Maria Sharapova has again pushed the boundaries of tennis off-court fashion and showed everyone who's the boss.

The style ruler of the WTA is rocking the retro look for Tatler Russia, the magazine's March 2011 issue. Read more »

As our reader Brenda from Argentina asked for my overview of the 2011 Australian Open tennis fashion, here it is – a little bit of every brand, a little bit of good and bad.

Let's not save the best for the last. Let's start with by far the biggest fashion attention-grabber of the tournament – Venus Williams. The American played three matches (actually two, but she started her third one) and showcased the same number of outfits. The following one is the unofficial ugliest tennis outfit of the decade.

Venus, a graduate in fashion design and the person behind clothing line EleVen, made the outfits herself.

Believe it or not, Venus' dresses, or whatever they can be called, have gained a fan base. Whoever likes Venus' latest EleVen dresses, please leave a comment! I'm sure the world would love to hear your reasoning.

I'd like to continue with Nadia Petrova, the representative of Ellesse. Petrova has also had some colorful and imaginative styles (remember her US Open 2010 outfit that had stripes of all the possible colors?). There might be sound logic behind Petrova's support of EleVen.

Another fashion favorite is always Aravane Rezai. Even though this time her family drama attracted more attention than her dress, the Frenchwoman stayed faithful to the touch of crazy uniqueness. Although, she definitely can do better!

Let's move on to adidas – plenty of it. Read more »

Women's Tennis Blog is back from a two-week vacation, just in time for the Australian Open. We missed a lot of action leading up to the first Grand Slam of the season, but now we'll make sure not to miss a bit of the Australian major. So let's see what happened on Day 1.

Top seed and world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, playing her first Grand Slam as a top-ranked player, won the first round against Gisela Dulko 6-3 6-4. The world No.52 Dulko scored 35 winners, but outweighed them with 38 unforced errors. Her conversion of break points was also bad – only 1 of 8.

Wozniacki’s opponent in the second round will be Vania King, who defeated Tamira Paszek to advance. Wozniacki and King have played each other only once so far, last year at Indian Wells, but it was an absolute battle as Wozniacki rallied from 4-1 deficit in the third set to get past her first match of the tournament.

Fourth seed Venus Williams is playing for the first time since the 2010 US Open semifinals and warming up is not an issue for her as in her opening match against Sara Errani she had 33 winners against 18 unforced errors, hit 8 aces and won 15 of 20 points at the net. Final score: 6-3 6-2.

Maria Sharapova, sporting her new Nike Oz Open Ace Dress with adjustable straps, started her match against Tamarine Tanasugarn nervously, as last year she also played the first round on Rod Laver Arena and lost to Maria Kirilenko badly. The 14th-seeded Sharapova didn’t let the history repeat, and although she lost her opening game to love, she beat Tanasugarn 6-1 6-3.

Another big name, Justine Henin, also advanced, but only after digging deep against always-tricky Sania Mirza. Seed No.11 Henin eventually managed to take control and win 5-7 6-3 6-1.

Many more seeds are also through: Yanina Wickmayer, Francesca Schiavone, Li Na, Victoria Azarenka, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Andrea Petkovic, Marion Bartoli, Dominika Cibulkova, Tsvetana Pironkova, and Kaia Kanepi. Daniela Hantuchova and Aravane Rezai suffered upsets – Rezai to Barbora Zahlavova Strycova, and Hantuchova to Regina Kulikova. (photos via WTA Tour and Nike)

The 2011 season has just started and we're already thinking about the year-end rankings. Our friend John Bolan used a number of indicators to calculate how the Top 10 will look at the end of 2011. Isn't this a perfect time to get playful and test our projection abilities?

My friends and I play a game each year before the new tennis season begins: "Name the Top 10 players in order at the end of the year". We all have favorites, but I try to use a little logic in the picks.

First, see where the players finished this year. Then think about which good players have been injured for long periods during 2010. Finally, consider how many points players have to lose. Players with many points now must play better than players with fewer points to retain their ranking. Of course we all have personal favorites and think that different players will either rise or sink in the rankings.

My pick for number 1, Victoria Azarenka, has a combination of all the above factors – she has been injured, has fewer points to lose than anyone else in the Top 10, and is definitely a rising young star. Number 2, Justine Henin, and number 3, Maria Sharapova, also fit in the same mold.

One can’t forget to rank the Top 3 players from 2010. Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki and Vera Zvonareva are my next 3 picks. Although they have many points to subtract, they are the best 3 players in 2010.

Number 7 is Yanina Wickmayer. She is young and very strong. 2011 will be her breakout year.

Dinara Safina has very few points to lose, has been injured all 2010 and has more to prove than any other player. She will be back in the Top 10. Dinara is also my pick for a comeback player of the year 2011.

Ana Ivanovic is determined. She is working very hard.

In the last spot is Jelena Jankovic who will be steadier in 2011 and hold onto her Top 10 ranking.

There is no expectation on my part that any of you will agree with me on these picks! That is why we play the game! So use the comments and make your picks!

It will be interesting to get back to these projections when the 2011 season finishes. The time will come before we know it! (photos: Karla St John, John Bolan)

We are continuing our little series of women's tennis players and their mothers, and we're starting with one of the most famous tennis moms of the present – Jelena Jankovic's mother Snezana.

Here's a very nice video of Snezana and Jelena together, that the WTA Tour took last year for the Mother's Day. Snezana is talking about what Jelena was like as a child and how she got into tennis.

Another famous Serbian tennis mom is Dragana Ivanovic, also a very frequent site in the stands. Dragana is a lawyer, but more importantly, she's the mother of Grand Slam champion Ana Ivanovic.

The following photo shows Dinara Safina's mother, Rauza Islanova, who used to train her daughter when she was young.

Maria Sharapova's mother Yelena is less seen than her husband Yuri, so enjoy the following few photos of Sharapova and her family. Read more »