We've arrived to the final article of our guest blogger Omair's series comparing the very best players of the WTA with their male counterparts. After the introductory and a general article, Omair compared:

• WTA world No.3 Maria Sharapova and ATP world No.3 Andy Murray (note: Sharapova is now No.2)
• WTA world No.2 Victoria Azarenka and ATP world No.2 Roger Federer (note: Azarenka is now No.3)

I started the series to compare the two tours, since media has grown biased towards the WTA: an ATP player playing through injury is appreciated for his commitment to tennis, but a WTA player playing through injury is criticized for poor tennis, grunting is never an issue on the ATP, while it's constantly being talked about on the WTA, questions have been raised regarding the poor quality of WTA. These and a lot of other things have been said about the WTA. Amy Fetherolf, co-founder of "The Changeover", recently wrote a piece about this biased media attitude.

As Marija said in the introduction, in this final article we'll compare Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic so let's see what the numbers are telling us. The categories highlighted in orange go in favor of Serena Williams, while I am confused about the one highlighted in blue.

Serena has been better than Djokovic in almost all the departments. Serena is far ahead of the Serb in the match winning percentage, record against the Top 4 and Top 10 players. Serena also beat two or more Top 10 players in more tournaments than the Serb. Read more »

Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova for the eleventh straight time in their careers, the streak dating back to 2005, to claim her sixth title at the Sony Open Tennis, which is a record on the WTA Tour, while Sharapova fell to a discouraging 0-5 in Miami finals.

Serena converted all seven of her break opportunities and came back from a set and a break down to overcome Sharapova 4-6 6-3 6-0. From 2-3 in the second set she won ten straight games and became only the fourth woman to win any WTA event six times, joining Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Chris Evert.

It was the first time since 2008 that Sharapova won a set against Serena, but the American’s dominance is unstoppable and plus the stats were on her side as she leads all active players for winning percentage when losing the first set, which is now 45.5%. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Roland Garros and Wimbledon will come before you know it and Nike is always ready well in advance, especially for their brightest stars – Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.

Above you can see dresses Maria Sharapova is expected to wear for the upcoming Grand Slams – the purple one with lime straps and light patches on the sides at the French Open and the white one at Wimbledon. Read more »

World No.1 Serena Williams won a tight two-setter against Li Na to reach the semifinals of the Sony Open Tennis in Miami, which is her 59th victory at the tournament, tying her with Steffi Graf for most match wins at the so called fifth Grand Slam.

Serena faced three break points in the first game of the match, but saved them all, and in the sixth game converted one of her three opportunities to break in the first set, thanks to Li’s double fault, which was enough for her to take the set 6-3 that finished with Serena having one winner more than Li and three unforced errors less.

In the second set Serena first led 2-0, before Li went on a roll, won five straight games for 5-2 and even had a set point on her opponent’s serve. But Williams produced yet another comeback at this tournament and eventually won 6-3 7-6(5) in tough windy conditions and despite an upper leg injury scare.

In the semifinals Serena will play the winner of the match between seed No.4 Agnieszka Radwanska and seed No.30 Kirsten Flipkens. She's 4-0 against Radwanska, while she's never played Flipkens. (source: Tennis Now, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Just two winners in the first set, contrasted with 18 unforced errors, ensured that Serena Williams found herself trailing Dominika Cibulkova 2-6 and her inability to pull herself together made her lose four more games to winning just one in the second set. But from 2-6 1-4, Serena's internal dialogue got her mental control back, which naturally translated into great play, and she won 11 of the last 13 games of the fourth-round match at the Sony Tennis Open in Miami. Final score: 2-6 6-4 6-2.

Serena is famous for many things, but her ability to swing into higher gear definitely tops the list. Serena is the only player to have won three Grand Slam titles while saving match points on the way. Moreover, she is 21-20 since 2009 when losing the first set.

I’ve been down worse. It’s nothing new. Just keep fighting. I never give up. Doesn’t matter whether it’s in life or on the tennis court, I keep fighting.

As for Cibulkova, in the same round of the same tournament last year she also faced a world No.1 player, then it was Victoria Azarenka, and Cibulkova also had a good initial lead, 6-1 5-2, before falling to the Belarusian 1-6 7-6(7) 7-5 in the absolute thriller. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Omair is continuing his series of comparing Top 3 WTA players to the ATP Top 3. Before digging into the actual numbers to contrast the two tours, Omair is comparing the general sporting characteristics of men and women and the styles of WTA No.1, No.2 and No.3 players to their respective ATP colleagues.

I hope that you people enjoyed the introductory article. There are a few things that I should have mentioned then, but better late than never. Please note that the views expressed here are mine and it is just how I see things, it is not to offend anyone, be it player or his/her fan.

Firstly, men’s tennis and women’s tennis are completely different for a lot of reasons. The major reason is probably the physique and build of sexes. We can argue into it by saying that there are a lot of female players who have more power than males, however, a biologist or doctor would be able to explain it more appropriately. Overall, for one reason or another, the games are different, but that does not mean that one is better than the other. Difference is the spice of life, and it is difference that makes things interesting.

A reader pointed out that women’s tour is more elegant, delicate as compared to men. I, for one, would love to see an encounter of Serena Williams and Roger Federer, not to determine who is better, just to see how they match up with each other. However, as I said in the first article, more appropriate matches would be Serena Williams vs. Novak Djokovic, Victoria Azarenka vs. Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova vs. Andy Murray. Can you imagine Serena Williams acing Novak Djokovic, Victoria Azarenka outhitting Roger Federer and Maria Sharapova outlasting Andy Murray? Have you ever wondered or have you ever wanted to see these players challenging each other? I have imagined it quite a few times and if the matches were to happen, here are the outcomes I would expect.

SERENA WILLIAMS VS. NOVAK DJOKOVIC

In the match-up of Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic, I am not too sure if Novak Djokovic would come out on top handily. He might if Serena would have one of those rough days. It would be more of a coin toss. This would perhaps be the most interesting of all the match-ups considering that both players can defend well, can hit through their opponents and return well. It would definitely be a match worth watching. In a best-of-three, I would go with Serena, although Djokovic would have an equal chance of taking it, but I stick with Serena. Read more »

Our contributor Omair always enjoys giving us a statistical perspective at the world of tennis. He's written countless articles statistically previewing and reviewing matches and tournaments, predicting future results based on the past at certain events or parts of the season, etc. (you can read all his guest posts at his Stats Corner on Women's Tennis Blog) and now he's decided to compare the very best of the WTA to the very best of the ATP and check whether the numbers back up the story that the WTA is less consistent than the ATP. Since there are many facts to be analysed, this will be a series and below is Omair's introductory article.

"The WTA lacks consistency, just look at the ATP, there is a Big 4 and they have been very dominant", "women's tennis is not worth watching", etc. – these are discussions the tennis world has been having. "The WTA needs a Big 4 like the ATP" – a lot of heated debate went on this topic for quite some time, in fact, it still is going on, with some journalists thrashing the WTA.

I will now look into the stats and see how much of this debate can be explained by numbers. Let's start looking into this issue by reminding ourselves about the results of some of the top players from ATP and WTA.

Last year saw the transformation that everyone wanted to see in the WTA, an emergence of the Big 4. We saw Victoria Azarenka win her maiden Grand Slam and claim the top spot, starting her season with a 26-match winning streak, we saw Agnieszka Radwanska lose only to Azarenka for the first few months, we saw Maria Sharapova claim Roland Garros to complete her Career Slam and who can forget Serena Williams tearing the field in the second half of the year to lay her hands on Wimbledon, Olympic Gold medal, US Open and the year-end Championships.

Serena Williams reclaimed the top spot recently by beating Petra Kvitova in the quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open. In doing so, the American became the oldest female player to be ranked world No.1 in the Open Era. The Top 4 female players as of today are:

1. Serena Williams
2. Victoria Azarenka
3. Maria Sharapova
4. Agnieszka Radwanska

Read more »

Just a day after Victoria Azarenka, top seed at the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, withdrew from the tournament, second seed Serena Williams also decided to leave before even starting her opening match, citing back pain that she said had been bothering her for a couple of weeks, and now the tournament's third seed and titleholder Agnieszka Radwanska has a considerably easier draw, especially given that she's constantly losing to Azarenka, and she's never beaten Williams in their four meetings. Read more »