Top seed Serena Williams secured her place in the fourth round of Wimbledon with a 6-0 7-5 victory over Dominika Cibulkova, the defending champion’s third successive match in which she bageled her opponent in the first set. Serena’s next opponent will be the 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova who took a lot of effort to beat world No.68 Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 7-5 6-3 in the third round.

Cibulkova was absolutely stunned by Serena’s serve and said it was the best serve she had ever faced, even better than Venus’. However, world No.1 Serena thinks her serve was the only good part of her game and believes she must improve for her match against 16th-seeded Sharapova. In the 18-minute first set, the unseeded Cibulkova scored just six points, while Serena lost only six points on her serve in the entire match.

Serena is 5-2 head-to-head against Sharapova, winning their last four meetings. (photos: Stephane Martinache, Tidalist)

Just ahead of Wimbledon, Maria Sharapova signed a multiyear agreement with Groupe Danone SA’s Evian water brand, and will be the face of their Rollerbabies campaign.

For the world famous campaign, Sharapova is wearing a t-shirt with a printed figure of a baby and a bottle of Evian water. Sharapova was chosen by the brand because she embodies the Live Young motto of Evian’s philosophy.

Evian is the sponsor of all the three Grand Slams Sharapova has won in her career – Wimbledon, the US Open and the Australian Open – and the Russian will promote Evian at all the three.

I have only one regret about this – why didn’t Evian pick JJ? SHE was the one washing her face and teeth solely with Evian water on her first visit to India, Bangalore in particular, and spoke about it publicly. (sources: Great Tennis Photos, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Wimbledon is just days away and the annual party celebrating the tournament was held at the Roof Gardens in West London's Kensington last night. As usual, the WTA players gave their best to look good and glamorous, and oh well, as usual, their success was sporadic.

Let's start with the bright examples. Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova were spot on. Their dresses are perfect fits and just right for the occasion.

Defending champion Serena Williams looked like a pop star and I'm sure this profile picture will stay remembered for a while. Dinara Safina was having one of her better appearances, although I'm convinced this is not the best she can offer. Read more »

Nike is one of the best producers of tennis apparel and here’s a special about the outfits their top players will wear at Wimbledon 2010.

Maria Sharapova’s dress I’ve already talked about, and now I’ll just say that its official name is apparently the Lawn Rose Dress and its inspired by English rose petals.

Defending champion Serena Williams will wear the Control Lawn Dress, inspired by the Wimbledon tradition of strawberries and cream. The dress features piping in Voltage Cherry against the traditional white palette.

Li Na will wear a top and a skirt, in colors similar to Serena’s dress.

You can visit Nike’s 2010 Wimbledon lookbook, a site dedicated to the clothes for the grass court Grand Slam.

The 2009 runner-up Li Na has defeated Maria Sharapova for the second year in a row at the AEGON Classic, last year in the semifinals but this year in the finals to claim her first WTA title on grass.

The first set was closely fought,  with the second-seeded Sharapova making a 3-1 lead only to let Li break back and level at 3-3. During the first set Sharapova, twice titlist in Birmingham, had and converted only that one break point, while Li converted 2 of her 8 chances to break and win the first set 7-5. Li then rolled through the second set 6-1.

By winning her third WTA singles title, the first Chinese women's tennis player to enter the Top 10 will return to the elite group. (photo via AEGON Classic)

Maria Sharapova put an end to an amazing winning streak of qualifier Alison Riske to reach the AEGON Classic final for the fourth time in seven visits to Birmingham. The Russian’s opponent in the title match will be Li Na, who defeated her in the last year’s semifinals.

Riske had never won a WTA main-draw match before this week, but even after victories over Sandra Zahlavova in the first round, former world No.5 Chakvetadze, ninth seed Aleksandra Wozniak and third seed Yanina Wickmayer, the 19-year-old had fuel in her tank and took one set from Sharapova who came through with the 6-2 4-6 6-1 score.

Top seed Li Na of China also played a three-setter to beat Aravane Rezai 6-1 3-6 6-3 in the second semifinal and reach the trophy round. The Chinese No.1, who was upset by Magdalena Rybarikova in the 2009 final, is 1-5 in career meetings with Sharapova. (photo by Richard)

Second seed Maria Sharapova won two matches on Thursday, one of which lasted for three days, and she continued with winning on Friday to reach the semifinals of the AEGON Classic, the tournament she has won two times.

Sharapova first beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round, in a match greatly affected by rain, then she defeated fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3 6-1 (their first encounter after Kudryavtseva upset Sharapova in the second round of Wimbledon and later on stated how she got the extra motivation from hating Sharapova’s outfit), and today she has eliminated Sesil Karatantcheva, who had upset tenth seed and defending champion Magdalena Rybarikova in the previous round.

In her seventh successive semifinal at the tournament, Sharapova will face 185th-ranked qualifier Alison Riske of the United States. The 19-year-old Riske is an interesting opponent because she came to Birmingham without even one main draw victory on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, but at the 2010 AEGON Classic she first upset 9th seed Aleksandra Wozniack, then Anna Chakvetadze, and then third seed Yanina Wickmayer in the quarterfinals. (photos by Richard and © Neal Trousdale)

Twice Birmingham champion Maria Sharapova had to play her rain-interrupted second round match for three days to finally beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham.

The match was first supposed to be played on Tuesday before being cancelled, then the rain delayed it for Wednesday when it was disrupted again at 4-0 40-30 in favor of the second-seeded Sharapova. Finally, the match was completed on Thursday with the score 6-0 6-3.

Due to these rain delays Sharapova is forced to play her third round right after her second round, and at the moment she is playing against fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva. (photo by our reader Richard)