Besides the second set against Victoria Azarenka in the third round, Serena Williams has faced no real challenge at the US Open, including her today's encounter with Ana Ivanovic – the former world No.1 was just another unmemorable target on Williams' surge through the tournament.

The 28th-seeded Williams is already in the quarterfinals, having dropped her serve only two times on the way. Knowing the state of Williams' and Ivanovic's tennis, Ivanovic can unfortunately be happy that she was one of the two players who broke the American's serve this US Open and that she won seven games during the fourth round match, 6-3 6-4.

Next for Williams will be first time US Open quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova who defeated seed No.7 Francesca Schiavone 5-7 6-3 6-4 in two hours and 41 minutes after they committed a combined 21 double faults and dropped serve 16 times. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

New York and fashion go hand in hand, and tennis outfits are no exception, especially when we have a high-profile event such as the US Open. So let's see what the manufacturers of tennis clothes prepared for our WTA stars and there is no better way to start than with American Bethanie Mattek Sands who integrated patriotism in her attire.

Don't you love the American-flag tube socks and the accompanying red shoes? Bethanie looks awesome in her Under Armour outfit with accessories that perfectly match the US Open occasion.

Bethanie is known for her experiments with fashion and her most recent took place before and during Wimbledon, when she incorporated tennis balls in her player party and on-court outfits.

Venus Williams shocked with her EleVen US Open dress as much as she did with her subsequent abrupt withdrawal due to a long-undiagnosed syndrome.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki and Stella McCartney absolutely failed to inspire with a white dress much more suitable for Wimbledon. Why not use colors for the US Open when you can?

Read more »

It took Serena Williams only 17 minutes to lead 5-0 in the first set against fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka and even though the second set lived up to the expectations of this high-profile meeting, Azarenka exited in the third round of the US Open with a not so pleasant experience.

To have somebody just going at you like that, it's a little bit painful. You try to do your best, but somebody's on fire.

After losing the first set 6-1, Azarenka started playing more aggressively and the second set produced the level of play worthy of a semifinal. Azarenka bounced back with aggression and deep groundstrokes from 3-5 to 5-5, saving match points in both the games she won, and the set went to a tiebreak which Williams won 7-5.

I have to write the scores of Williams' first three wins at the US Open, it's awe-inspiring, especially considering how long she hadn't played and how sick she was: 6-1 6-1 against Bojana Jovanovski in the first round, 6-0 6-1 against Michaella Krajicek in the second, and now 6-1 7-6(5) in the third.

Williams will next face Ana Ivanovic, who made it to the second week with a 6-3 6-4 victory over American wildcard Sloane Stephens.

Serena Williams needed just 49 minutes to win her second round match at the US Open against Michaella Krajicek with a 6-0 6-1 score. Should we even mention the statistics? Serena hit 10 aces and 25 winners to Krajicek's one ace and five winners.

In the first round Serena demolished Bojana Jovanovski 6-1 6-1, so she has lost only three games to reach the third round.

The 183th-ranked Krajicek, winner of three WTA titles which all came in 2006 or earlier, played Wimbledon quarterfinals in 2007 and had a career-high of No.30 in February 2008, but finished that season ranked No.219 due to injuries, which was her first non-Top 100 season since 2004.

Last year she reached the second round of a tournament just once, lost in the first round three times and in qualifying 13 times. Actually, the Dutch hadn't played in the main draw of a Grand Slam since 2008 – this was the first time in the last eight attempts that she managed to pass the qualifying rounds. This season she played the semifinals of Kuala Lumpur against Jelena Dokic. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Professional tennis instructor Florian Meier (OnlineTennisInstruction.com) is back reviewing the favorites for the 2011 US Open (his previous guest post on Women's Tennis Blog was an analysis of Sabine Lisicki's game). Even though world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki won the New Haven Open this weekend, the Dane is not high on Florian's list of favorites. Leaders are Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova. Enjoy Florian's introduction to the US Open!

The US Open starts on Monday and it looks like Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova have the best chances for the title. Let’s quickly review the recent action on the women’s tour and then look at the upcoming US Open, which is certainly one of the most exciting tournaments of the year.

The US Open 2011

The US Open Series

Over the last 8 weeks the US Open Series was played out and Serena Williams ended up in first place in the US Open Series rankings. In case she wins the US Open tournament she would receive a $1 million dollar bonus on top of the regular prize money.

Serena is back to top form and did not lose a match in the US Open Series until pulling out of the second round in Cincinnati to rest a troublesome right big toe. She won the tournament in Stanford and the week after she won the Premier-level event in Toronto.

Toronto finals highlights: Serena Williams in top form

US Open Preview

Looking at the upcoming tournament there is no doubt to me that Serena is the favourite to win the US Open.

Since she won the US Open Series, Serena can now compete for the biggest paycheck in tennis history. If she wins the US Open she will collect $2.8 million dollars. She would get $1.8 million for winning the US Open, and a $1 million dollar bonus for winning both the US Open Series and the US Open. I believe this provides some extra motivation for Serena, especially since she hadn’t played for almost a year.

The other player next to Serena that I see with good chances to win the title is Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova has improved consistently over the last few months. I think she has been working really hard in order to put herself in position to contend for another major. She did well in the US Open Series, winning the Premiere-level event in Cincinnati and she also has the belief and the experience that are usually necessary to win a Grand Slam tournament. For her a lot depends on whether she gets her serve going or not. Read more »

A week ago we already showed you the 2011 US Open Nike looks, but now we have videos of the Nike staff talking in detail about Serena Williams' and Maria Sharapova's dresses and footware.

Creative designer at Nike Tennis, Janice Lucena, explained that as an all-American athlete Serena's colors for the US Open will be red, white and blue. The red dress is for the day, the blue dress is for night matches. Nike's objective was to make an outfit which provides Serena with freedom of movement and breathability. As for the shoes, footwear development director Gary McCourt presented Serena's Nike Mirabella 3, which have red accents to perfectly match the day dress. Read more »

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)