Top-ranked Serena Williams has been named the WTA Tour Player of the Year for the second time in her career.

The 10-time Grand Slam champion, who won the same award in 2002, claimed the US Open title last year and reached the Wimbledon final. She also won Bangalore, Miami and Charleston, as well as a gold medal with sister Venus in the doubles at the Beijing Olympics.

Other awarded players:

Cara Black and Liezel Huber – Team of the Year

Dinara Safina – Most Improved Player of the Year

Zheng Jie – Comeback Player of the Year

Caroline Wozniacki – Newcomer of the Year

Ana Ivanovic – Humanitarian of the Year

Elena Dementieva – Karen Krantzcke sportsmanship award

Liezel Huber – Player Service Award

The ceremony to honor the award winners was held Thursday at the Sony Ericsson Open. Williams didn’t attend it.

Remind yourselves of who won the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Awards for 2007. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Serena Williams's collection of accessories and clothing called Signature Statement will debut on Home Shopping Network on April 30th.

"I always want to make a statement, both on and off the court," said the world No.1. "One of my dreams has always been to share gorgeous gifts of fashion and luxury with the world. Off the court, my passion is fashion. Signature Statement is my own line of accessories and fashion, complete from jewelry to dresses."

The collection will retail from $29.95 to $100. Serena describes the accessories as "feminine, classic, statement pieces." Read more »

A reader suggested an interesting article from Los Angeles Times, which analyzes how much Serena and Venus Williams are compromising because of not entering the BNP Paribas Open, and also how much Maria Sharapova is missing for playing doubles only. Here we’ll focus on world No.1 Serena Williams only.

The annual prize money is increased from $63.6 to $84.4 million. The Top 10 players who participate in all four premier tournaments, one of which is the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, will share a bonus pool, worth $1.9 million. Player with season-ending No.1 ranking will earn $400,000.

However, if you don't play in one of the four events, for whatever reason, you get no money and no ranking points. Plus, you will be fined for skipping the tournament unless you participate in a tour-mandated public relations event. Were Serena Williams to skip her makeup duty, she will be fined $75,000.

Here’s how LA Times sums it up mathematically:

If Serena finishes No. 1, her first loss would be the $400,000 from the bonus pool. If she decides to ignore the makeup appearance, that would be another $75,000. By not playing, she misses a chance at first-place money here of $700,000. Were she to team with Venus and win the doubles, that would be $118,500, her half of $237,000. That's $1,293,500.

Then, there are endorsements. One WTA official speculated that Serena's Nike contract, just as one example, "might have as much as two million dollars of incentive money for ending up No. 1." Winning at Indian Wells is worth 1,000 ranking points. Serena, who now leads No.2 Dinara Safina by 422, gets zero.

So, conceivably, Serena's rejection of Indian Wells could have cost her more than $3 million, or about 13% of her career tennis winnings of $23 million.

Well, it's great when you have so much money to lose. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

World number one Serena Williams has given her official website a completely new look, yay!

Those of you familiar with the website's old design must be welcoming the change. The website seems much more professional now, it’s easier to navigate, the color palette is way more beautiful (actually, I love it!), and it has quite enough information on Serena including her upcoming and past schedule, photo gallery, Serena TV, biography, and more.

Serena’s welcoming us to her redesigned website saying:

I'm so excited for my new site to be up. It's been a long, withstanding effort to get it just right. I hope you all enjoy it!

My favorite website of a women’s tennis player is still Ana Ivanovic’s (I believe she’s unbeatable in that department), but I’m very pleased with Serena’s efforts. Good job!

You probably already know that Serena and Venus Williams don’t want to play at Indian Wells ever again, because they detest the tournament claiming they were booed and suffered racial abuse there in 2001.

The big problem has emerged this year, however: the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells is now a premier event and any player who declines to play one of the four premier events without a legitimate medical excuse – which the top 10 players are required to play – would be suspended for the next two premier events. So everyone was wondering how the problem with the Williams sisters would be resolved.

World No.1 Serena Williams and world No.5 Venus Williams will not play tennis at the event, but will perform promotional activities for the tournament, as new stipulations were put into place that any player declining to play an event for personal reasons would be allowed to do so under the conditions mentioned.

Therefore, the Williams sisters will avoid suspension by performing some activities, which will be determined by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in due course. (source: Tennis Head, photos via Tennis Channel)