Since winning Sydney and reaching the final of the Australian Open, Li Na has lost all her opening matches (Dubai, Doha, Indian Wells and Miami), and you know what heals wounds the best, off-court activities such as commercials and photo shoots. The Chinese world No.7 distracted herself by a commercial for the new Beijing Open stadium.

World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki is making blister pads glamorous with her latest product promotion. Read more »

Chinese No.1 Li Na, ranked seventh in the world, is looking awesome in Elle China. The magazine is wishing Li a happy birthday – it was on February 26th. I can't decide which photo is more stunning!

After finishing runner-up at the 2011 Australian Open, the 29-year-old Li lost her opening matches in Dubai to Yanina Wickmayer and Doha to Klara Zakopalova.

The highest-ranked Chinese player, Li Na, currently at career high of No.7, has become an ambassador of ice cream brand Haagen-Dazs. According to Wikipedia, Haagen-Dazs dates back to 1961 when two Polish immigrants established the brand in the Bronx, New York. Their first retail store was open in Brooklyn in 1976.

The glowing Li was part of a special ceremony and press conference in Beijing, together with her husband and coach, Jiang Shan.

Li’s status of Asia’s first Grand Slam singles finalist, earned at last month’s Australian Open, has landed her another sponsorship opportunity – a deal with Rolex is said to be awaiting Li. (source: WTA Tour)

The recent Australian Open final featured two great women whose tennis careers have been supported by their loving husbands. Benjamin Snyder of TenaciouslyTennis.com wrote a nice guest post for Tennis Served Fresh, paying tribute to the roles of Kim Clijsters' and Li Na's husbands in their successful careers.

Since marrying Brian Lynch, a retired American basketball player, Kim Clijsters won seven titles, including three Grand Slams and the WTA Championships in Doha. Brian is always there to support Kim in her matches and also helps with their wonderful daughter, Jada.

Here's the glowing Kim, now ranked No.2, showcasing her Australian Open trophy at Brighton Beach in Melbourne.

Li Na has been married to Jiang Shan for five years. Jiang is a former tennis player and he is coaching Li. After her loss to Clijsters in the final, Li had a message for her husband: "It doesn't matter if you are fat or skinny, handsome or ugly. I will always follow you and always love you."

Additional info: 2011 is probably the last Kim's full year on the WTA Tour. When asked whether this was maybe her last Australian Open, Kim answered affirmatively.

At the 2011 Australian Open, Li Na made a great step for Chinese tennis, even though her first Grand Slam final went to the hands of Kim Clijsters, who won her fourth major title and her first away from New York.

Seed No.3 Clijsters had the advantage of more experience, but Li was a great competitor and despite her nervousness, she didn’t melt down as we have seen with other first-time finalists on grand stage. The ninth-seeded Li won the first set 6-3 and kept the match uncertain almost until the end. When Clijsters had three match points at 40-0, it was pretty clear who was to become the latest Australian Open champion, and the humble Belgian won on her first match point. Final score: 3-6 6-3 6-3.

Li has nothing to regret: she gave resistance in the final, made history for China by becoming its first Grand Slam finalist, came to the championships match with a perfect 11-0 record in 2011, which included the victory over Clijsters herself in the Sydney final and the victory over world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semis of the Australian Open.

I’m mentioning Li’s achievement more, because Clijsters’ post-retirement achievements are so amazing that whatever I would say would not be enough. Three Grand Slam titles, including the defense of the US Open one, and now back-to-back Grand Slam titles, all that while being a mother – Kim, you deserve utmost appreciation.

To reach the final Kim defeated, in order: Dinara Safina, Carla Suarez Navarro, Alize Cornet, Ekaterina Makarova, seed No.12 Agnieszka Radwanska and second seed Vera Zvonareva.

I’d like to add one more thing about this final. There were no screams, overexpressed emotions (including the trophy ceremony), flashy outfits – it was a simple and enjoyable encounter of two nice ladies doing what they do best. (photo: AP via Yahoo)

China’s Li Na has retained her perfect match record this season by upsetting world No.1 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki and becoming the first Asian player in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final in singles.

The victory didn't come without excitement – Wozniacki took the first set as Li made 17 unforced errors to 7 winners, and then the Dane had a match point at 5-4 in the second set. The thing that makes tennis amazing is that it's never over til it's over – Li shot a risky forehand, saved the match point and eventually won the set 7-5. In the third set Li again had more unforced errors than winners, although only two more, but Wozniacki hit zero winners! Can't beat that!

The ninth-seeded Li won the match 3-6 7-5 6-3 and continued to write tennis history for China.

Li’s opponent in the championship match will be Kim Clijsters, who has played in the finals of three of four Grand Slams, although she was victorious only at the US Open. With a 6-3 6-3 victory over second seed Vera Zvonareva in the semis, third-seeded Clijsters closely approached her second straight Grand Slam title.  But before the Belgian holds the winner's trophy, she'll have to overcome Li, who defeated her this month in the Sydney final. As for overall career record, Clijsters leads Li 4-2.

Additional info: Reuters has a great factbox about the progress of Chinese tennis. (photos: Tidalist)

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki advanced to the Australian Open semifinals by taking out Francesca Schiavone, thus ensuring to remain on top of the WTA rankings. After winning the longest match in women’s Grand Slam history, Schiavone still had fuel in her tank and took the first set from Wozniacki 6-3. The Italian even earned a lead in the second set, 3-1, but from then on Wozniacki won five games in a row and came through 3-6 6-3 6-3.

Wozniacki will next play ninth seed Li Na, player who defeated her in the fourth round last year and later made big news by reaching her first Grand Slam semifinal. This year Li managed to repeat the feat, by beating Andrea Petkovic 6-2 6-4 in the quarters, and in quite a fashion – Li hasn't dropped more than six games in any of her matches at the Australian Open. Moreover, she came to the tournament without losing a match this season, which included a Sydney title earned by a victory over Kim Clijsters in the final.

Besides last year's Australian Open win over Wozniacki, Li has another 2010 victory over the Dane, again in Australia, in Sydney. Wozniacki defeated Li once, in Luxembourg, three years ago. Therefore, Li leads their head-to-head record 2-1. (photo: Tidalist)

Chinese world No.11 Li Na maybe hasn't won the WTA Humanitarian of the Year Award, which went to the hands of Maria Sharapova, but Li's humanitarian efforts in 2010 deserve utmost respect. Her latest good deed is a 900,000 Chinese yuan (approximately $135,000) donation to an orphanage in Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province in China.

Remember that Li donated all her Madrid prize money, which was $57,500 for her quarterfinal showing, to earthquake relief efforts in Yushu County in northwest China. Then later in the year she visited the children of an orphanage in the city of Xining, the victims of the Yushu earthquake, and donated additional $59,000.

During the visit to Xining, Li promised to donate all her China Open prize money as well. She reached the semifinals and gave away $170,000. (sources: Tennis Forum, Women of China)

Former world No.5 Anna Chakvetadze had lost her opening matches on her three previous appearance at the Kremlin Cup, but this time the Muscovite thrilled the home fans with a 6-4 6-2 upset of third seed Li Na in the first round. Despite the low percentage of points won on first serve in the first set, Chakvetadze had a good conversion of break points (3 out of 4). Chakvetadze's serve improved in the second set, not allowing Li a single break opportunity, and she powered into the round two.

The 68th-ranked Chakvetadze won the Kremlin Cup in 2006, when she played fellow Russian Nadia Petrova in the final.

There was another notable upset in the early stage of the $1,000,000 Kremlin Cup and was also executed by an unseeded local favorite. Elena Vesnina defeated fifth seed Flavia Pennetta 6-4 2-6 6-2. The 55th-ranked Vesnina got the first break of the match in the sixth game, and although Pennetta broke back immediately it was the lower-ranked Vesnina who won the opening set. Pennetta was better in the following set, but in the decider Vesnina established a 4-1 lead and didn’t look back to seal victory.

Vesnina has been playing the Kremlin Cup every year since 2003 and lost in the first round four times, including the previous two years. (photo: chascow)

Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic had a tough opening match at the US Open against world No.96 Simona Halep of Romania. As Jankovic said, she wasn’t playing her best tennis, but was able to get through.

The 2008 US Open finalist Jankovic lost the first set and found the 18-year-old Halep serving for the match at 5-4 in the decider. Halep was actually two points away from victory, but Jankovic then broke her serve and won all the remaining games to advance to the second round. Final score: 4-6 6-4 7-5.

Halep made her Grand Slam debut at this year’s French Open and lost in the first round as well.

Seed No.11 Svetlana Kuznetsova was pushed to three sets, 6-2 4-6 6-1, in her first round match against Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm, whose last match in the US Open’s main draw prior to her this year’s appearance was a loss in the first round in 1996.

Kateryna Bondarenko sent home eighth-seeded Li Na with a 2-6 6-4 6-2 victory. Li, who reached at least the fourth round in her last three appearances at the US Open, blamed the heat for the defeat and her inability to cope with it. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)