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 »

Entering the final of the Qatar Total Open in Doha, Victoria Azarenka was 1-11 all-time against Serena Williams, including 0-5 last year, but now that she's about to lose the No.1 ranking to the American, the-still-top-ranked Belarusian had extra fuel in her tank and overcame the otherwise overly dominant Williams to claim her second straight title at the tournament. Azarenka is now one of only four players that managed to beat Serena since April 2012, joining Virginie Razzano, Angelique Kerber and Sloane Stephens (Serena has won 60 of her last 64 matches).

After a first-round bye, the top-seeded Azarenka beat Romina Oprandi, Christina McHale, sixth seed Sara Errani, fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, not losing more than three games per set, but in the final encounter of the event, Azarenka faced a set point in the first-set tiebreak and lost the second set before taking a 3-0, and then a 5-2 lead in the third, to eventually win 7-6(6) 2-6 6-3. Both players finished the match with three winners more than unforced errors (Azarenka was 30-27, Serena 51-48), while Azarenka won just two points more than her opponent to snap a nine-match losing streak against her and earn $426,000 in prize money.

Both Azarenka and Williams are now heading to Dubai. Azarenka has a chance to win back her No.1 ranking, but she would have to reach the final of Dubai, and if Serena reaches it too, then Azarenka would have to beat her. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

World No.1 Victoria Azarenka and the player less than 48 hours away from overtaking the WTA pedestal Serena Williams have reached the final of the $2,369,000 Qatar Total Open. The action in the semis featured all the Top 4 women's tennis players, but those with dominantly favorable head-to-head records were victorious yet again.

Victoria Azarenka may be losing her No.1 ranking, but she's nowhere near exhausting her winning streak against Agnieszka Radwanska. Only in the first half of 2012 Azarenka beat Radwanska six times, but ever since they avoided each other in draws, until now, the Doha venue where they had tensions last year, when Radwanska accused Azarenka of gamesmanship. However, Radwanska is still waiting for her five minutes, as today Azarenka scored yet another comprehensive victory against her, 6-3 6-3, to reach the final of the Qatar Total Open. In the beginning of the match Azarenka dropped serve once, but after breaking for 3-2 in the first set she barely looked back, not facing a break point ever since. Read more »

After pretty much a year of Victoria Azarenka's reign on the top of the rankings (it was interrupted by Maria Sharapova for four weeks in the summer of 2012), women's tennis has a new No.1 – Serena Williams. Of course, not entirely new, Serena is on the top spot for the sixth time in her career and more than ten years after she first claimed it. As if she lacked historic accomplishments and awe-inspiring results, at the age of 31, Serena became the oldest female to become a No.1 since the computer rankings were introduced. Read more »

Thursday's action at the Qatar Total Open was shaping up the quarterfinals and all the seeded players advanced, except in one match that was a clash of two seeds, in which the higher seed prevailed when No.7 Petra Kvitova took out No.11 Nadia Petrova after dropping the first set and coming back from behind in both the remaining sets to finally win 4-6 6-4 6-3.

Kvitova is now in an intimidating position, finding herself between Serena Williams and the 31-year-old American's No.1 ranking – if Serena beats Kvitova in the quarterfinals, she will get back to the top of the WTA standings and become the oldest player ever to be No.1. Serena has won 58 of her last 61 matches and today she stormed past Urszula Radwanska 6-0 6-3 in just 57 minutes.

The other quarterfinal in the bottom half of the draw will be between good friends Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki. By beating Ana Ivanovic 6-1 7-6(6), even though the Serb was serving for the second set, Radwanska earned her 15th win of the season, which makes her the leader in that department. Wozniacki worked hard to eliminate Mona Barthel 7-6(6) 6-3, the German who's been making a big name for herself, especially this season.

In the top half of the draw, world No.1 Victoria Azarenka recorded her sixth career double bagel, ousting Christina McHale, and is to face Sara Errani, who won a marathon against Daniela Hantuchova 7-5 5-7 6-2. We are also having a Maria Sharapova vs. Samantha Stosur quarterfinal. Sharapova was better than Klara Zakopalova 6-3 6-3, while Stosur stopped the run of Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 7-5. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

At the 2013 Qatar Total Open, Maria Sharapova has a chance to overtake Victoria Azarenka as the No.1 WTA player and win an extra Diamond Ball trophy if she goes all the way to the title. The Russian started off well, with a comfortable 6-3 6-2 victory over Caroline Garcia in the second round.

Sharapova now has a perfect 10-0 win-loss record at the Qatar Total Open tournament, which she won on both her previous appearances, in 2005 and 2008. The organizers are providing an additional incentive to Sharapova if she wins the title for the third time – the Diamond Ball trophy. One more player in the field shares that opportunity with Sharapova, her fellow Russian Nadia Petrova, who also won her today's match, beating Andrea Hlavackova 6-2 6-3.

The No.1 ranking is up for grabs this week, so let's see the obstacles the three contenders have to face to win/retain the position:

• SERENA WILLIAMS' PERSPECTIVE: has to reach the semifinals or hope that Azarenka doesn't make the final and Sharapova doesn't clinch the title;
• VICTORIA AZARENKA'S PERSPECTIVE: has to reach the final for a chance to remain No.1;
• MARIA SHARAPOVA'S PERSPECTIVE: has to win the title and hope that Serena falls before the semis and Azarenka doesn't reach the final.

Serena was also in action today, testing the recovery level of her back and ankle injuries suffered during the Australian Open, and beat Daria Gavrilova 6-2 6-1 in the second round. Daria was barely born when Serena turned pro in 1995! After a first-round bye, defending champion Victoria Azarenka opens her campaign against Romina Oprandi. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

In spring 2013, Maria Sharapova will probably wear a green version of her Australian Open Nike dress, which happened to be yellow and grey, just like the majority of Adidas clothes at the tournament. For spring tournaments, Adidas and Nike have taken different paths – Adidas' clothes for that part of the season will be predominantly blue, including those designed by Stella McCartney, while Nike chose green for their two most lucrative WTA names. Read more »

Now 31 and 32 years old, Serena and Venus Williams are still major forces in the tennis world, but even when they were 11 and 12, their father Richard knew that sporting success and million-dollar earnings were treasured in his daughters. Enjoy the above 20-year-old video of the sisters!

I would highlight the interview with Richard, when he predicts that Serena would grow into a more successful player than Venus, among other things due to her nature of being "like a pit bull", as once she gets hold of you she doesn't let go. I like to compare her to tornado, but her father was even more illustrative. As for Venus, Richard described her as having been born with four crucial qualities of a champion: being rough, tough, strong and mentally unbelievably sound. Read more »