Colors of fall inspire Adidas for Maria Kirilenko's US Open 2012 outfit

Exploring Pinterest today, I came across Tennis Warehouse's profile and found this photo of Maria Kirilenko in her Adidas apparel for the upcoming US Open.

The women's doubles bronze medalist at the recently-finished Olympic Tennis Event will wear Adidas Women's Autumn Adipower Barricade collection in the colors resembling the falling leaves – very dark purple, looking like brown from afar, and golden yellow. It is a very different approach from the Adidas Adizero line dominated by eye-popping colors, as seen on Ana Ivanovic. Read more »

Olympic WTA awards: Golden Empress, Bridesmaids, Gutsy Performers and others

Our guest blogger Omair likes to give WTA players unofficial titles on the account of their performance at big events. Notice how Serena improved from the Biggest Disappointment at Roland Garros, to Grass Empress at Wimbledon, to shortly afterwards become a Golden Empress at the Olympics.

SERENA WILLIAMS – GOLDEN EMPRESS

With her first gold medal in singles at the Olympics, Serena completed her Career Golden Slam, joining Steffi Graf and becoming only the second woman to achieve such a feat. Moreover, Serena did that in style, losing a total of 17 games in six matches. En route to the medal, Serena defeated four players who have ranked world number one at some point (Jelena Jankovic in the first round, Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals, Victoria Azarenka in the semifinals and Maria Sharapova in the final). She also became the only tennis player in history to complete Career Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. With such a strong performance, Serena reinforces her title of grass empress earned during Wimbledon 2012.

MARIA SHARAPOVA, VICTORIA AZARENKA – BRIDESMAIDS

Always a bridesmaid, never a bride. Sharapova and Azarenka were both the victims of Serena at the Olympics, and have combined three wins against her in 21 matches.

Sharapova rebounded strongly from her Wimbledon disappointment, however, she lost her plot completely once in the final and managed to win just one game in the most lopsided Olympic gold medal match.

Azarenka seemed determined to be on the course to win gold, but just like at Wimbledon, it was Serena who stood in her way. Azarenka had a chance to avenge her Wimbledon loss, but went down meekly, winning just three games against Serena. Read more »

Kirilenko's boyfriend Alex Ovechkin ecstatic about her Olympic doubles bronze

Due to Alex Ovechkin's excitement in supporting his girlfriend Maria Kirilenko at the 2012 London Olympics, I simply had to feature the couple in our WTA Players and their Boyfriends/Husbands series.

Russian Maria Kirilenko was well working her way at the Olympic Games and her boyfriend Alex Ovechkin, Russian ice hockey player, was always there by her side, constantly updating his Twitter account with the latest developments in his girlfriend's career.

The relationship became public in November 2011, when Ovechkin tweeted the photo of them together, saying that Kirilenko is his queen. In May 2012, he also shared their romantic photos from Paris.

The 26-year-old Ovechkin has been travelling with Kirilenko all summer and at the Olympics he was biting his nails during Kirilenko's run to the Olympic singles semifinals and women's doubles bronze medal. Read more »

Olympic semifinal preview: Maria Sharapova vs. Maria Kirilenko

Having already previewed the Olympic semifinal between Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams, we are moving on to predicting the all-Russian one, between Maria Sharapova vs. Maria Kirilenko. Thank you, Omair, for contributing the article!

Maria Sharapova ended Kim Clijsters' Olympic dream 6-2 7-5 to set up an all-Russian semifinal against Maria Kirilenko. Earlier in the day, Kirilenko upset Petra Kvitova 7-6(3) 6-3, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, to make it to the medal match.

The pair has never played on grass before. Their most recent meeting came in the quarterfinals of Indian Wells this year, where Sharapova won in three sets. Will Kirilenko have a revenge? Let's have a look at the performance of the players so far at the 2012 Olympics.

Read more »

Wimbledon 2012 WTA awards: Grass Empress, Finesse Queen, Gutsy Performer, Brave Heart, Biggest Disappointment

Omair is known for his statistical contributions to Women's Tennis Blog, but as of Roland Garros he started doing post-Grand Slam awards, giving WTA players awards they deserved on the account of their performance. You will see how the tables are turning all the time – within just a month Serena improved from the Biggest Disappointment to Grass Empress, while Maria Sharapova downgraded from the Clay Queen to the Biggest Disappointment.

Serena Williams – GRASS EMPRESS

Serena Williams was coming off a first-round defeat at Roland Garros, her first ever first-round exit at Grand Slam, but she rebounded beautifully, reminding us that she still is the player to beat on grass. The American defeated three of the Top 4 players on her way to the Wimbledon 2012 titlePetra Kvitova in the quarterfinals (world No.4 and defending champion), Victoria Azarenka in the semis (world No.2 and reigning Australian Open champion) and Agnieszka Radwanska in the final (world No.3). To top that off, Serena went on to win the doubles title as well, with sister Venus Williams.

Agnieszka Radwanska – FINESSE QUEEN

In today's game of power and big hitters, in making the Wimbledon final Radwanska showed us with her crafty play and her court sense that there still is room for finesse players. She did what neither Petra Kvitova, nor Victoria Azarenka managed to do, i.e. take a set off Serena Williams. Before Wimbledon, Radwanska was the only member of the Top 15 never to have made a Grand Slam semifinal, but she went one step better at Wimbledon making the final and falling in three sets to one of the best grass-court players ever. Read more »


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