Wearing a J. Mendel gown from the Resort 2013 Collection, Giuseppe Zanotti clutch, Jimmy Choo shoes and earrings by Lara Bohinc, Maria Sharapova showed up at the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on Wednesday night in Los Angeles to pick up her ESPY Best Female Tennis Player award. This is the 20th edition of the ESPY Awards and Sharapova has been named the Best Female Tennis Player for the fourth time (2005, 2007, 2008 and 2012). This year she beat Victoria Azarenka, Petra Kvitova and Sam Stosur in the category.

Sharapova was also nominated for Best Female Athlete and Best Comeback Athlete, but Brittney Griner (NCAA/Baylor women’s basketball) won the Best Female Athlete award, while the Best Comeback Athlete was voted to be Matthew Stafford (Detroit Lions).

Additional info: Before rushing to the ESPYs, Sharapova shot a new commercial for her sponsor Samsung Mobile. (source: Maria Sharapova's official website)

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 title - Petra 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 »

I can't believe we're already approaching the last Grand Slam of the season! Sneak peeks of tennis outfits for the US Open started appearing and we already get to see both the day and night Nike dresses from Maria Sharapova's collection. The day dress is liquid pink and the night version is solid dark. What do you think?

For all the fans of Sharapova's fashion, enjoy the complete overviews of her on-court outfits in the past five years:

• 2011 – All the 2011 dresses of tennis fashion queen Maria Sharapova
• 2010 – Maria Sharapova's Nike looks throughout 2010
• 2009 – Maria Sharapova's on-court fashion in 2009
• 2008 – All Maria Sharapova's 2008 Nike outfits
• 2007 – Retrospection of Maria Sharapova's 2007 outfits

(source: Tennis Outfits via The Slice)

Last year fashion was the topic of Wimbledon with Bethanie Mattek Sands' tennis-ball jacket and Venus Williams' awkward zipper-outfit, but this year tenniswear is in the safe zone, except for Serena Williams' color challenge. Let's have a closer look.

Serena Williams challenged the White Clothing Rule by pairing the Nike Women's London Statement Baseline Dress with cerise shorts/knickers and a matching headband, while Wimbledon requires the outfits to be without solid mass of coloring and little or no dark or bold colors. Nike was not pushing the boundaries with defending champion Petra Kvitova, who was traditionally wearing a sporty, ordinary outfit.

Maria Sharapova, the fresh proud owner of a career Grand Slam, is always fully-prepared for fashion scrutiny, thinking out her outfits in detail from head to toe with the Nike team. For the touch of color that the white Wimbledon allows, Sharapova chose liquid lime. Here you can see how the Nike Women's Maria Slam Statement Dress looks from the back.

My favorite of the tournament is Maria Kirilenko in the Adidas Adipure line. The white dress with a pleated skirt features craft emerald contrasting stripes. Read more »

Omair, our contributor in charge of the world of tennis stats, who has recently started his own blog, was inspired by the early losses of Roland Garros 2012 runner-up Sara Errani and Roland Garros 2012 champion Maria Sharapova at the subsequent Wimbledon and dug into the historic stats for a possible pattern.

Roland Garros seems to cast some spell on the players doing well there. This year marks the third straight year that the Roland Garros finalists have lost before the quarterfinal stage of Wimbledon. To find a player who did the Roland Garros-Wimbledon double, you have to go back to 2002, when Serena Williams defeated Venus Williams in a rematch of the Roland Garros final.

This year when Maria Sharapova won her maiden Roland Garros title, it seemed that she would be able to cast that spell away, given her good results at Wimbledon, but the spell was just too strong for her as she fell victim of German hard-hitter Sabine Liscki in the fourth round. With Sharapova out, this marked just the sixth time in the Open Era that a top seed has failed to make it to the quarters [Steffi Graf (first round in 1994 , Martina Hingis (first round in 1999 and 2001), Ana Ivanovic (third round in 2008) and Caroline Wozniacki (fourth round in 2011)]. With Sara Errani already falling to Yaroslava Shavedova in the third round, this marked the ninth year since the Open Era began that the Roland Garros finalists have failed to make it to the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Read more »