Besides doing yearly fashion retrospections for specific WTA players, Women's Tennis Blog is famous for reviewing outfits for every Grand Slam. The Australian Open is entering its second week and the time is just right for us to have a closer look at what the players are wearing. Last year Venus Williams grabbed all the attention with her EleVen designs, but the American is sadly absent this time. In 2012 the spotlight is more evenly distributed and brands such as Nike, Adidas and Fila are leading the pack.

Caroline Wozniacki’s love life is booming, at least its online representation suggests that, and her fashion designer Stella McCartney opted for the color of passion for the world No.1’s Australian Open. Wozniacki accessorized the red dress with a heart-shaped Danish flag pendant that her boyfriend Rory McIlroy gave her for Christmas.

Adidas Adizero used a shade of red for their predominantly peach dress worn by Ana Ivanovic, Daniela Hantuchova and Sorana Cirstea.

Serena Williams is wearing a blue Nike dress with wide tank straps and pleated bottom.

Read more »

In the 2011 fashion retrospections we have included major brands such as Nike (in several perspectives – on Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Serena Williams), Adidas on Daniela Hantuchova and Ana Ivanovic and on Andrea Petkovic, Lacoste on Samantha Stosur, Anta on Jelena Jankovic and Stella McCartney on Caroline Wozniacki, and now we're going to have a close look at Fila as worn by their brightest stars Kim Clijsters and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Even though the Fila clothes themselves are not on top of my list when it comes to tennis fashion, I cannot imagine any other brand looking better on Clijsters and Kuznetsova. Therefore, I'm a huge fan of Fila and the way they nurture the vintage sporty look.

Fila doesn't experiment with ruffles, layers, glitter, dizzy patterns, etc. They like to keep designs traditionally athletic, meant primarily to cover your body so that you can play freely, without thinking whether some part of a dress would fall off (problems you would definitely face with Venus Williams' EleVen line). Read more »

Svetlana Kuznetsova usually looks awkward in gowns, as if someone forced her to glam up for a player party, but photographer Chris Kolk made her look comfortable all dressed up. Flying with a tennis racquet in an elegant dress is what Kuznetsova seems to enjoy, at least I can conclude that from this New York photo shoot.

The second photo is not such an outstanding example, but hey, we’ve had our great move forward.

Kuznetsova, seeded sixth at her home tournament of the Kremlin Cup, is currently playing her second round match against Bulgarian Tsvetana Pironkova. (photos via froggysveta)

Top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki cruised through the first three rounds of the US Open losing only 12 games and now she’s in the quarterfinals after a 6-7(6) 7-5 6-1 victory over 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova.

In the first set both players had their serves broken three times and even though Wozniacki was the first to lead in the tiebreaker, 5-2, Kuznetsova came out of the opening set victorious, despite her 31 unforced errors. In the second set Wozniacki came back from a 4-1 deficit to take the match to the third set, through which she cruised.

Kuznetsova actually finished the match with a total of 78 unforced errors to Wozniacki's 26. Of course, Kuznetsova hit more winners, 40 to her opponent's 20.

Wozniacki’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be tenth seed Andrea Petkovic who defeated Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1 6-4 in the fourth round.

Additional info: Wozniacki, as well as Maria Sharapova, are the first players to qualify for the TEB-BNP Paribas WTA Championships, to take place in Istanbul, Turkey. It will be Wozniacki's third straight year to play the elite year-end Championships, while Sharapova hadn't qualified since 2007. (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 »

American Christina McHale made big news last week at the Western & Southern Open with her upset of world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in the second round and at this week's New Haven Open the 19-year-old has already attracted attention again – she upset two-time Grand Slam and 2007 New Haven champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the first round.

Wildcard McHale was trailing 4-2 in the first set against the sixth-seeded Kuznetsova before winning three straight games and later taking the set 7-5. The second set featured six breaks of serve, four by McHale. Final score: 7-5 6-3.

Let's mention that this was not the first victory of McHale over Kuznetsova. They played each other this year at Indian Wells and McHale won 7-6(4) 7-6(7).

McHale is ten places higher ranked that last week. She's risen from No.76 to No.66.

Reminder: Caroline Wozniacki, that I mentioned in the beginning of the article, is looking for her fourth successive New Haven title this week. (via ESPN, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Monday at the Rogers Cup was a bad day for seeded players, as only one advanced and three of the other four fell to qualifiers in their opening matches.

The first in action was the winning seed, Samantha Stosur, but even her victory came only after she lost the first set 6-4 to Ayumi Morita. Final score: 4-6 6-2 6-3.

No.9 seed Marion Bartoli had won 19 of her last 23 matches, including her Eastbourne title, and had a perfect 4-0 head-to-head record against Galina Voskoboeva, but in the first round of the Rogers Cup the Kazakh qualifier was better and took Bartoli out 6-3 6-3. It is Voskoboeva's first Top 10 victory and at the recent Baku Cup she played her first WTA semifinals. Read more »

Caroline Wozniacki raced to the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships title without losing a set, including the final against Svetlana Kuznetsova, while playing the tournament only for the second time (last year she lost in the third round to Shahar Peer). Championship match score: 6-1 6-3.

The unfortunate Kuznetsova is still awaiting her first Dubai title, even though today's final was her third at the tournament – in 2004 she fell to Justine Henin and in 2008 to Elena Demetieva. The final appearance will still bring a nice improvement in world No.23 Kuznetsova's ranking – at least ten spots.

Not only did Wozniacki win the high-profile tournament of Dubai, but she also ensured her comeback to top ranking position, with a quarterfinal win over Shahar Peer. By further progressing in the event, and eventually winning the title, Wozniacki is projected to occupy the No.1 spot for at least next four weeks.

The title is Wozniacki's 13th and her first in 2011. As for financial gain, Wozniacki earned $360,000, while Kuznetsova earned $180,000. (photo via Dubai tournament)

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki defeated qualifier Ayumi Morita 6-1 6-0 to reach the quarterfinals of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships, and ninth-seeded Israeli Shahar Peer, who says to be feeling like home in Dubai despite all the security measures, is the last obstacle standing between the Dane and her regaining of the No.1 ranking. Shahar was a semifinalist last year in Dubai, and her route to the final four included a straight set victory over Wozniacki in the third round.

Second-seeded Vera Zvonareva played one of her worst matches in a while, as she later stated, and lost to fellow Russian Alisa Kleybanova 6-3 6-2.

The third round also featured a rematch of the epic Australian Open third round encounter between Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova. In Australia, Schiavone saved six match points and won the longest women's Grand Slam match in history, while today in Dubai she also saved six match points, but finally succumbed, 1-6 6-0 7-5.

"It's good, because I still have our last match in my heart. I still have this pain, because I fought so hard and I had so many chances and it was a Grand Slam. But it happens, I guess. I won this time," said Kuznetsova, who lost the first set. (via WTA Tour, photo: Ralf Reinecke)

On the left you can see the results of this weekend’s Fed Cup action in World Group.

The first thing I’d like to point out is that Russia recovered their Saturday’s two hurtful losses on home soil in Moscow (Svetlana Kuznetsova’s to Alize Cornet, and Maria Sharapova’s to Virginie Razzano) and defeated France 3-2 to reach the semifinals. At least on paper, the improvement happened when Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova replaced Maria Sharapova! Pavlyuchenkova defeated Cornet, Kuznetsova defeated Razzano, and the two of them together clinched victory for Russia by winning the deciding doubles over Julie Coin and Pauline Parmentier.

Russia will play holders Italy in April’s semifinals. Italy eased past Australia 4-1, and that result includes the repeat of the 2010 French Open final in which Francesca Schiavone beat Samantha Stosur.

The other semifinal will feature Belgium and the Czech Republic. Belgium won 4-1 against the United States, last year's runners-up. Kim Clijsters and Yanina Wickmayer both won their two singles matches. As for the Czech Republic, they earned an unassailable 3-0 lead with Petra Kvitova’s victory over Daniela Hantuchova in the first singles match on Sunday. Later, Czech Lucie Safarova retired from the match against Slovak Jana Cepelova in the third set, and the Slovaks won the doubles, so the final score is 3-2.

Additional info: You must be expecting me to update you on the Serbia vs. Canada World Group II tie. Well, Serbia won 3-2 after a deciding tight doubles match! By winning all the matches she played, Bojana Jovanovski just confirmed her status of a solid player rushing to the very top, but there is more great news – Serbia has a new tennis prospect lurking, Aleksandra Krunic took our hearts and showed that she is also the one to watch! The 17-year-old Krunic closely lost her singles match against Rebecca Marino on Saturday, but then didn't let the disappointment repeat and earned the victory for Serbia in the decisive doubles, teamed up with Bojana Jovanovski. (photo via Fed Cup)