In the beginning of the year our loyal contributor John Bolan made a prediction of how Top 10 would look like at the end of the season and a lot of readers presented their Top 10 picks in the comments. Now that the tennis 2011 has ended, I thought it was perfect time to ask John to do a comparison of the prediction and the actual season-ending rankings. He was eager to accept my proposal. Continue reading to see the shocking changes over the last 11 months, such as Justine Henin and Dinara Safina not playing any more and Petra Kvitova, who was never even mentioned, joining the elite big time.

On January 8, 2011 the Women’s Tennis Blog published my article "Who will be Top 10 players at the end of 2011?".  My picks were listed with reasons why I chose them. Many fans used the comment section to submit their picks. Now that the year is over, let’s find out how we did.

Most of us only named about 5 out of the 10 Top finishers. The reason that we did so poorly was the injury factor. Five of the top players were injured for most of the year – Justin Henin, Kim Clijsters, Dinara Safina, Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Most of us had at least 3 of these injured stars on our Top 10 list. The most difficult factor in picking the Top 10 is trying to guess who will not be able to play a full season and 2011 was an unusual year with so many of the top stars injured for so long.

No one picked the number 2 finisher – Petra Kvitova. Only one person picked Marion Bartoli and only one picked Andrea Petkovic. These omissions hurt the overall accuracy of our picks. Read more »

This blog likes to give its faithful readers an opportunity to contribute and show their take on women's tennis, so here's Omair's analysis of our year-end Top 10 players and their 2011 results at Grand Slams, Premier tournaments and the WTA Championships. Have a look at what the numbers suggest.

Just to note, in the following tables CW is Caroline Wozniacki, PK is Petra Kvitova, VA is Victoria Azarenka, MS is Maria Sharapova, LN is Li Na, SS is Samantha Stosur, VZ is Vera Zvonareva, AR is Agnieszka Radwanska, MB is Marion Bartoli and AP is Andrea Petkovic.

WIN-LOSS RECORD OF THE YEAR-END TOP 10 PLAYERS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN 2011

The win-loss record is in itself self-explanatory, showing who has been the most dominant player - Petra Kvitova. Please also note the number of wins by a player against Top 5 players, especially for Top 5 players.

OVERALL WIN-LOSS RECORD IN 2011

Kvitova is not the leader only in the percentage of wins over fellow season-ending Top 10 players, but is also the leader in yearly win-loss record overall.

2011 GRAND SLAM WINS OF TOP 10 PLAYERS

Read more »

Our last featured player in the childhood photos series was Petra Kvitova – the highest-rising WTA player of the season, and now I'd like to feature China's Li Na, another tennis star with a breakthrough year:

• Australian Open 2011 – Li became the first Asian, male or female, to reach a Grand Slam singles final
• French Open 2011 – Li was first Asian player ever, male or female, to win a Grand Slam singles title
• cracking Top 5 and reaching a career-high ranking of number four
• qualifying for the year-ending Championships in Istanbul

Let's have a look at the little Wuhan girl before her tennis stardom. Judging by her comfortable posing and the fashionable outfit, Li could have easily developed into a model.

Besides numerous WTA players Women's Tennis Blog has featured in the childhood series, Zheng Jie, another Chinese player, also found her well-deserved place.

Sam, thank you for sending me Li's picture!

The 2011 year will be remembered as a landmark year in Li Na's career, as the Chinese clinched her first Grand Slam title at the French Open. However, the way she finished her participation at the season-ending WTA Championships, where only the best eight singles players from the season compete, should be forgotten. Li suffered the biggest loss in three years, falling to Samantha Stosur with a horrible scoreline of 6-1 6-0 in 66 minutes. In 2008 in Berlin Li lost to Nadia Petrova by the same scoreline.

Li has never defeated Stosur in their six meetings, four of which were in 2011, but today's defeat is the worst of the six. Just four winners and 32 unforced errors from a recent Grand Slam champion. Must be tough.

The US Open titlists Stosur has now reached her second semifinals at the WTA Championships. Last year she lost to eventual champion Kim Clijsters. This time Stosur's semifinal obstacle will be Petra Kvitova. (photo: Tidalist)

I'm regularly reviewing fashion at Grand Slams (take a look at this year's tennis outfits at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) and this time I've decided to add the season-ending Championships, as another great tennis stage. The singles field at the $4,900,000 tournament this year played in Istanbul consists of eight players, so only the mere quantity of players significantly reduces the diversity of outfits. Therefore, nothing can outclass Grand Slams as the best stages for all the fashion fun, although some stars had brand new looks prepared for the WTA Championships.

Li Na and Victoria Azarenka are sporting neat outfits, but they are nothing new, we've seen them in previous tournaments. Li is wearing Nike Women's Holiday Smash Classic Top and Pleated Skort. Azarenka already gave a lot of exposure to her Nike Women's Holiday Set Point Graphic Tank and a matching skort during her run to the Luxembourg title and Tokyo semifinals.

Petra Kvitova, another Nike representative, is just like Azarenka wearing purple and grape tones. Caroline Wozniacki is wearing the best of her recent Adidas by Stella McCartney dresses, which she should've worn at the US Open, in my opinion, instead of the similar dress in white. Read more »

Victoria Azarenka was the last player to come to Istanbul because she was occupied by winning the title in Luxembourg. Remember, the Belarusian was the only one missing in the glamorous player photo shoot introducing the luxurious tournament with the prize money of $4,900,000. The world No.4 continued her Luxembourg form (she didn't lose a set en route to the trophy) and at the WTA Championships she recorded two solid victories to reach her first semifinals in her third appearance at the tournament.

After dominating Samantha Stosur in her first round-robin match 6-2 6-2, with the same score Azarenka took out French Open champion Li Na to become the first certain member of the Istanbul final four. The fifth-ranked Li earned zero break points against Azarenka and hit 22 unforced errors more than her opponent (39 to 17).

Li was successful in her first match of the tournament, beating Maria Sharapova 7-6(4) 6-4. (photo: sr_cranks)

The only former champion in the field, Maria Sharapova, looks somehow blocked during this week's WTA Championships and after losing to Samantha Stosur for the first time in their ten matches, the Russian fell to Li Na the following day 7-6 (4) 6-4.

The third White Group round-robin match of the tournament was long and unpredictable, as both Sharapova and Li had big ups and downs. Also, they piled up a total of 74 unforced errors, 37 each!

First it was Sharapova who led, 4-2, but then Li took charge and forced a tiebreak, their first in eighteen sets they played, and after Sharapova's 4-0 lead in the tiebreak, Li stormed to 7-4 to win the set. The second set was also undecided. At 5-2 for Li, Sharapova broke her opponent's serve, and you can never count Sharapova out. However, the Russian wasn't even close to her best and Li eventually won 7-6(4) 6-4.

The 2004 champion Sharapova is so far the biggest disappointment of the tournament, and we don't know how much of it is due to her very recent ankle injury. The former world No.1, now ranked No.2, was the biggest Caroline Wozniacki's competitor for the top ranking. All the Dane has to do now to secure her year-end top spot is to beat Vera Zvonareva in the match they've just started. (photo: Esther Lim)

The 2011 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul start tomorrow, not affected by the devastating earthquake that killed around 270 people in Turkey. Players and the Tour expressed their condolences, but their job is calling them to focus on the big task ahead.

Since only the most successful eight players of the season are in the competition, it is not entirely reasonable to talk about the toughness of the draw, but we can always speculate: is the world No.1 the favorite, or the most-established players, or the late season bloomers, or someone else? Let’s analyze the two round-robin groups.

RED GROUP: Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska

The tournament will start with the clash between Kvitova and Zvonareva. Kvitova is making her debut at the WTA Championships, but at this year’s Wimbledon she showed she doesn’t shy away at grand stages. Also, the Czech is fresh off a WTA title in Linz.

Another first-time qualifier, Agnieszka Radwanska, is also in action on the first day, against world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. Radwanska is the hottest player this fall, having won 11 of her last 12 matches, including Premier-level titles in Tokyo and Beijing. Zvonareva was runner-up in Tokyo, while Wozniacki had the worst results of the group this fall, losing in the third round of Tokyo and the quarterfinals of Beijing.

To give you a deeper insight into the mutual relationships of the players, here are their head-to-head statistics, with this year's records in brackets. Read more »

This season Li Na became the first Asian to win a Grand Slam, at the Australian Open she became the first Asian Grand Slam finalist, the Chinese 29-year-old also equaled the highest ranking ever for an Asian player in June and now she became the first player from her country to qualify for the $4,900,000 season-ending Championships, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, October 25-30.

Three more berths in the singles field are left in Istanbul, as Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka have already qualified. Azarenka, the second seed at this week’s China Open, retired from the tournament in the third round against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with right foot injury. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Since her triumph at Roland Garros Li Na has been consistent with arranging  new sponsorship deals, but her tennis results are regularly disappointing. The Chinese has recently signed on with two more sponsors, Crown (Australia's leading integrated entertainment and resort operator) and Kunlunshan (China's first mineral water brand), but when it comes to tennis, she doesn’t know what to do to help herself.

The world No.5 Li followed her US Open first round exit with a defeat in her first match at the Beijing Premier-level tournament. Against qualifier Monica Niculescu of Romania, Li was bageled in the second set and in the first set won four games, only after coming back from a 5-1 deficit.

Right now I've just lost all confidence. On the court I don't know what I can do. I felt even winning one point was tough for me. My coach came out and told me exactly what was right, but I couldn't do it.

To make things worse, Li played the semifinals of Beijing last year, so she will lose a lot of points. Niculescu, ranked 58th in the world, scored her first Top 10 win. (via WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)