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)

As our reader Brenda from Argentina asked for my overview of the 2011 Australian Open tennis fashion, here it is – a little bit of every brand, a little bit of good and bad.

Let's not save the best for the last. Let's start with by far the biggest fashion attention-grabber of the tournament – Venus Williams. The American played three matches (actually two, but she started her third one) and showcased the same number of outfits. The following one is the unofficial ugliest tennis outfit of the decade.

Venus, a graduate in fashion design and the person behind clothing line EleVen, made the outfits herself.

Believe it or not, Venus' dresses, or whatever they can be called, have gained a fan base. Whoever likes Venus' latest EleVen dresses, please leave a comment! I'm sure the world would love to hear your reasoning.

I'd like to continue with Nadia Petrova, the representative of Ellesse. Petrova has also had some colorful and imaginative styles (remember her US Open 2010 outfit that had stripes of all the possible colors?). There might be sound logic behind Petrova's support of EleVen.

Another fashion favorite is always Aravane Rezai. Even though this time her family drama attracted more attention than her dress, the Frenchwoman stayed faithful to the touch of crazy uniqueness. Although, she definitely can do better!

Let's move on to adidas – plenty of it. Read more »

After a three-hour third set and six match points saved, Francesca Schiavone defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova and advanced to the quarterfinals of the 2011 Australian Open. It is now the longest women’s Grand Slam match in history. It lasted 4 hours and 44 minutes, and included a stunning 30-game third set. Final score: 6-4 1-6 16-14. During the course of the match, 358 points were played!

The match was 25 minutes longer than the previous longest women’s Grand Slam match – the 4 hours and 19 minutes encounter between Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova and Regina Kulikova at last year’s Australian Open. Read more »

Seven-time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin had been playing the Australian Open final three times in her last four appearances, including last year when the Belgian reached the championship match on her comeback, but this year Svetlana Kuznetsova stopped the former No.1 in the third round and handed Henin her earliest Grand Slam exit since Wimbledon 2005, with a 6-4 7-6(8) win.

Henin seemed affected by an elbow injury which prevented her from playing the second part of the 2010 season, as she made 41 unforced errors. In the second set Henin came back from a break down twice, and gave the 23rd-seeded Kuznetsova a hard time in the tiebreak, but the Russian won on her fourth match point and scored only her third victory over Henin in their 19 meetings.

Top seed Caroline Wozniacki avenged her second round loss to Dominika Cibulkova last week in Sydney, defeating the Slovakian 6-4 6-3 to advance to the fourth round. Wozniacki made equal number of winners and unforced errors (11-11), while Cibulkova outweighed her 31 winners with 41 unforced errors.

Next for Kuznetsova is Francesca Schiavone, and Wozniacki’s next opponent is unseeded Anastasija Sevastova.

As for Maria Sharapova, she screamed off a stiff challenge from Julia Goerges and won the match 4-6 6-4 6-4.

Dominika Cibulkova reached her second US Open quarterfinal in two years by upsetting eleventh seed and 2004 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round. Later, top seed Caroline Wozniacki recorded one of the most significant victories of her career by defeating Maria Sharapova for the first time and by building on the momentum gained in the previous three rounds of the US Open in which the Dane lost a total of just three games. The two winners will face each other in the quarterfinals.

Despite a fragile thigh and being down in both sets, the world No.45 Cibulkova defeated Kuznetsova in straight sets, 7-5 7-6(4). The Slovakian could have finished the match earlier, as she served for the second set at 5-3, but Kuznetsova saved two match points and the set went to a tiebreak. The Slovakian didn’t let her opportunity slip away and won that tiebreak to deny Kuznetsova her 101th Grand Slam victory. During the match Kuznetsova made 42 unforced errors and double-faulted 10 times.

Here’s what Cibulkova said afterwards:

I was really pumped for this. I knew I could make it and that I could beat everybody in this tournament. I still feel like that.

The fourth round match between last year’s US Open runner-up Wozniacki and 2006 US Open champion Sharapova was highly anticipated, partly because it was a big test for Wozniacki’s great form but also a big test for more established Sharapova, and the two didn’t disappoint, providing tennis fans with big-hitting contest.

Both Wozniacki and Sharapova had very low break point conversion percentages – Wozniacki just 25% (converting 3 of 12 break points), and Sharapova just 11% (making use of only 1 out of 9 break points). Sharapova also had much more double faults and unforced errors than Wozniacki – nine double faults to Wozniacki’s three, and 36 unforced errors to Wozniacki’s 10. Final match result: 6-3 6-4.

Wozniacki has won the last four meetings against her next opponent Cibulkova, dating back to 2008, and all of them were on hard courts. The Dane is now more than ever a serious contender for a Grand Slam title, and if the repeat of the last year’s final with Kim Clijsters materializes, Wozniacki will be much more likely to go all the way. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Women's tennis fashion is attracting a lot of attention, especially at Grand Slams when clothing sponsors and players try to showcase the best they have. So let's see what they've come up for the 2010 US Open.

I'll start with adidas, my overall favorite, as they always make outfits that have a glamorous touch but can also be easily worn at everyday practice.

Daniela Hantuchova and Ana Ivanovic are sporting pink adidas Women's Fall adilibria Dress.

Russians Dinara Safina and Maria Kirilenko are clad in adidas Barricade Top and Skort.

Caroline Wozniacki is looking great in Stella McCartney Tennis Performance Dress, contrasting nicely with Tennis Performance Bra Top. Elena Dementieva and Yonex once again failed to impress with design and fellow blogger C Note, who saw the dress live at the US Open, said that it even looks two sizes too big on Dementieva.

As usual for a Grand Slam, Maria Sharapova has two versions of a Nike dress – one for day matches and a darker piece for night. When we reviewed the dresses from the photos prior to the Open they looked somewhat questionable, but when seen on Sharapova they are a perfect match. You can see the dresses closer here and here.

Read more »

Fourth seed Jelena Jankovic had a tough opening match at the US Open against world No.96 Simona Halep of Romania. As Jankovic said, she wasn’t playing her best tennis, but was able to get through.

The 2008 US Open finalist Jankovic lost the first set and found the 18-year-old Halep serving for the match at 5-4 in the decider. Halep was actually two points away from victory, but Jankovic then broke her serve and won all the remaining games to advance to the second round. Final score: 4-6 6-4 7-5.

Halep made her Grand Slam debut at this year’s French Open and lost in the first round as well.

Seed No.11 Svetlana Kuznetsova was pushed to three sets, 6-2 4-6 6-1, in her first round match against Japanese veteran Kimiko Date Krumm, whose last match in the US Open’s main draw prior to her this year’s appearance was a loss in the first round in 1996.

Kateryna Bondarenko sent home eighth-seeded Li Na with a 2-6 6-4 6-2 victory. Li, who reached at least the fourth round in her last three appearances at the US Open, blamed the heat for the defeat and her inability to cope with it. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)