In the 2011 fashion retrospections we have included major brands such as Nike (in several perspectives – on Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Serena Williams), Adidas on Daniela Hantuchova and Ana Ivanovic and on Andrea Petkovic, Lacoste on Samantha Stosur, Anta on Jelena Jankovic and Stella McCartney on Caroline Wozniacki, and now we're going to have a close look at Fila as worn by their brightest stars Kim Clijsters and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Even though the Fila clothes themselves are not on top of my list when it comes to tennis fashion, I cannot imagine any other brand looking better on Clijsters and Kuznetsova. Therefore, I'm a huge fan of Fila and the way they nurture the vintage sporty look.

Fila doesn't experiment with ruffles, layers, glitter, dizzy patterns, etc. They like to keep designs traditionally athletic, meant primarily to cover your body so that you can play freely, without thinking whether some part of a dress would fall off (problems you would definitely face with Venus Williams' EleVen line). 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 »

In her first match in four months Kim Clijsters, feeling "perhaps fitter than ever", defeated world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in a singles match-up at the 2011 Diamond Games exhibition, 6-2 7-6(5). The Belgian continued with a 6-2 6-1 victory in doubles, playing with her younger sister Elke Clijsters, an ITF Junior Doubles World Champion, while Wozniacki was teamed up with Belgian world No.26 Yanina Wickmayer.

The 10,000 spectators at the Antwerp Sports Palace were treated to a number of entertaining stunts.

Wozniacki and Clijsters were imitating infamous WTA screamers: Read more »

In her latest blog entry Kim Clijsters reveals that her injury recovery process is progressing well, she's practicing three or four times a week, preparing for the Antwerp Diamond Games exhibition on December 8 and the 2012 season which the Belgian will open with the Brisbane International which starts on January 2.

Clijsters is working hard with her new coach Carl Maes and new sparring partner Stefan Wauters, and the regime is going to include even more tennis hours. At the same time, her injuries of right foot and stomach muscles are responding well to recovery exercises.

While in Belgium, Clijsters is spending time home with her family, husband Bryan and daughter Jada, trying new recipes in the kitchen, which are optimized for her best tennis results. (via Beyond the Baseline, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Two big stars of women’s tennis have ended cooperation with their coaches – world No.5 Li Na with Michael Mortensen who coached her since April this year, and world No.9 Kim Clijsters with her long-time coach Wim Frissette.

The main reason Li fired Danish coach Mortensen is that she felt he was giving her false encouragement and confidence.

He tells me everything is perfect, everything is fantastic. I say, ‘Yes, everything is fantastic, but I always lose first round.’ I mean, this is not fantastic. I think we need to change something. I think maybe the team or coach just try to give me confidence, but I don’t think I get [it].

The start of Li’s cooperation with Mortensen was fruitful, including her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, but the Chinese has since won more than one match at only one tournament.

As for Clijsters, the Belgian has replaced coach Wim Frissette with Carl Maes. Frissette was her coach from 1995 to 2002 and joined her team again earlier this season.

Clijsters is still enjoying her time off the Tour. The last tournament she played was the Rogers Cup (source: Beyond the Baseline, photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Twice-defending champion Kim Clijsters will not play the 2011 US Open which starts August 29. The Belgian hasn't recovered from the stomach muscle injury which forced her out of the last week's Rogers Cup. The 28-year-old needs time for rest and treatment and is planning to miss the rest of the season.

"Two weeks of rehab was not enough. Obviously I'm very disappointed. I trained very hard this summer and felt in a good shape to play," said the three-time winner of the US Open.

Clijsters will now be focusing on 2012, says her official website.

The most important thing right now is that I should make a full recovery, so I will also drop the rest of the season. I'll pick up training slowly and carefully and prepare for 2012, but without a specific time frame or pressure. I had two tournaments to go this autumn, but they are not worth the risk. I would not be able to get enough points to compete in the WTA Championship anyway… I am now focusing on 2012, on the Olympics. Who knows? This time I might make it through without any injuries and I might feel up for a last US Open.

(photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Kim Clijsters was playing her first match since ’s-Hertogenbosch in June and a right ankle injury, but her comeback lasted for only a set and a half as she retired from her opening match at the Rogers Cup against Zheng Jie with left abdominal injury. Clijsters won the first set 6-3, and retired in the second at 1-2.

Clijsters already had an ultrasound and she was diagnosed with partial tear in her left stomach muscle, which she first felt during her warmup for the match.

Serena Williams’ comeback is still fresh and she has already clinched a title at Stanford and in her first-round match against Alona Bondarenko at the Rogers Cup Serena won stunning 100% of points on first serve and 76% on the second. Also, in the 6-0 first-set win Serena lost only four points. Not to mention that the set lasted just 16 minutes! Final result: 6-0 6-3.

Ana Ivanovic also advanced to the second round, not troubled by qualifier Zhang Shuai en route to a 6-1 6-1 victory. Another Serbian, Bojana Jovanovski, got past the first round, but it was a retirement win – Jelena Dokic withdrew while trailing 2-0 with right shoulder injury. Last week’s titlist at Carlsbad Agnieszka Radwanska also won her first round, with a 6-4 6-1 win over Elena Vesnina. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Women's tennis players dominate the Forbes magazine Top 10 list of the highest-paid female athletes and Maria Sharapova is the leader for the seventh year in a row. Forbes included earnings from salaries, prize money, endorsements, appearance fees and exhibitions between July 2010 and July 2011.

The 24-year-old Maria Sharapova did make the final of Wimbledon, but the greatest share in her $25 million fortune earned in the one-year period came from lucrative deals with Nike, Head, Evian, Clear Shampoo, Sony Ericsson, Tiffany, Tag Heuer, and Cole Haan.

World No.1 tennis player Caroline Wozniacki occupies the second position in the list with twice smaller earnings of $12.5 ($6 million from tournaments and $6.5 million from sponsors). The 21-year-old Wozniacki has deals with Adidas, Yonex, Compeed and Oriflame.

THE HIGHEST-PAID FEMALE ATHLETES

1. Maria Sharapova
2. Caroline Wozniacki
3. Danica Patrick (auto racing driver)
4. Venus Williams
5. Kim Clijsters
6. Serena Williams
7. Kim Yu-na (figure skater)
8. Li Na
9. Ana Ivanovic
10. Paula Creamer (golfer)

Read more »

The current Big Three of women's tennis, if I may call them that way – Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Kim Clijsters – had very much different Wednesday. Serena lost in Eastbourne, Venus won, while Kim faced the fact that she would have to withdraw from Wimbledon because of her injury sustained yesterday in 's-Hertogenbosch.

Serena Williams survived a scrappy first-round encounter with Tsvetana Pironkova, but top seed Vera Zvonareva was a sterner opponent and even though Serena led 6-4 5-4 Zvonareva prolonged the match and won it 3-6 7-6(5) 7-5 after three hours and 12 minutes of play. Positive news for Serena today is her Wimbledon seeding. The defending champion will be seed No.7, which is 19 places higher than her ranking, and will avoid the highest-ranked opponents until at least the quarterfinals. Read more »

Second-ranked Kim Clijsters' failed to receive much attention with Serena and Venus Williams returning to the competition this week, but here it is, the Belgian surprisingly lost in the second round of her home tournament, the Unicef Open. Her conqueror – Italian world No.81 Romina Oprandi, who is now celebrating her greatest career achievement. Final score: 7-6(5) 6-3.

Not only has Clijsters lost, but in the first set she appeared to have injured right ankle. The former world No.1 will undergo some tests to see how her ankle is doing, and now even her participation at Wimbledon is in doubt. Remember, only weeks ago Clijsters was healing her right ankle injury sustained at a wedding?

At the French Open, her first tournament after the recovery from the injury, Clijsters was also upset in the second round, by Arantxa Rus, ranked outside Top 100. (photo: krissaconnection)