Images of Serena William's Rally Statement dress for the 2012 Australian Open have surfaced and from what we can see Nike will continue to take the path they've been following in the recent years for Serena – sporty dresses, pretty and simple designs in one predominant color.

I like how Serena looks in well-fitting dresses with few accessories in design (no ruffles, excess material and stuff) and in colors that are not bland. Striking green, blue, red, pink, etc. with touches of some other vibrant color for contrast, or even only black or white, perfectly suit Serena's skin tone and character.

Soon I will post a retrospection of all Serena's 2011 dresses, so stay tuned for more Nike fashion! In the meantime, check out outfits Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki are expected to wear at the first Grand Slam of the 2012 season. (source: DeShawn Besabella)

Never in their eight previous matches in the period of eight years, from 2002 to 2010, had Francesca Schiavone beaten Venus Williams, and at the December 3rd exhibition event in Milan, the Italian managed to beat both the Williams sisters, on top of showing her dancing skills by entertaining the 11,000 crowd to Michael Jackson's "Beat It" with Flavia Pennetta.

Schiavone defeated Venus 7-5 7-3, and then Serena 7-3 8-10 8-6. Pennetta also beat Venus, 7-6 7-2, but lost to Serena 6-8 7-3 7-3. The Williams sisters won the doubles 3-7 8-6 8-6.

Neither of the Williams sisters played competitive tennis since the US Open, however they did play another exhibition match recently, last month in Columbia, and Venus defeated Serena 6-4 7-6(5). (source: ESPN)

Serena Williams now has a place in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. in a new show celebrating successful African-Americans from various fields. "The Black List" opens Friday and features 50 photographs from Timothy Greenfield-Sanders' project that also featured a 2008 HBO film.

Here is a clip from the movie, where Williams talks about how awkward she often feels in the tennis world where most people around her are white (especially when she travels to Russia) and also explains how her dedicated family helped her cross all the boundaries and financial shortages to become the legend that she is now. About her tennis game, Serena mentions how she’s frustrated by the fact that people always point out only the power of her game and fail to acknowledge the strategy and mental part. (via Beyond the Baseline)

As Tennis Served Fresh reports the news from TMZ, Serena Williams' assistant suspected a possible burglar of a person from an unspecified tennis association coming to test Serena for drugs and the tennis star got so scared that she fled "to a panic room inside her LA mansion". Serena has a panic room, if I understand well?

The assistant saw the suspected intruder on security cameras and called 911 around 6 am last Wednesday. When police came, they realized it was a false alarm.

It's strange that Serena's representatives are not making any comments and it's even more awkward that Serena's made no mention of the scary experience on Twitter. (photo: Tennis Canada)

The Brisbane tournament, which will be upgraded from International to Premier status next season, will host Serena Williams for the first time in 2012.

Well, I never played in Brisbane and I've never been to Brisbane (but I've) heard great things about it. It's brand new (for me) so all that is going to be really exciting and it will help me with my seeding going into the Australian Open too, so that would be good.

Other confirmed stars:

Samantha Stosur – reigning US Open champion who would like to bring her A-game to her home tournaments of Brisbane and Australian Open

Maria Sharapova – just like Serena, first-time Brisbane participant

Kim Clijsters – 2010 champion who will play her first tournament since August 2011

Ana Ivanovic – played the quarterfinals in 2009 and semifinals in 2010

Additional info: Talking about the Australian part of the season, let’s just remind you that Serena is expected to play mixed doubles with Andy Roddick at the Australian Open. (source: ESPN, photo by our reader Jacob)