As we’re slowly approaching the end of the 2009 season (for some players it’s already over), the first Grand Slam of the year is warming up for January’s action, by painting everything blue.

The 2010 Australian Open has released its TV commercial and the women's tennis stars featured are defending champion Serena Williams and home favorite Samantha Stosur.

Tenth seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy defeated Australian 13th seed Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-3 in the final of the LA Women's Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife to claim her eighth and biggest singles title.

Stosur committed eight double faults and was broken four times, including three in the second set. In addition, the 25-year-old Stosur made 32 unforced errors, compared to Pennetta's 16.

Last year's LA finalist Pennetta pulled off two Top 10 upsets to reach the final. She defeated Nadia Petrova and Vera Zvonareva in back-to-back matches, before overcoming former world No.1 Maria Sharapova in the semifinals.

Pennetta is now on an 11-match winning streak, winning back-to-back titles in Palermo and Los Angeles. Doubles specialist Stosur, who has 22 doubles titles to her name, fell to 0-5 in singles finals after this latest defeat.

Winning the LA Women's Tennis Championships title Pennetta earned $107,000. Interestinlgy, although it's Pennetta's eighth singles title, it's only her second one from a non-claycourt tournament. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Australian Samantha Stosur decisively defeated unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-3 6-2 and advanced to her first final this season. The 19-year-old Cirstea, ranked 28th in the world, had upset Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska en route to the semifinals.

No.13 seed Stosur has played four singles finals on the WTA Tour, and has won 22 doubles titles, but singles titles are still lacking in her résumé and she will be looking for her first one this weekend at the LA Women's Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife.

Tenth-seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy edged an unseeded Russian Maria Sharapova 6-2 4-6 6-3. Sharapova, still trying to find the form she lost due to the long shoulder-injury layoff, hit 61 unforced errors, which included 16 double faults.

The 61st-ranked Russian said she had made good accomplishments, but there was a lot of room for progress as well, which takes time.

Stosur was a semifinalist last week in Stanford, while Pennetta, last year’s runner-up in Los Angeles, is on a 10-match winning streak, having come to LA after winning the trophy in Palermo.

Stosur and Pennetta will play each other for the first time. (photos via Ralf Reinecke and chascow)

The quarterfinals of the LA Women’s Tennis Championships are over and we have our semifinalists: Maria Sharapova will play Flavia Pennetta, and Samantha Stosur will face Sorana Cirstea.

Maria Sharapova claimed a straight-set win over Poland’s Urszula Radwanska, but it was far from easy – the Russian broke Radwanska only once in the first set, in the 18-point third game, and was 3-5 down in the second set. The final score was 6-4 7-5.

Seed No.10 Flavia Pennetta defeated second seed Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-2, and thus earned her tenth Top 10 win. Pennetta is now on a nine-match winning streak, having won in Palermo prior to playing the LA tournament.

Sharapova and Penneta will meet in the semis. They have played each other two times so far, but their last encounter was over three years ago.

No.13 seed Samantha Stosur rallied from 6-4 3-1 down to beat No.14 seed Zheng Jie 4-6 6-3 6-4, the winner over world No.1 Dinara Safina in the third round. Stosur will play Soraca Cirstea in the semis, after the Romanian won a marathon with No.8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6(4) 1-6 7-5.

Stosur easily won the only meeting with Cirstea, which was in this year's French Open quarterfinals. (photos courtesy of Stephane Martinache and Bobby)

Australian seed No.30 Samantha Stosur upset Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva 6-3 4-6 6-1 in the third round of the 2009 French Open.

The victory over the 2008 quarterfinalist and 2004 finalist gave Stosur her best ever result at Roland Garros. She reached the third round only once, in 2007, and now she’s in the fourth round for the first time.

Dementieva, the Olympic gold medalist, "didn't deserve to win" her second-round match, as she stated. She was down a set against Jelena Dokic, but the Australian retired in tears with an agonizing back injury, which I learned is believed not to be serious.

Stosur will play France’s Virginie Razzano in the fourth round. Razzano advanced with a 7-5 7-5 victory over Tathiana Garbin. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Some women’s tennis players have united to raise funds and morale of those affected by bushfires in Victoria, Australia.

Dinara Safina, Casey Dellacqua, Daniela Hantuchova, Ana Ivanovic, Samantha Stosur, Rennae Stubbs, Ai Sugiyama and Serena Williams have donated personal items of value, which will be auctioned off to raise money for the Tennis Bushfire Relief Appeal.

"What has happened in Australia is shocking and so sad, and I would like to send my deepest sympathies to everyone who has been affected by this tragedy," said 2008 Australian Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic.  "I have family in Melbourne and was very concerned for the safety and welfare of their friends in Victoria.  Australians have a great spirit, and my thoughts are with them."

"My prayers go out to everyone involved. It's such a sad and unfortunate event to happen and the loss of life has been tragic," said 2009 Australian Open champion Serena Williams.  "I admire the heroism of those who risked their lives to help others." (source: Tennis Australia, photos: Ralf Reinecke)

Top seed Serena Williams avoided an early exit at the Medibank International Sydney, fighting off four match points against Australia's Samantha Stosur in the first round.

Stosur was serving for victory at 5-4 in the third set, and even earned a 40-0 lead. However, the American leveled, then held her own serve, and then broke Stosur’s serve in the following game to win the match 6-3 6-7 (4-7) 7-5.

Williams will next play either Italian Sara Errani or another home favorite Casey Dellacqua.

Fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia also survived a scare on the first day of the Sydney International, coming from a set down to defeat Peng Shuai 3-6 6-1 6-3. (via Tennis Head, photo: Tennis Channel)

Australia's No.1 women's tennis player Samantha Stosur is forced to miss the Australian circuit because she didn’t have enough time to prepare. Stosur was unable to compete on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour for most of the last half of the season due to two serious illnesses and she only resumed training three weeks ago.

The world No.46 has withdrawn from the Australian Open, as well as from her home event, the Mondial Australian Women's Hardcourts on the Gold Coast.

"I always love competing at home in Australia and have had some of my best results here, which makes the decision not to play especially hard," Stosur said. "But I need concentrate on the long-term goal of getting my health and fitness 100 percent again, so I don't want to start competing again until I'm fully ready." (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo via Sam Stosur's official site)

Samantha Stosur won’t play at the next week’s Acura Classic, in order to fully recover from the virus she has been suffering (which also forced her to withdraw from Fed Cup earlier this month). The Australian No. 1 will return to the tour on August 6, at the Tier II event in Los Angeles. (via Stosur's website)

Australian No. 1 singles player and No. 1 doubles player in the world Samantha Stosur has pulled out of the Fed Cup because of illness. She has swollen glands in her neck and it’s painful for her even just to turn her neck. Stosur is very worried and upset since doctors still don’t know which virus has caused her illness (hopefully they will know when the test results emerge).

Stosur’s withdrawal from the Fed Cup means that the Australian team will have much less chances of defeating the strong Ukrainian team which means that they are highly likely to fall out of World Group II.

The Australian team now consists of Casey Dellacqua, Alicia Molik, Nicole Pratt and doubles specialist Rennae Stubbs, while members of the Ukrainian team are sisters Alona and Kateryna Bondarenko, Yuliana Fedak and Yulia Beygelzimer. (source: Tennis Australia)