Local favorite Samantha Stosur expressed her eagerness for competing on home soil when she thrilled her country with the US Open title in September, but the moment the time came for the Australian to shine in the January's sun down under, the nerves crept in and after losing in the second round of Brisbane and the first round of Sydney, Stosur put the icing on the cake of disappointment by crashing out in the first round of the Australian Open.

Spraying 33 unforced errors, the world No.6 Stosur fell to Sorana Cirstea 7-6(2) 6-3, the player to whom she hadn’t lost more than three games per set in their previous two encounters. This time the 59th-ranked Cirstea had nothing to lose and put out her aggressive side against the stiff Stosur who was falling under her own pressure. In the end Stosur did save three match points, but she was far too emotional to turn the situation to her advantage.

"It's hard to suppress those emotions when it means so much to you," said Stosur after becoming the first big casualty of the tournament.

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?

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Bethanie Mattek Sands, Heather Watson, Alize Cornet, Sabine Lisicki, Sorana Cirstea and Dominika Cibulkova have been chosen to be a part of Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Hot Shots campaign – a web-based TV show which will follow the tennis stars as they travel the world on tour.

The six participating players were announced in Miami, ahead of the Sony Ericsson Open, and Sony Ericsson brand ambassador, Maria Sharapova, was also there. Read more »

This is the fifth and the last part of our series featuring photos of female tennis players and their mothers. Here are the previous four parts: I, II, III and IV.

Marta, an account by profession, is the mother of two tennis stars, Agnieszka Radwanska (pictured above) and Urszula Radwanska.

Katarina Cibulkova is the mother of Dominika Cibulkova. Read more »

Wimbledon is just days away and the annual party celebrating the tournament was held at the Roof Gardens in West London's Kensington last night. As usual, the WTA players gave their best to look good and glamorous, and oh well, as usual, their success was sporadic.

Let's start with the bright examples. Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova were spot on. Their dresses are perfect fits and just right for the occasion.

Defending champion Serena Williams looked like a pop star and I'm sure this profile picture will stay remembered for a while. Dinara Safina was having one of her better appearances, although I'm convinced this is not the best she can offer. Read more »

Grand Slams are the places where tennis players want to look their best and sponsors want to use the opportunity of huge publicity to market their products. Let's have a look at what women's tennis stars are sporting during one such event, Roland Garros 2010 in Paris.

Venus Williams raised many eyebrows by her lingerie-like black dress. But the dress raises all the eyebrows when in action!

Sorana Cirstea lost on Day one to Svetlana Kuznetsova, but her adidas dress can win all the awards, if you asked me. Just like Ana Ivanovic's.

Bethanie Mattek-Sands is wearing her cool tube socks and looks sporty. Well, Venus took Bethanie's role of ball boy distractor. Caroline Wozniacki, nice dress but nothing new, really nothing. Read more »

Things were not looking good for holder Svetlana Kuznetsova at the beginning of her first-round match at the 2010 French Open against Romanian world No.34 Sorana Cirstea, when the sixth-seeded Russian lost the first three games. However, from 3-0 for Cirstea in the first set, Kuznetsova won 12 of the next 13 games and won the match 6-3 6-1.

The victory over Cirstea in Paris is only Kuznetsova’s second win in five matches this clay season – the world No.6 won her opening match in Stuttgart, but lost both her Rome and Madrid openers.

Kuznetsova’s opponent in the second round of the 2010 French Open will be world No.41 Andrea Petkovic, who defeated Elena Vesnina in the first round. Kuznetsova defeated Petkovic on Stuttgart clay last season, en route to the title, but Petkovic won their last meeting in Tokyo last fall. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

Romanian tennis player Sorana Cirstea has become a client of IMG Worldwide, which already has contracts with stars such as Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams, Jelena Jankovic, and others.

The 20-year-old Cirstea has won one WTA title, Tashkent Open in 2008, and four ITF titles. In her second Tour main draw appearance, Cirstea reached the finals at Budapest and became the first Romanian to reach a Tour singles final since Dragomir Ilie in June 2000.

Cirsea's best Grand Slam result was the quarterfinal appearance at the 2009 French Open where she defeated Carly Gullickson, No.21 seed Alize Cornet, No.10 seed Caroline Wozniacki, No.5 seed Jelena Jankovic before falling to No.30 seed Samantha Stosur in the quarters. That same year in August, Cirstea reached career high ranking of No.23. Currently she is ranked world No.41. (photo: sr_cranks)

The quarterfinals of the LA Women’s Tennis Championships are over and we have our semifinalists: Maria Sharapova will play Flavia Pennetta, and Samantha Stosur will face Sorana Cirstea.

Maria Sharapova claimed a straight-set win over Poland’s Urszula Radwanska, but it was far from easy – the Russian broke Radwanska only once in the first set, in the 18-point third game, and was 3-5 down in the second set. The final score was 6-4 7-5.

Seed No.10 Flavia Pennetta defeated second seed Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-2, and thus earned her tenth Top 10 win. Pennetta is now on a nine-match winning streak, having won in Palermo prior to playing the LA tournament.

Sharapova and Penneta will meet in the semis. They have played each other two times so far, but their last encounter was over three years ago.

No.13 seed Samantha Stosur rallied from 6-4 3-1 down to beat No.14 seed Zheng Jie 4-6 6-3 6-4, the winner over world No.1 Dinara Safina in the third round. Stosur will play Soraca Cirstea in the semis, after the Romanian won a marathon with No.8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6(4) 1-6 7-5.

Stosur easily won the only meeting with Cirstea, which was in this year's French Open quarterfinals. (photos courtesy of Stephane Martinache and Bobby)

Jelena Jankovic was not the only triumphant player on Sunday. The new world No.1 won the strongest tournament of the week though, but Caroline Wozniacki and Sorana Cirstea also clinched WTA Tour singles titles with the Dane winning the AIG Japan Open Tennis Championships and the Romanian winning the Tashkent Open in Uzbekistan.

The 18-year-old Wozniacki picked up her third title of the year, after Stockholm and New Haven, with a 6-2 3-6 6-1 victory over Estonia's Kaia Kanepi at the Tier III event in Tokyo. The top-seeded Wozniacki earned $28,000 defeating Kanepi, who is yet to win her first career title.

At the Tier IV tournament in Tashkent, Sorana Cirstea rallied from a set down to beat Germany's Sabine Lisicki in the final. The third-seeded Cirstea won her first WTA Tour title beating Lisicki 2-6 6-4 7-6 (4) and hence earning $22,925. (source: The Sports Network, photo: Tashkent Open)