The fourth round of the Australian Open feautred a rematch of last year's final and the outcome was the same – Kim Clijsters defeated Li Na. The score 4-6 7-6(6) 6-4 took the Belgian to the quarterfinals, but within those numbers hide four match points, a painful ankle injury at 3-3 in the first set and a gruelling fight of both players.

With her foot thickly wrapped and 2-6 in the second set tiebreak, Clijsters started her big comeback by winning six points in a row to take the match to the third set, which she opened with a 4-0 lead. Li then slowly recovered to 5-4 down, but it was Clijsters who closed out the match to her advantage.

After the victory, the Belgian winner of four Grand Slam titles said that it was one of her best comebacks, while the disappointed Li can live off the number of matches she won in January, a great improvement from her horrible second half of 2011.  Read more »

Besides doing yearly fashion retrospections for specific WTA players, Women's Tennis Blog is famous for reviewing outfits for every Grand Slam. The Australian Open is entering its second week and the time is just right for us to have a closer look at what the players are wearing. Last year Venus Williams grabbed all the attention with her EleVen designs, but the American is sadly absent this time. In 2012 the spotlight is more evenly distributed and brands such as Nike, Adidas and Fila are leading the pack.

Caroline Wozniacki’s love life is booming, at least its online representation suggests that, and her fashion designer Stella McCartney opted for the color of passion for the world No.1’s Australian Open. Wozniacki accessorized the red dress with a heart-shaped Danish flag pendant that her boyfriend Rory McIlroy gave her for Christmas.

Adidas Adizero used a shade of red for their predominantly peach dress worn by Ana Ivanovic, Daniela Hantuchova and Sorana Cirstea.

Serena Williams is wearing a blue Nike dress with wide tank straps and pleated bottom.

Read more »

Two surprising fashion switches welcomed us at the very start of 2012. Without prior notice, Jelena Jankovic took the 2012 courts in Fila and not in Anta which had been her clothing sponsor for three years. Samantha Stosur also made an apparel change and substituted her Lacoste tennis clothes with Asics, whose shoes she has been wearing for two years.

No official information on Jankovic's cooperation with Fila has been announced yet, but the world No.14 debuted her possible new clothing sponsor in the first round of the Brisbane International, in the match against Carla Suarez Navarro. The Fila Center Court Dress was on the courts for two more matches, until Jankovic lost to Francesca Schiavone in a quarterfinal marathon, 5-7 7-6(2) 6-3, after wasting two match points in the second set.

Read more »

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 »

The Serbian sisters are out of sync and it could be a good sign. Only yesterday did we report that Ana Ivanovic stopped working with Scott Byrnes as her fitness coach and today we're learning that former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic has a new coach in her team, German Henner Nehles, a former UNLV standout player. Nehles will travel to Australia with Jankovic, who has also hired Korey Goodwin as her fitness trainer.

Jankovic’s last coach was Ricardo Sanchez and the Spaniard is now proudly working with top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki.

Additional info: IMG is no longer managing Jelena Jankovic. The Serb started cooperating with IMG in January 2009, but has now replaced the agency with Linda Long, a former executive with Puma and Nike. (source: Tennis.com, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Jelena Jankovic is the leader of Chinese presence in the world of tennis fashion and her clothing sponsor Anta made a small revolution in the beginning of 2009 when they converted the Reebok-clad Jankovic into their representative, while she was on top of the world rankings. So Anta showed great management in exposing the brand to the tennis world, but how great are they in making clothes for the women's tennis market? Let's see on the example of JJ's dresses in her third year of cooperation with Anta.

It's a known fact that Jankovic is all about glitter, vibrant colors and weird patterns, and some atypical designs can work only on her, more precisely, only on her personality. That said, do you think Anta matched JJ's potential to the full?

Initially Anta was mostly labeled as looking kind of cheap. After three years, do you think they've improved? It's hard for me to say, but I can give a small "yes". Or maybe now that JJ's ranking has dropped our expectation are lower? Read more »

During her appearance at an Oriflame event in Belgrade, smiling Jelena Jankovic eagerly talked to the press and revealed that her relationship will Montenegrin waterpolo player Mladjan Janovic is still doing strong.

"I am always happy and in love," said Jankovic. When asked whether she was still with Mladjan, Jankovic replied: "Yes, of course."

Jelena and Mladjan have been dating since 2008. They met at the Beijing Olympics.

The Oriflame event, which took place at a Belgrade theater, was a contest for the 2011 Best Mother and Daughter, and Jelena and her mother Snezana were the faces of the event. Also, Jelena used the opportunity to wish her mother a happy birthday and presented her with a chocolate cake and a flower basket during the evening. (source: Blic, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The tennis season is over for Jelena Jankovic as she lost to world No.175 Ekaterina Ivanova in the first round of the Premier-level Kremlin Cup in Moscow, the tournament she won in her golden 2008.

There are only two tournaments left this season, for both of which players qualify by their season results, and the 13th-ranked Jankovic will play neither of them, finishing the year without WTA titles. Last year Jankovic qualified for the WTA Championships, but lost all three of her matches.

The 6-4 1-6 6-4 victory over Jankovic in the first round of Moscow is qualifier Ivanova's first Top 50 victory and only her second win in a WTA main draw this year. The 23-year-old will next play the winner of the Alla Kudryavtseva vs. Elena Vesnina encounter. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Since the photos of players when they were kids is one of your favorite sections on Women's Tennis Blog, I decided to include it on the homepage, at least for a while. Actually, it's all the idea of our reader Tony (PennettaFan on Twitter). Under the title "Little tennis stars", below in the left sidebar, you can see young Monica Seles and links to all the other players' childhood photos that have been included on Women's Tennis Blog so far.

 Loading ...

Also, I was inspired to make a poll where you can vote for the cutest childhood photo of a WTA player. This list is of course by no means extensive. Feel free to share some cute photos of WTA players you may have come across, and I can feature them in future articles and polls.

Below are my photo favorites included in the poll:

1) Dinara Safina – I love her face expression here.

2) Sara Errani – Adorable curly blond hair, love the vintage look.

Read more »

The Partizan Tennis Club and Serbian Tennis Association will organize a WTA event in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2012. Prize money will be $220,000. The exact date of the tournament is still under consideration, but it will take place just before the French Open or US Open.

Participation of Serbian tennis stars Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Bojana Jovanovski is expected, as well as of former Serbian representative, now an Australian national, Jelena Dokic, who has reconciled with her family, primarily with her father Damir who lives in Serbia. (source: Blic)