Maria Sharapova does not enjoy the freezing European weather, although the smiling face next to a Paris Christmas tree still surviving in February could make your believe otherwise. However, the extreme cold didn't stop the Open GDF Suez top seed to beat world No.44 Chanelle Scheepers 6-3 6-1 and move into the quarterfinals after a first round bye. And that's not all, the victory has assured Sharapova's rise to No.2 in the WTA rankings as of Monday, February 13.

I may be hard to believe, but the experienced Russian is playing the Paris tournament for the first time. It's not that she was skipping it on purpose, but complicated scheduling, injuries and sickness got in the way on so many occasions.

Sharapova's quarterfinal will be on Friday and she will play either ninth seed Angelique Kerber or Monica Niculescu. Against Kerber Sharapova had a 6-1 6-2 victory at the recent Australian Open and it's been their one and only encounter, while she has never faced Monica Niculescu. (photo via Sharapova's Facebook page)

Today is a big day for women's tennis, as we have a new number one – Victoria Azarenka. The Belarusian dethroned Caroline Wozniacki from the top position by winning her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open over the weekend. Let's see the numbers behind Azarenka's 6-3 6-0 victory over Maria Sharapova in the Melbourne final. Thanks, Omair, for contributing another statistical analysis to Women's Tennis Blog.

When Maria Sharapova walked on the Centre Court at Wimbledom last year, she intended to complete her comeback from shoulder injury by winning the tournament that she had won back in 2004 at the age of 17. However, Petra Kvitova had other plans. Sharapova ended up losing the Wimbledon final and hence a chance to complete her comeback. In the Australian Open final, as Sharapova walked onto the Rod Laver Arena, she knew she had another chance to complete her comeback. Last year at Centre Court it was against young gun Kvitova, and this year at Rod Laver Arena it was against another youngster, Azarenka.

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Victoria Azarenka blew three-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova off the Rod Laver Arena 6-3 6-0 to win her maiden major, obtain the No.1 position in the WTA rankings, overtaking Caroline Wozniacki who's reigned the spot pretty much for two years, and become the first Belarusian Grand Slam titlists and No.1 player in singles.

Playing her first Grand Slam final, the third-seeded Azarenka started nervously by dropping serve in the first game of the match and finding herself 0-2 0-30 down. But from then on, she started playing aggressively, moving Sharapova around and neutralizing her power. From 3-3 in the first set, the match belonged only to Azarenka. 

If you look at the stats, Azarenka was drastically better than her fourth-seeded opponent in too many departments:

• Azarenka committed 12 unforced errors to Sharapova's 30
• Azarenka won 53% on second serve, compared to Sharapova's 18%
• Azarenka had 60% of receiving points won, while Sharapova won only 37%
• Azarenka converted 71% of break points, Sharapova only 25%
• Azarenka won 88% of net approaches, Sharapova more than twice less, 43%

Our lucrative and highly professional contributor, Omair, prepared an analysis of the last singles match in the women's draw at the Australian Open, the final between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova. Enjoy the article and share your input in the comments!

Australian Open women's championship match will see two "ria's" facing each other, each trying to outgrunt the other. It will be one of the noisiest women's finals Australian Open has ever had, since both Maria and Victoria shriek loudly. My advice to the people intending to go and watch the match would be to take ear plugs with you or you might get your ears hurt. Ok enough of joking, let's see what we have in store for the final.

Seeing the form both players are taking into the final, it promises to be a great match. Both players have lost just two sets so far in the tournament, both losing one set in the quarterfinals and one in the semis. What is more interesting is that they both lost the same sets. Maria lost the first set in her quarterfinal against Sabine Lisicki, as did Azarenka against Radwanska. Maria lost the second set in her semifinal against Kvitova, as did Azarenka against Clijsters.

Both have not lost a match this year. Azarenka winning Sydney and carrying that momentum to the Australian Open, while Sharapova kick started her 2012 campaign at the Australian Open. Who will keep her winning streak intact in the final? Will it be Maria or Victoria? Read more »

Omair, our favorite and most productive guest poster this Australian Open, is not slowing down and now he followed up his pre-match analysis of the semifinal between Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova with a post-match review of Sharapova's 6-2 3-6 6-4 victory.

Both Kvitova and Sharapova took the Rod Laver Arena today knowing that they both had a lot on the line: the No.1 ranking and a spot in the championship match. Kvitova had an edge coming into the match, for it was Kvitova who beat Sharapova on Center Court at Wimbledon in the title match last year in straight sets. Sharapova had revenge on her mind, and revenge was what she got at the end, along with a chance to grab the top spot and a chance to earn her second Australian Open trophy and fourth Grand Slam title.

Sharapova started the match on fire, walking away with the first set 6-2, and it seemed that Kvitova would bow out in straight sets. But we have seen that Kvitova is a fighter and she comes back to win matches. It was Kvitova's turn to show why she is world No.2 as she took the second set to send the match to a decisive third set. Again, it was Kvitova who looked sharper and on a roll, but Sharapova hung in there long enough to let the nerves get the better of Kvitova. Kvitova had a lot of chances to move ahead in the third set, but she just could not capitalise on them. In the end nerves got the better of Kvitova as her forehand sailed long to hand Sharapova the game, set and match. Both played some jaw-dropping tennis throughout the match. Read more »

Our busy tennis fan and loyal contributor Omair has already provided us with a preview of the first Australian Open semifinal on the schedule, the one between Victoria Azarenka and Kim Clijsters, and now let's see Omair's preview of the semifinal clash between Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova.

When Kvitova and Sharapova meet for their semifinal, a lot of things will be out there on the line. They are both aware that whoever emerges victorious out of this encounter will keep alive her hope of attaining the top spot. Whoever wins the Australian Open other than Kim Clijsters will be the world No.1 when the rankings are released on Monday.

Sharapova has so far made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open four times (excluding this year's result), and has gone to the final twice. The two times she lost in the semis it was in three sets: in 2005 to eventual champion Serena Williams and in 2006 to Justine Henin. Will she make it to the finals this time and keep her hopes of regaining the top spot alive or will she bow out to the Czech power tower Kvitova?

As for Kvitova, this is her third Grand Slam semifinal and her first at the Australian Open. How will she fare in Melbourne? She obviously has the experience of playing and winning at the biggest stages of tennis, so she will not be fazed by the stage tomorrow. Read more »

Our stats expert Omair was again busy and prepared post-match analytics of the Australian Open quarterfinals whose previews he presented yesterday. Let's first see how the numbers look for the quarterfinal in which Maria Sharapova defeated fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-3.

Maria Sharapova took the Rod Laver Arena today with a purpose on her mind, she wanted to prove her doubters wrong, she wanted to show that she too can be a title threat without any match play before the Grand Slam event. She had every reason to be confident when she took the Rod Laver Arena, for she has never lost in the quarterfinals here at Melbourne.

Coming into today's match Sharapova was four out of four in her previous quarterfinals here at Melbourne and she kept that record intact by making it five out of five through to the semifinals.

When Makarova took the court today she had every reason to feel confident. She had beaten Vera Zvonareva in the third round and then topped it off by beating five-time Aussie Open champion Serena Williams in the fourth round. However, that did not help her much against Sharapova, and that did not intimidate Sharapova, who easily breezed past Makarova to book a semifinal clash with Kvitova.

Let us see what the numbers tell us:

Makarova could not keep the level up and going against Sharapova her first serve winning percentage fell. Still, more alarming was her winning percentage on the second serve that fell dramatically to 36%. If that was not enough she could not win points on Sharapova's serve as well, which is considered to be a liability in Sharapova's game. Her winning percentage on receiving points was only 36%. You can never win against Sharapova by winning only 36% of your second serves and 36% of the receiving points. Read more »

Our stats lover Omair didn't leave the quarterfinal previews uncompleted, and here he is with his analysis of the quarterfinal between Maria Sharapova and Ekatarina Makarova, following the preview of the Petra Kvitova vs. Sara Errani quarterfinal, and the post-match analysis of the final eight clashes between Kim Clijsters vs. Caroline Wozniacki, and Victoria Azarenka vs. Agnieszka Radwanska.

One thing I am convinced on is that numbers don't lie, after the analyses I did for the first two quarterfinals. When Agnieszka Radwanska entered the match against Victoria Azarenka she was the cleaner player and she just had to play that way to beat Azarenka, but Azarenka was on fire, forcing Radwanska out of her comfort zone. Only if Radwanska had been able to reproduce those numbers in the quarterfinal she would have won, but she failed to do so. As for Wozniacki and Clijsters, the same thing happened to Wozniacki. The last Australian Open quarterfinal on the schedule pits two "ovas" against each other. One is Ekatarina Makarova and the other is Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova did not play any tune-up events in order to give her ankle, that she injured last year in her match against Kvitova, time to rest. Not even a single person considered Sharapova a title threat owing to her lack of play since her injury, and when the draw came out her chances of making it past the quarters looked even grimmer with a potential clash with Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, but here she is in the quarters and not against Williams but Williams' conqueror.

Makarova and Sharapova both have lost one set so far in the tournament. Sharapova enters the match as the favorite, and has beaten Makarova in both their encounters. However, Makarova's run here so far has shown that she can beat anyone on a given day, even in consecutive matches. 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.

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Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova didn't sweat much in their third round victories at the Australian Open.

Serena's opponent Greta Arn was the closest to challenging the American in the beginning of the first set, when she had a break point in the opening game, but that was all from the Hungarian who was quickly overpowered 6-1 6-1. Despite that, Serena claims that she's nowhere near her desired form and is just playing through the rust.

Sharapova was also quick, losing just three games to Angelique Kerber to reach the fourth round 6-1 6-2. The Russian has actually lost just five games so far at the tournament. Read more »