Second seed and last year's titlist Samantha Stosur crashed out of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston, falling to unseeded Elena Vesnina 6-4 6-1 in the third round.

After a 4-2 lead in the first set, Stosur lost 10 of the next 11 games and the 56th-ranked Vesnina scored her first Top 10 victory since defeating Francesca Schiavone in Cincinnati last year. Vesnina said that the doubles title at the Premier-level Indian Wells with Sania Mirza lifted her confidence. Read more »

Top three seeds, Caroline Wozniacki, Samantha Stosur and Jelena Jankovic, were victorious in the second round of the Family Circle Cup in Charleston.

Wozniacki faced no break points and won more than twice as many points as her 128th-ranked opponent, Irina Falconi, to win 6-1 6-1. Wozniacki played the final of Charleston in 2009, but last year's memories from the tournament are not pleasant, as the Dane injured her ankle in the semifinals and had to retire.

Defending champion Stosur defeated Patricia Mayr-Achleitner 6-1 6-2 in less than an hour, and Jankovic, also once a champion at Charleston, followed with a 6-2 6-3 victory over Tamira Paszek.

Jankovic said she was satisfied with her movement on clay and also took the spotlight to say a few words about her flowery Anta dress:

It's my new ANTA dress. I've been working with them for two or two and a half years now, and it's pretty cool. It's a nice color for spring and I have these flowers, so it's kind of like the spring blossom. I'm blossoming. I've gotten a lot of compliments for it, so I'm happy!

Wozniacki also sported a new fashion combination: the adidas by Stella McCartney orange tank and a pleated skirt. (via: WTA Tour, photos: © Neal Trousdale)

World No.108 Dinara Safina hadn't been able to win three matches in a row in more than a year (she rarely even won two) and now she scored her first Top 4 victory since 2008 by upsetting fourth seed Samantha Stosur in the third round of the BNP Paribas Open.

Despite 16 double faults, Safina's performance was strong, with powerful groundstrokes, successful aggressiveness and big returns. The Russian swept through the first set tiebreaker 7-2 and resisted a late Stosur's fightback in the second set to win 7-6(2) 6-4.

Safina's fourth round opponent will be No.18 seed Maria Sharapova, who is also coming back from injury. Sharapova had survived a marathon opener against Anabel Medina Garrigues, but cruised past seed No.20 Aravane Rezai 6-2 6-2 in the third round.

The Safina vs. Sharapova match will not be the only fourth round meeting between compatriots and former world No.1s. Serbs Jelena Jankovic, who is defending her title at Indian Wells, and Ana Ivanovic will also face each other. (photo: Forty Deuce)

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 »

Samantha Stosur became the highest seed to fall in the third-round Saturday action at the Australian Open, as Petra Kvitova followed up her Brisbane International title of two weeks ago with a 7-6(5) 6-3 victory over the fifth-seeded great local hope.

The Australian never recovered after losing a tense 63-minute first set, leaving her fourth-round showings in 2006 and 2010 as her best results from nine Australian Opens. Stosur served no aces, compared to Kvitova’s 5, and had just 11 winners, while Kvitova scored 35.

The world No.28 Kvitova is now leading Stosur 2-0 in their head-to-head record. The Czech won their first encounter as well, which was at the 2008 French Open, when she handed Stosur only three games.

Third seed Kim Clijsters survived her first test of the 2011 Australian Open to defeat Alize Cornet 7-6(3) 6-3 on the day of the Frenchwoman's 21st birthday and advance to the fourth round. Second seed Vera Zvonareva is through as well, but also after a match which featured a tiebreak, an 11-9 tiebreak in the second set against Lucie Safarova. Final score was 6-3 7-6(9). (photo: Rexness)