Roland Garros 2011 has been awaited as a big occasion for world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki to win her maiden Grand Slam, or as a venue where Kim Clijsters will reassert the dominance of the "old generation", or maybe as an unexpected place for Maria Sharapova to remind us what she's made of. Let's not forget defending champion Francesca Schiavone and an always-lurking possibility of an emergence of a lesser known player or new player in the limelight such as Petra Kvitova and Julia Goerges.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki will play Kimiko Date Krumm in the first round, and then has possible matches against Daniela Hantuchova and the 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova. In the quarterfinals the Dane could face last year's runner-up Samantha Stosur. But let's not overlook that world No.18 Julia Goerges, who largely owes her fame to the two recent victories over Wozniacki, is in the same quarter of the draw.

Third seed Vera Zvonareva is in the second quarter, as well as defending champion Francesca Schiavone, who failed to impress in the clay lead-up to the French Open but this week in Brussels she reached the semifinals where she lost to Wozniacki. The Italian's first opponent will be Melanie Oudin. Jelena Jankovic, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, Flavia Pennetta, Alisa Kleybanova and Nadia Petrova are also in this quarter. Read more »

The semifinal encounter of world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki and reigning French Open champion Francesca Schiavone was not interesting only because all eyes are on Wozniacki's clay play ahead of the French Open and because Schiavone is defending her title there, but also because they happen to be in the same half of the today-announced draw for the clay court Grand Slam. Wozniacki proved to be a bit better from her Italian opponent and edged a 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory.

At 4-4 in the first set, Wozniacki won her service game to love and to take the first set she followed it by breaking Schiavone to love. The second set was again leveled at 4-4, but then Schiavone broke for a 5-4 lead and won the next, long game, after saving break points. The third set was the most tightly-contested. Wozniacki opened up with a 2-0 lead, as Schiavone piled up three unforced errors in the second game. And even though Schiavone broke back right away, later, in the eighth game, Wozniacki earned a crucial break and went on to reach the Brussels Open final. Read more »

World No.4 Francesca Schiavone skipped last weekend's Fed Cup action in order to start the clay court season fresh and prepared so that she can give her best in defending the French Open title, but the start wasn't as successful as she hoped for. The Italian lost her opening match on clay to Agnieszka Radwanska in the second round of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and in straight sets, 6-1 6-3.

In previous years, it was Schiavone who won all the four encounters with Radwanska, but in 2011, the Pole defeated Schiavone 6-0 6-2 in Miami and now in Stuttgart, in their first meeting on clay. Read more »

Straight from winning the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, Caroline Wozniacki rushed to Monte Carlo for an exhibition match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters with the 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone. The Danish world No.1 lost the one-set match, 6-4.

Wozniacki is bursting with confidence, so much that she booked her flight so close to the end of her Charleston final that they could have easily overlapped. Here’s what Diane of Women Who Serve, who regularly attends Charleston, said:

After the final, she dashed in to a press conference, and then almost immediately dashed right out. The champion had to catch a flight to the ATP tournament in Monaco […] So I'm left with a couple of questions: What if the second set in Charleston had gone to a tiebreak? What if it had gone to three sets?

Despite losing at the Monte-Carlo Country Club, Wozniacki enjoyed her appearance at the ATP event, especially because her home is just up the street from the Monte Carlo tournament venue. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Jelena Dokic recorded her first Top 5 victory in eight years by coming from a set down and beating fifth-ranked Francesca Schiavone 2-6 7-6(1) 6-4 in the first round of the Malaysian Open. The former world No.4 Dokic has actually retained her perfect record against the Italian, but their last meeting before today's one was ten years ago in Moscow. Dokic is 3-0 head-to-head against Schiavone now.

The 27-year-old Dokic, currently world No.91, had played six WTA events in 2011 prior to Kuala Lumpur and never won more than one match in the main draw except for the Paris Open where she reached the quarterfinals, beating Top 20 and Top 30 players on the way. She fell to Kim Clijsters then, who became No.1 by winning the match.

The Australian is grateful for her current form and is looking for a steady improvement:

I'm still not as consistent as I want to be - there are still some weeks where I don't play up to my high standard. But this year I'm playing WTA events every week and it's making a difference. Thank God, no injuries… my body is great and hopefully it will stay that way.

(source: WTA Tour, photo: Tidalist)

After a three-hour third set and six match points saved, Francesca Schiavone defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2011 Australian Open. It is now the longest women’s Grand Slam match in history. It lasted 4 hours and 44 minutes, and included a stunning 30-game third set. Final score: 6-4 1-6 16-14. During the course of the match, 358 points were played!

The match was 25 minutes longer than the previous longest women’s Grand Slam match – the 4 hours and 19 minutes encounter between Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova and Regina Kulikova at last year’s Australian Open. Read more »

The WTA has recently announced the winners of their yearly awards and, as with everything, some people agree with their selection and some don’t. Our great contributor John Bolan thinks the WTA made some questionable choices, especially if you look at the rankings, and the following article shows his extensive research backing up his opinion.

The WTA Player Award winners have been announced. They were excellent picks, but was Francesca Schiavone really the most improved player? She was the most improved if only the top 10 players are considered.  Her ranking increased from 17 at the start of 2010 to 7 at the end.  That is excellent improvement. Looking further down the rankings, Shahar Peer was even more improved moving from 31 to 13 at the end of the year. Rounding out the top 20 is Maria Kirilenko who is clearly the most improved player in the top 20 moving from 63 to 20, an improvement of 43 ranking points!!! Shouldn’t Maria have won the most improved? Using a totally bias free mathematic computation, she was by far the player with the most improved ranking.

Why stop with the top 20. Looking at the next twenty players, finds Alexandra Dulgheru who improved 22 ranks from 51 to 29. Andrea Petkovic moved from 56 to 32, an improvement of 24. Petra Kvitova went from 62 to 34, a gain of 28. Petra won the Newcomer of the Year award even though she has been in the top ranks for three years. Julia Goerges went from 78 to 40, a gain of 38. Tsvetana Pironkova is the big winner in the top 40, moving from 99 to 35 for a gain of 64 ranking points!!! Shouldn’t Tsvetana have won most improved? She is a top 35 player – why shouldn’t she have an award? Read more »

Dear readers, Women's Tennis Blog has become an attractive place for guest posters. This time Jay from www.OnCourtAdvantage.com wanted to contribute his preview of the Sony Ericsson Championships. Check out his favorites for the prestigious Doha title.

The Sony Ericsson Championships (SEC) have begun and will run for 6 days through to Women’s Singles Final on Sunday 31 October. Due to the unique Round Robin format used for this tournament we are blessed with the fantastic opportunity to see these top players clash more often than in any other tournament.

The SEC will produce a number of rematches of Grand Slam quarterfinals, semifinals and singles finals like Schiavone versus Stosur (2010 Roland Garros Final), Clijsters versus Wozniacki (2009 US Open Final) and Clijsters versus Zvonareva (2010 US Open Final).

In no other tournament are you required to beat at least 4 if not 5, of the world’s Top 8 ranked players to win the title. The degree of difficulty is extreme and at least one player will show us the qualities of a true champion this week.

The maroon group is:

(1) Caroline Wozniacki
(4) Francesca Schiavone
(5) Samantha Stosur
(7) Elena Dementieva

The white group is:

(2) Vera Zvonareva
(3) Kim Clijsters
(6) Jelena Jankovic
(8) Victoria Azarenka

Predictions:

Let me just warn you that in tennis more than any other sport you should never bet on the outcome of a match. Instead invest your funds into enjoying, watching, playing and improving the great game we love.

Anyone who REALLY understands this game knows that in the vast majority of matches, both players will have critical moments and opportunities that can swing the match either way and often there can be a number of these situations with the same match.

On any given day it is the player who in the above mentioned situations that can:

Produce the better strategic nous;
Make the better decisions;
Execute their shots during the BIG points; and
Copes best with mental challenges that usually dictate who triumphs on the day.
But if you really want a prediction THEN…

Who will make the semifinals?

The maroon group:

Based on the form that has taken the 20-year-old Wozniacki to be the current World No.1, you would have to lean towards the 1.77m Dane as the favorite to win her group. The youngest player in the field leads the WTA Tour in match wins – 59 – and singles titles this year, 6 titles from 7 finals.

The 1.66m Schiavone would probably be the next best chance to take the second semifinal spot. The eldest player in the field is in great physical condition and will be prepared to peak this week and in the Federation Cup Final following the SEC.

The 30-year-old Italian has enormous pride in representing her country and in her own performance, which suggests she will fight relentlessly. The steely resolve of the Lioness could prove too much for Dementieva’s fragile ankle and Stosur’s current lack of confidence.

The 29-year-old Dementieva forfeited with an ankle injury last week in Luxembourg as she did in the 2010 Roland Garros semifinals. The 1.8m Russian’s strongest component of her game is her court movement and court coverage, so if that is compromised it will be much tougher for her.

The 26-year-old Stosur has not been in good form recently but does possess a serve and forehand that can win her matches. The 1.72m Australian is well suited to hard courts and has won her most recent match against Wozniacki and Dementieva. Stosur also holds a winning record over Schiavone.

Best Guess = No.1 Schiavone and No.2 Wozniacki. Read more »