The quarterfinals of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix will feature four Grand Slam champions, three of which have won Roland Garros (Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Li Na).

Top seed and defending champion Maria Sharapova played her first match on clay this season and it was a very tough victory for the Russian, as she needed three hours and nine minutes to get past Lucie Safarova with a 6-4 6-7(3) 6-3 score. Sharapova made eight double faults in the match and counterbalanced them with eight aces, while she converted just five of her 19 chances to break Safarova's serve. In the quarterfinals, Sharapova's opponent will be fellow Roland Garros champion Ana Ivanovic, who defeated Nadia Petrova 6-4 6-3.

The second-round clash of two unseeded players Jelena Jankovic and Sabine Lisicki was a highly entertaining and great-quality affair, with the home player advancing, but only after Jankovic saved an astonishing six set points in the first set and two match points in the second (actually, on the first match point Lisicki made her one and only double fault of the match). Throughout the encounter it was Lisicki who had the upper hand, but Jankovic was constantly hanging in there and causing the aggressive Lisicki much trouble, not allowing her to easily capitalize on her leads. At first, Lisicki broke Jankovic to lead 5-3 in the first set, but Jankovic broke right back and amazingly saved three set points to level to 5-5. When Lisicki was 6-5 40-0 up, Jankovic again showed her heart and excellent current form, but in the end she fell in the tiebreak. In the second set Lisicki was again constantly leading, but in the tenth game Jankovic leveled to 5-5, before eventually succumbing to the German's pressure 7-6(3) 7-5. Despite the loss, Jankovic has every reason to celebrate her current tennis, her first-round win over Samantha Stosur and her extraordinary performance today against Lisicki. It's almost midnight and the winner of the late encounter between Bethanie Mattek Sands and fourth seed Sara Errani will be Lisicki's quarterfinal opponent.

Second seed Li Na swept past qualifier Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-1 6-2 and will next play fellow Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova, who recovered from 2-6 0-1 to beat Julia Goerges 2-6 7-6(4) 6-2. Third seed Angelique Kerber defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0 6-4 and her quarterfinal rival will be Yaroslava Shvedova, who recorded a 7-5 6-4 victory over Carla Suarez Navarro, the winner over Caroline Wozniacki in the first round. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

In January this year, Women's Tennis Blog's faithful contributor John Bolan was brave enough to share with the world his predictions about the 2012 year-end ranking and asked you to join him in foretelling the WTA standings, offering the best predictor among you one Top 10 WTA player autograph. Isn't it exciting to see now how John and about 30 of you who joined did?

John was absolutely correct in placing two players – John's No.1 Victoria Azarenka and No.2 Maria Sharapova have finished No.1 and No.2. He misplaced Serena Williams by just one spot, Li Na by two, Petra Kvitova and Agnieszka Radwanska by three and Caroline Wozniacki by four.

Three of John's Top 10 players didn't make the cut. Kim Clijsters was John's No.3, but in the middle of the year she decided to retire and actualized the decision after the US Open, while injuries pushed John's No.8 Vera Zvonareva and No.10 Sabine Lisicki to No.96 and No.37 respectively. Year-end No.5 Angelique Kerber and No.6 Sara Errani are the biggest top surprises of the season. Let's give the word to John!

I'm thrilled with the outcome since seven of the predicted players finished as final Top 10 players. The fact that my first two picks were exactly correct is a feat I have not been able to do in previous years. The fans using the comment section to submit their own picks also did better than in 2011.

Injuries were once again the biggest issue for great players not finishing in the Top 10. Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva, Sabine Lisicki, Venus Williams and Andrea Petkovic were casualties during 2012. The hardest part of picking the Top 10 is the big unknown of which players will not be able to compete for the entire season. Read more »

Defending champion Samantha Stosur was close to joining Yaroslava Shvedova in achieving a golden set, but at 4-0 40-0 in the first set, the Australian double faulted and spoiled the opportunity. Still, nothing can diminish her perfect start of title defense, as the seventh seed needed just 51 minutes to beat Petra Martic 6-1 6-1 in the first round of the US Open.

As I write this, only ten women's singles matches have finished and two Germans, two seeded Germans, are already out – No.18 seed Julia Goerges and No.16 seed Sabine Lisicki.

Kristyina Pliskova took Goerges out 7-6(4) 6-1. The world No.125 Pliskova, 20 years old, has qualified for the US Open for the firs time. Goerges hasn't won more than two matches per tournament since losing the Dubai final to Agnieszka Radwanska in February, while this is her first first-round Grand Slam exit since Wimbledon 2010, when she was ranked 72nd.

As for Lisicki, her US Open loss came at the hands of Sorana Cirstea, who is now 4-0 head-to-head against Lisicki. After an up-and-down three-setter, Cirstea came out on top 4-6 6-2 6-2.

Another German, Andrea Petkovic, whose comeback is still very fresh, is in action today. At the moment, she trailing Romina Oprandi 1-5 in the first set.

So far this Monday, one more seed went out – No.27 Anabel Medina Garrigues fell to Lucie Hradecka 6-3 6-3.

Update: Andrea Petkovic lost to Romina Oprandi 6-2 7-5, while all the seeds in action on Day 1, besides the three previously mentioned, advanced to the second round. (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 »

It didn't seem likely based on the first set and the beginning of the second, but Sabine Lisicki woke up all the lulled tennis fans who are watching Wimbledon at night to produce a thriller against Angelique Kerber and even though it was undecided until the very end, eventually it was the higher-ranked Kerber advancing to the semis, preventing Lisicki from reaching her second straight Wimbledon semifinal.

In the encounter of two Germans with Polish blood, the 15th-seeded Lisicki made a small revival from 4-1 down in the first set to 4-3 down, but Kerber quickly finished the set 6-3.

In the second set Kerber raced to a 3-0 lead and looked to be en route to a quick win, but again Lisicki returned, this time leveling at 3-3. Later on, the eighth-seeded Kerber earned two match points, but Lisicki fought them off in a fantastic game, putting the entire Twittersphere on her side, earned a tiebreak, saved the third match point during the tiebreak and won the set, inspiring people to praise the entertainment of women's tennis.

At 4-3 in the third set, Lisicki went 40-0 up on Kerber's serve and Kerber even helped her with a double fault. However, when Lisicki was serving for the match at 5-3, Kerber mirrored the situation from the previous game, earned 40-0 on Lisicki's serve and won that game to eventually close out 6-3 6-7(7) 7-5 on the fifth match point.

The smile from this photo is probably not on Lisicki's face right now as Kerber is joining Serena Williams in the semis and will next play either Agnieszka Radwanska or Maria Kirilenko. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Sabine Lisicki recently did an interview with Ellery Maddocks for Tennis Now, chatting about how she turned her hatred for grass into love, the excitement she has for Wimbledon and the London Olympics, cooperation with Longines, the constant travels of tennis players, etc.

Here's my favorite part of the interview, where Sabine explains how the grass surface troubled her not only because of its uniqueness but grass itself caused her health problems:

I used to hate it, the first time I went there (Wimbledon) I actually think I lost 5 straight matches on grass plus one doubles, and then I turned it around in 2009 where I went to the quarterfinals. I have a string grass allergy, so there was a lot against it, but at some point I just turned it around. I just love it now, it plays differently, it's quicker obviously which is good for my service, which is one of my weapons.

Last year at the grasscourt Birmingham Lisicki won the title and went on to reach the semifinals of Wimbledon, her first and only Grand Slam semifinal appearance. However, Lisicki exited this week's Birmingham tournament in the second round already, losing to Urszula Radwanska 6-3 6-4. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

During Roland Garros we saw a lot of Sabine Lisicki, at least here in Europe on Eurosport, driving fast in the Tennis-Point.com commercial, and now the second highest-ranked German has been picked by Nike for their new "Play" campaign featured in Vogue. The 22-year-old Nike Girl is the only tennis player chosen for the project which celebrates the love women have for their favorite sport. The campaign includes a short film in which female athletes share what their sport means to them.

I love Sabine's look – the blond Addams Family edition. Elegant, on the edge and romantic at the same time. (via The Slice)

At the Qatar Total Open, in an all-German first-round encounter between fresh first-time WTA titlist Angelique Kerber and ninth seed Sabine Lisicki, the newer German force took charge, overcame stomach problems, came back from a set down and upset her friend Lisicki 4-6 6-4 6-1. Kerber believes they both played a great match, while Lisicki finds she hadn't committed as many unforced errors in the past ten tournaments she played. Just to mention, the Paris title rose Kerber from No.27 to No.22 in the rankings this week.

Seed No.15 Daniela Hantuchova, who just like Kerber won a WTA title over the weekend, is out of the Qatar Total Open in Doha, having wasted a one-set lead and then falling in the third-set tiebreaker to Simona Halep 3-6 6-2 7-6(4). Romania's Halep overcame a leg injury, and with an aggressive baseline game and good tiebreak clinched one of the biggest victories of her career.

Later in the day, Flavia Pennetta took out eleventh seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-3 2-6 7-5. Pennetta won two points more than Cibulkova and took the victory.

Defending champion at the tournament is Vera Zvonareva, who will after a first-round bye play Monica Niculescu in the second round. Last week at Pattaya, Zvonareva retired from her quarterfinal in the third set against Sorana Cirstea with a left hip injury. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)