The WTA has added new imagery to their "Strong is Beautiful" campaign, under the title "Active Legends".

Along will players whose faces are not commonly exploited in the WTA marketing, Serena Williams was featured when the campaign launched in May. Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova are now part of the campaign for the first time. Read more »

It has been announced in today's WTA press release that the Tour and its players have reached the fan base of 23 million on social media sites, which is an increase of four times in the past 18 months.

The most marketable women's athlete, Maria Sharapova, is leading on Facebook with 5.3 million followers and that number is growing by 250.000 each month. Serena Williams' tweets are the most popular and more than 2.1 million people follow her on Twitter. Li Na is spreading the tennis influence in China and she has 2.7 million fans on Sina Weibo. Read more »

Serena Williams' awe-inspiring comeback has suffered a shocking setback – the champion's 12-match winning streak has been cut short by a retirement! It might be Serena's tactical decision to prevent her from exhaustion or injuries ahead of the US Open, but it still is disappointing that her string of victories is ending in such a way. Serena retired with a right toe injury prior to her second-round match against Samantha Stosur at the Western & Southern Open.

After almost a year away with injuries and illness, Serena returned like a storm, winning Stanford and Toronto and following it up with a victory against Lucie Gradecka in the first round of Cincinnati this week.

Update: Here's Serena's press conference following the withdrawal.

(photo courtesy of FIJI Water)

In the beginning it seemed Serena Williams would cruise to a quick victory over world No.49 Lucie Hradecka in the first round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, as the American stormed through the first set with a 89% of first serve points won.

However, at 5-1 down in the second set, the Czech fired back and frustrated Serena when she leveled at 5-5 by breaking the American's serve twice. The tiebreak was played, but Hradecka had an unglamorous finish when she lost the tiebreak 7-5 with a double fault.

Both players hit 31 winners, but Hradecka committed more unforced errors. Final score: 6-3 7-6(5).

Serena's rankings improved on Monday from No.80 to No.31 following her triumph at the Rogers Cup. Together with her Stanford title, Serena is now on a 12-match winning streak. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

The US Open is approaching and it's time for reviewing what tennis stars will be wearing at the final Grand Slam of the season. The most famous brands, Adidas and Nike, are always the first to grab attention, so let's see what they have prepared for their biggest names.

Ana Ivanovic has been sporting a beautiful blue Adidas Fall Adizero Dress and at the US Open the 23-year-old Serb will wear the same dress, only in pink, or as they officially call it, in "sharp red". The dress has an open back and a delicate design on torso.

Serena Williams will finally give credit to her Nike clothes at a major and her two recent victories at Premier-level events will insure she pays back to all the time Nike made an outfit for her even though she didn't play a tournament.

Serena has two dresses for the 2011 US Open. During the day she will wear Autumn Smash Hard Court Dress in red, and for night matches she is expected to wear the blue version.

Maria Sharapova is also equipped for both day and night. The 2006 US Open champion has a Maria Ace Day Dress in gray and light purple with fluorescent red linings. Sharapova's night dress is not the same as the day one just with a darker color scheme, the style is compatible but different. Read more »