Radwanska.

Katarina Cibulkova is the mother of Dominika Cibulkova. Read more »

It was Anastasia Pavyuchenkova’s fourth appearance at the Kremlin Cup in five years and her fourth defeat in the first round. The highest-ranked teenager and world No.21 lost to Nicole Vaidisova in 2006, in 2007 to fellow Russian Evgeniya Rodina, in 2009 to Tsvetana Pironkova and this year to Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova 7-6(5) 2-6 6-0.

"I have nobody to blame for the defeat except myself," said the fourth-seeded Pavlyuchenkova, who won just seven points against Cibulkova in the deciding set at her home tournament.

"I played well in the first set and won the second but lost concentration completely in the third. The defeat is my fault only."

Pavyuchenkova and Cibulkova are now tied in head-to-head record at one all. Pavlyuchenkova defeated Cibulkova in the first round of Tokyo last month, 7-5 7-5. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Neither Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova nor the windy conditions at Flushing Meadows could stop top seed Caroline Wozniacki, and the Dane is well on her way to her first Grand Slam title.

Last year’s runner-up Wozniacki defeated unseeded first-time US Open quarterfinalist Cibulkova 6-2 7-5 in the match that "felt like playing in a hurricane", as Wozniacki later said, and in which it was an achievement simply to keep the ball in play.

Wozniacki made only 18 unforced errors, compared to Cibulkova’s 43. The quarterfinal between Vera Zvonareva and Kaia Kanepi that took place earlier featured as much as 88 unforced errors.

Wozniacki is now on a 13-match winning streak, having won Monteral and New Haven prior to coming to the US Open. In the Montreal final she defeated Vera Zvonareva, her next opponent at the US Open. (source: BBC, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Dominika Cibulkova reached her second US Open quarterfinal in two years by upsetting eleventh seed and 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round. Later, top seed Caroline Wozniacki recorded one of the most significant victories of her career by defeating Maria Sharapova for the first time and by building on the momentum gained in the previous three rounds of the US Open in which the Dane lost a total of just three games. The two winners will face each other in the quarterfinals.

Despite a fragile thigh and being down in both sets, the world No.45 Cibulkova defeated Kuznetsova in straight sets, 7-5 7-6(4). The Slovakian could have finished the match earlier, as she served for the second set at 5-3, but Kuznetsova saved two match points and the set went to a tiebreak. The Slovakian didn’t let her opportunity slip away and won that tiebreak to deny Kuznetsova her 101th Grand Slam victory. During the match Kuznetsova made 42 unforced errors and double-faulted 10 times.

Here’s what Cibulkova said afterwards:

I was really pumped for this. I knew I could make it and that I could beat everybody in this tournament. I still feel like that.

The fourth round match between last year’s US Open runner-up Wozniacki and 2006 US Open champion Sharapova was highly anticipated, partly because it was a big test for Wozniacki’s great form but also a big test for more established Sharapova, and the two didn’t disappoint, providing tennis fans with big-hitting contest.

Both Wozniacki and Sharapova had very low break point conversion percentages – Wozniacki just 25% (converting 3 of 12 break points), and Sharapova just 11% (making use of only 1 out of 9 break points). Sharapova also had much more double faults and unforced errors than Wozniacki – nine double faults to Wozniacki’s three, and 36 unforced errors to Wozniacki’s 10. Final match result: 6-3 6-4.

Wozniacki has won the last four meetings against her next opponent Cibulkova, dating back to 2008, and all of them were on hard courts. The Dane is now more than ever a serious contender for a Grand Slam title, and if the repeat of the last year’s final with Kim Clijsters materializes, Wozniacki will be much more likely to go all the way. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Grand Slams are the places where tennis players want to look their best and sponsors want to use the opportunity of huge publicity to market their products. Let's have a look at what women's tennis stars are sporting during one such event, Roland Garros 2010 in Paris.

Venus Williams raised many eyebrows by her lingerie-like black dress. But the dress raises all the eyebrows when in action!

Sorana Cirstea lost on Day one to Svetlana Kuznetsova, but her adidas dress can win all the awards, if you asked me. Just like Ana Ivanovic's.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands is wearing her cool tube socks and looks sporty. Well, Venus took Bethanie's role of ball boy distractor. Caroline Wozniacki, nice dress but nothing new, really nothing. Read more »

World No.16 Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia has pulled out of the US Open due to a rib injury.

Italian Alberta Brianti, ranked 85th, will get a place in the main draw as a result of Cibulkova’s withdrawal.

The US Open gets underway on Monday. (photo by our reader Colleen)