After Grand Slams, you are used to our contributor Omair giving unofficial titles to players based on their performances, and for the recently-finished US Open he did the same, but with a little twist, he gave names to players inspired by animated movies. We hope you'll like it!

SERENA WILLIAMS – RANGO

Serena not only won her 15th major, but proved again that she is not done yet with tennis by winning the second straight Grand Slam and the Olympics in between. Serena lost a total of 19 games en route to the US Open final, where she was pushed hard by Victoria Azarenka, who even served for the championship in the third set, but Serena showed her superior class and experience to bring her opponent back to earth and win her fourth US Open title. In doing so, Serena showed everyone that "No man can walk out of his own story", just like Rango.

VICTORIA AZARENKA – VECTOR

Vector from "Despicable Me" tried in every way to let Gru down, but in the end he lost and Gru won. Azarenka gave everything she had, but she came up short to one of the best players in tennis history. Don’t take it negatively. By giving Azarenka the title of Vector, I don’t refer to the vicious methods Vector used in the movie, I am thinking of the positive side of it, that she fought with her whole heart and body, but in the end she had to satisfy herself with the runner-up trophy.

MARIA SHARAPOVA – TANGLED

Sharapova was not at her best in her last three matches, yet she never gave up, fighting hard to stay alive in the fourth round against Nadia Petrova, then in the quarters against Marion Bartoli, and then in the semis she finally got tangled in her service demons and succumbed to the pressure of Victoria Azarenka. Read more »

Grand Slam are always the most exciting venues for tennis glamour and the US Open is the unofficial fashion queen of all the four majors, so let's see what the best brands put on their brightest WTA stars.

Let's start this fashion overview with maybe not the biggest fashion star, but definitely the player who marked this US Open – Kim Clijsters, whose inspiring career has come to a close at her favorite tournament where she had lifted the trophy three times. To honor the Belgian's last event, her clothing sponsor Fila produced a special collection with a symbolic star pattern.

Ana Ivanovic (who reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since her title win at Roland Garros 2008), Angelique Kerber (last year's semifinalist) and Laura Robson (besides Clijsters, the biggest story of the tournament) were all sporting Adidas Adizero. The bright yellow Adidas outfits may have ruled the US Open courts, and the three players mentioned here all played the fourth round, but the next brand we'll cover is clothing all the four semifinalists!

Of course, it's Nike! Champion Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova traditionally have both day and night dresses. Serena wore navy and pink with lime details, while Sharapova went for more subtle tones – liquid pink and solid dark without many loud contrasts.

PREVIOUS US OPEN FASHION OVERVIEWS

2011 - A look at the beautiful colors at Flushing Meadows
2010 - Fashion hits and misses of tennis in New York

Victoria Azarenka and Sara Errani prefer separates. The world No.1 is popping in a yellow and black combination, while the Italian, sharing the look with Julia Goerges, wore a pleated navy skirt with pink and yellow stripes and a tank. Read more »

Rain stretched it over two days, it went to three sets and at 4-4 in the last set it was still unclear whether Maria Sharapova or Marion Bartoli would have the edge and advance to the US Open semifinals. The Russian then broke the persistent Bartoli and in the next game established herself as the winner, 3-6 6-3 6-4.

On Tuesday, Bartoli started the quarterfinal on fire, building a 4-0 lead, even though in the fourth game, leading 40-0 on Sharapova's serve, a bad line call prevented Bartoli from breaking Sharapova to love immediately and allowed the Russian to come back to 40-40. Eventually, the still erratic Sharapova gave the game away by double-faulting on Bartoli's fourth break point. Soon afterwards, the match was suspended due to rain and it turned out it would resume on Wednesday. Read more »

In their first meeting in almost four years, second seed Dominika Cibulkova defeated good friend and top seed Marion Bartoli 6-1 7-5 in the final of the Mercury Insurance Open for her second WTA title and second Premier one.

Before their encounter in the final, Bartoli said:

Dominika and I love to practice with each other. We've practiced many times. We have been best friends since so many years now. It's obviously a final, so we're going to try our best to win, but it's great to play against your best friend, because even if you lose, you're happy for them.

After losing the first game of the match, Cibulkova won the next six to win the first set, while in the second she was trailing 4-1 before taking six of the next seven games and winning the match to add the Carlsbad title to her last year's Moscow.  Read more »

"I never dreamed about winning a Grand Slam, just about playing with Pete" – that's what Marion Bartoli said at this week's Bank of the West Classic in Stanford after realizing her childhood fantasy of hitting with ATP World Tour legend Pete Sampras. However, as much as off-court activities were fulfilling for the second-seeded Bartoli, her on-court performance was below the capacities of the 2009 Stanford champion and runner-up in 2008 and 2011 that she is.

In the second round Bartoli rebounded from a 5-2 deficit in the first set and even saved set points before winning 11 straight games for a 7-5 6-0 victory over unranked Mallory Burdette, while in the quarterfinals she fell to Yanina Wickmayer 6-3 6-2.

However, the following quote of Bartoli assures me that she will soon forget the loss and remember this Stanford only by Sampras:

He would never overact on court. He was very much the same person on and off the court. The way he was loyal to his family and his coaches, the way he cried on court against Jim Courier at the Australian Open, that's the kind of person I like. He was the greatest champion. I just liked him and no one else!

In the other quarterfinal matches, top seed Serena Williams advanced with a 6-4 6-0 win over Chanelle Scheepers, Coco Vandeweghe followed up her upset win over fourth seed Jelena Jankovic with a victory over Urszula Radwanska to book her first WTA semifinal, while Sorana Cirstea was victorious in quite a ridiculous match against Dominika Cibulkova. Cirstea was correct on six of nine challenges in the first set of her 6-7(5) 6-2 6-0 victory.

Cistea's quote:

Toward the end of the set  I was challenging everything because I didn’t trust anyone anymore. I thought someone was playing a joke on me to see how I  would react. It was like Candid Camera because there were too many mistakes. I started to laugh because it was just hilarious. The chair umpire never ruled and today if we didn’t  have a challenge system I would be packing my bags for San Diego.

Bank of the West Classic semifinal pairs: Serena Williams (1) vs. Sorana Cirstea (9) and Coco Vandewegde vs. Yanina Wickmayer (5). (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

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 »

Petra Kvitova, Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki - seeds number two, one and three respectively – went out in the first round of the AEGON International in Eastbourne.

Last year Kvitova was runner-up at the grasscourt tournament and she went on to win Wimbledon. This year, however, the Czech opened her grass season with a loss to fellow lefty Ekaterina Makarova 7-5 6-4, whom she defeated to reach the quarterfinals in 2011. Makarova, the 2010 Eastbourne champion and the semifinalist last week in Birmingham, scored her first Top 5 win.

Agnieszka Radwanska, top seed and champion at Eastbourne in 2008, fell in the first round to Tsvetana Pironkova 6-2 6-4, Wimbledon 2011 quarterfinalist and Wimbledon 2010 semifinalist, while third seed Caroline Wozniacki lost to Christina McHale 6-1 6-7(7) 6-4.

However, defending champion and fourth seed Marion Bartoli advanced to the second round with a 6-2 6-2 win over Sorana Cirstea. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Last night in Miami quarterfinals, Marion Bartoli ended Victoria Azarenka’s 26-match winning streak, which included titles in Sydney, Melbourne, Doha, and Indian Wells. However, the world No.1 is not mourning the loss, at least according to her statements on Twitter. She’s motivated to work even harder and prepare for the clay season, but as Tennis.com reports, she will take a long break from the competition, probably until Madrid, the second week of May.

The 26 victories are a great accomplishment, but they did drain the top-seeded Azarenka:

Physically I was just not able to do anything today. It was just not possible. You know, I'm a human, not a super woman. I wish I could be but I'm not.

Aggressive and confident Bartoli defeated Azarenka 6-3 6-3 and ended her 2012 streak, which was the best start to a WTA season since Martina Hingis won 37 in a row in 1997. To honor Azarenka's consistency and success, I've compiled the names of all the players she defeated this season, from rising stars to established champions and solid players of today:

Stefanie Voegele, Jelena Jankovic, Marion Bartoli, Agnieszka Radwanska – four times, Li Na, Heather Watson – twice, Casey Dellacqua, Mona Barthel – three times, Iveta Benesova, Kim Clijsters, Maria Sharapova – twice, Simona Halep, Yanina Wickmayer, Sam Stosur, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Julia Goerges, Angelique Kerber, Dominika Cibulkova, Michaella Krajicek.

Are you sad that the streak is over? Did you enjoy Azarenka's dominance these three months? (photo: © Neal Trousdale)