Daniela Hantuchova

Hantuchova actually followed up her title run in Thailand with a first-round loss to Anna Chakvetadze in Dubai, but today against the sixth-seeded Azarenka, despite losing the marathon 68-minute first set, Hantuchova rebounded and capitalized on Azarenka’s errors to win the next two sets with ease. Also, Hantuchova hit nine aces, compared to Azarenka’s zero. Final score: 4-6 6-1 6-2.

Svetlana Kuznetsova fell to 0-3 in Dubai finals over the weekend and now she lost in the first round of the Qatar Ladies Open to seed No.8 Shahar Peer, 6-2 6-4.

As you’re expecting from me, I’ll give special attention to Serbian players’ performance. As expected, fifth seed Jelena Jankovic defeated wildcard Fatma Al Nabhani, 6-1 6-3. The 19-year-old Al Nabhani is Oman’s only ranked player. She’s world No.426. Unfortunately, Bojana Jovanovski lost to wildcard Sania Mirza, 6-2 7-5. I was really hoping Jovanovski would manage to defeat Mirza, especially because she scored some big victories to enter the draw, over the well-known players of Kateryna Bondarenko and Urszula Radwanska.

Other players victorious on Tuesday in Doha include: Flavia Pennetta, Dominika Cibulkova, Peng Shuai, Vera Dushevina and Klara Zakopalova. (photos: Johan Rivera)

Let's start with Caroline Wozniacki and her mother, Anna Wozniacki. Caroline is coached by her father, Piotr, who played professional soccer, but her mother was also an athlete, having played on the Polish women's national volleyball team.

Vera Zvonareva's mother Nataliya Bykova played field hockey and was a bronze medalist at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. You can read a very nice story Nataliya herself told a magazine about Vera's early life and the beginnings of her tennis career.

Kim Clijsters' mother is Els Vandecaetsbeek (the blond woman in the picture), a former national gymnastics champion. Kim claims to have inherited gymnast's flexibility from her mother.

Oracene Price, the mother of Serena and Venus Williams, is a very familiar face in the tennis world.

The above photo shows Sania Mirza's wedding ceremony and on the right you can see her mother Nasima.

Beautiful and interesting photos of the Indian tennis star and her mother!

More photos of WTA players and their mothers to follow.

The 23-year-old bride wore a beautiful red sari that her mother wore at her wedding 25 years ago, while the 28-year-old groom wore a black tunic. The ceremony took place at the Taj Krishna Hotel in Mirza's hometown of Hyderabad, in the southern India.

The pairing has been controversial for too many reasons:

1)    Mirza and Malik come from different countries that don’t have the best relations
2)    Mirza had ended her previous engagement just months before announcing her new future husband
3)    Mirza’s new partner happened to have had a valid marriage established over the phone eight years ago, and he divorced his first wife just a few days ago in order to be able to marry Mirza
4)    Mirza and Malik are one of the biggest sports celebrities in the region

The couple will live in Dubai, where Malik has a residence.

It wasn’t enough that Indian tennis star Sania Mirza announced her new marriage only a couple of months after separating from her previous fiancé, and it wasn’t enough that her new love is from Pakistan which has tricky relations with India, but the story had to become even more intriguing with suspicions that her future husband Shoaib Malik might already be married.

Now you’re thinking it’s unbelievable, but wait, it’s getting even better. The 28-year-old Malik got married over the phone in 2002, to a woman he met on the Internet and saw only in a photograph! The woman’s name is Ayesha Siddiqui, and she is from Hyderabad, the hometown of Sania Mirza.

"I was made to believe the girl in the photograph was the one I was speaking to," Malik said about his Internet relationship. "The truth is, I haven't, to this day, met the girl in the photographs Ayesha sent me."

Here’s what the 23-year-old Sania Mirza, who should marry Malik in less than 15 days, said about the bizarre situation: "I know, we know what the truth is and it will come out and we believe in justice".

Police are now conducting investigation because Siddiqui’s family is claiming that Malik is already married to her. It is still not known whether his marriage is legally valid under Islamic law.

I suppose everything will end up fine for Mirza. All the things in her life always have to go through that dramatic stage. (source: BBC, photo: Stephane Martinache)

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza is going to marry Pakistan's former cricket captain Shoaib Malik. The couple met in February, during Mirza’s participation in the Dubai tournament, and the marriage will take place next month.

"Thanks for all your support. And the news of me marrying to Sania is true. Inshallah (god willing) will get married in April," said the 28-year-old Malik on social networking website Twitter.

According to the father of the Indian tennis and youth icon who was the first Indian to win a WTA Tour event in 2005, the couple will be based in Dubai, as Malik has a residence there.

News about Mirza’s new love surprised me a bit, as she called off her engagement to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza only in January this year. India and Pakistan are also stunned by the announcement of this marriage, because the two countries are not having the best of relations and have fought three wars since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

I would like to thank our faithful reader Karunya for keeping us updated on the latest developments in Sania Mirza’s life. (source: Times Online)

Our loyal reader Karunya reminded us that we had failed to report that 23-year-old Sania Mirza called off her engagement to childhood friend Sohrab Mirza in January. The reason for their separation is stated to be incompatibility, agreed by both Sania and Sohrab.

Sania Mirza and Sohrab Mirza got engaged July 10, 2009 in a lavish ceremony. Their families, friends for half a century, will retain good relations. (via BBC)

Elena Dementieva, Maria Kirilenko, Sania Mirza and Zheng Jie took part in an annual exhibition tournament the Glam Slam – Showdown of Champions in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Our friend HCFoo attended the meet-the-fans session held on Friday and followed the rest of the event at home.

Dementieva and Kirilenko defeated Mirza and Zheng 3-0. The Russians won in doubles on Saturday 6-4 5-7 10-8. Then on Sunday, Kirilenko beat Zheng 6-3 4-6 6-4, and Dementieva completed Russian domination by downing Mirza 6-4 7-6 (7-0).

HCFoo's overall impression is that the Glam Slam – Showdown of Champions wasn't actually glamorous and that the organization should have been much better. In addition, the attendance was bad and there was lack of publicity. Still, the matches were worth watching, as the players took them seriously and fought hard.

Elena Dementieva left a lovely impression on HCFoo:

I've never met a player so friendly… she would look deep in your eyes, greet you and give you a big smile! *faint*

Kuala Lumpur, Malasya, will welcome Russians Elena Dementieva and Maria Kirilenko, Indian Sania Mirza and Chinese Zheng Jie at the Showdown of Champions 2009, an exhibition event set to take place December 18-19.

The exhibition is a nice intro to the Malasya Classic, a new International-level tournament added to the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour calendar to be hosted by Kuala Lumpur in February 2010. (source: HCFoo's Tennis Blog, photos: chascow, Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Ralf Reinecke)

Despite all the drama, Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, 23, got engaged to childhood friend Mohammed Sohrab Mirza at the Hotel Taj Krishna in the city of Hyderabad on Friday.

Even though media were very excited about the engagement, they were not welcome at the private event, and only this one photo is available.

Sania was looking amazing, dressed in a dazzling Shantanu & Nikhil Swarovski-studded ghagra bought by the groom's family.

In front of close to 300 guests, the lavish celebration began with a ceremonial exchange of rings. The 23-year-old Sohrab broke hearts of millions of men and put a $205,000 diamond ring on Sania’s finger. He also offered jewelry to her family to express his affection.

According to Sania’s family the couple will not tie the knot soon, as the tennis star is planning to continue focusing on her career. (source: HCFoo's Tennis Blog)

Indian tennis star Sania Mirza, ranked 85th in the world, is to get engaged to family friend Sohrab Mirza on Friday, and two men could not handle that.

On Wednesday, Mohammad Ashraf was arrested after threatening to kill himself if Mirza did not marry him. On Thursday, Ajay Singh Yadav told the police that he had been in love with Mirza for five years and also wanted to marry her.

Mohammed Ashraf, an engineering student, tried to enter Mirza's house in Hyderabad and threatened to commit suicide if her engagement was not cancelled. Ashraf fell in love with Mirza two years ago, watching her play in Bangalore.

Another student, Ajay Singh Yadav arrived in Hyderabad in the morning and rushed towards Mirza's house, saying he wanted to meet her. When he did not go away despite warnings, the police took him in to custody.

BTW: I thought Mirza has already been engaged. Apparently she was just planning to get engaged. (source: BBC, photo: Ralf Reinecke)