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)

The 27th-ranked Angelique Kerber scored her first Top 10, more precisely a Top 5, victory against top seed Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals of the Open GDF Suez, and after beating Yanina Wickmayer in the semis 6-7(2) 6-3 6-4, Kerber completed the career milestone week by overcoming second seed and home force Marion Bartoli in the final to win her first title on the WTA Tour. It's not that the early rounds were easy for the ninth-seeded Kerber. First she faced an always-tricky Lucie Safarova and in the second round Monica Niculescu pushed her to 6-3 4-6 6-3.

Bartoli is world No.7, so the victory in the title match is Kerber's second against a Top 10 player. But it wasn't a simple task, as the two fought for two hours and 39 minutes until Kerber won 7-6(3) 5-7 6-3. The first set contained four service breaks, two on each side, and Bartoli was 100% successful on break point conversions, but Kerber came out strong and took the set in a tiebreak. The German was on a roll until 5-2 in the second set, when Bartoli took charge and won five straight games to take the match to the third set. Kerber then again established a lead and this time she kept it alive until the final point to her advantage. (photo: Upali Wickramasinghe)

After surviving a set and 4-1 down in the second set, and then 5-2 down in the third set of her Paris quarterfinal against Roberta Vinci, Marion Bartoli overcame her semifinal challenge against Klara Zakopalova, coming back from 4-2 down in the first set to win the set in the tiebreak, before bageling her opponent in the second set and winning the match 7-6(3) 6-0. Bartoli is now in her first ever final at the Open GDF Suez and obviously it means a lot to her to go that far at her home tournament.

Angelique Kerber, who ousted top seed Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals, will be Bartoli's opponent in the title match, having defeated Yanina Wickmayer 6-7(2) 6-3 6-4. Note that Kerber has played four tournaments this season and this is her third semifinal in 2012, after Auckland and Hobart. (photo: Lawntennisnews)

On Monday our guest poster and stats lover Omair dug us into the numbers of his detailed analysis about the number of wins year-end Top 10 players scored over Top 10 players in 2011 and their best tournaments. Now it's time for Part 2 and a different perspective – results of the Top 10 stars approached through their losses.

First have a look at the table showing average rank of players who defeated each of the year-end Top 10 players and the lowest-ranked player to beat year-end Top 10 players during 2011. 

Vera Zvonareva needs to be mentioned here for her consistency as she is the only one of the Top 10 who was not beaten by a player ranked outside Top 35, while the rest of her colleagues from this elite group were beaten at least twice. The lowest-ranked player to defeat Zvonareva during 2011 was Tsvetana Pironkova, ranked 33rd (seeded 32nd) during the third round of Wimbledon.

Of Zvonareva's 22 losses only three came at the hands of players ranked between 30 and 35 and interestingly they came at the hands of players ranked 31, 32, and 33. Also, a total of only three losses came at the hands of players ranked between 21 and 29, while the rest of 16 came at the hands of Top 20 players. Average rank of Zvonareva's conquerors was 15, while the average rank of the conquerors of all the remaining Top 10 players was not even within Top 20.

Victoria Azarenka also needs to be mentioned here, because only five of her 17 losses came at the hands of players ranked outside Top 20, and of those five losses two came at the hands of Serena Williams who had low ranking due to her health problems and lack of play. Average rank of Azarenka's conquerors in 2011 was 23.

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We can soon start calling our reader Omair a stats expert. After seeing his "Comparative analysis of Top 10 players and their performance at big tournaments in 2011" received so well, Omair eagerly rushed to thrill us with more analysis, this time focusing on the year-end Top 10 players and the ranking of opponents that they beat in 2011 (Part 1) and on the ranking of opponents that beat them (Part 2). Let the tables do the talking!

The table above shows the number of tournaments where a year-end Top 10 player defeated more than one Top 10 player. Petra Kvitova tops here with three tournaments, at two of which she defeated three or more Top 10 players en route to the title (Madrid and WTA Championships). World number one Caroline Wozniacki is the only Top 10 player who did not beat two Top 10 players in a single tournament.

Let's continue with tables showing tournaments won by each Top 10 player and tournaments where the player (though did not end up winning the event) ended up beating two or more Top 10 players.

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