Vera Zvonareva is looking for her third straight title at the PTT Pattaya Open. The top-seeded Russian started off well, with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Tamira Paszek in the first round. Actually, in the first set Zvonareva had a 1-3 deficit, but overcame it and will next play 475th-ranked Thai qualifier, Nungnadda Wannasuk. Zvonareva now has a 13-2 record at the PTT Pattaya Open and her Tuesday’s win is her 11th straight at this tournament.

Second seed Ana Ivanovic was playing only her second WTA match of the season, after her first-round exit at the Australian Open, and beat Nudnida Luangnam 6-0 6-2. By the way, Ivanovic’s trial period with Portuguese coach Antonio van Griche has ended, and they are not continuing their cooperation.

Seventh seed Zheng Jie was taken out by Akgul Amanmuradova, 6-4 7-6(6). She was the only seed that fell on Tuesday. Last year’s finalist Tamarine Tanasugarn is also out, as Ayumi Morita defeated her 6-3 6-2.

Seeds that advanced are No. 4 Daniela Hantuchova, No.5 Roberta Vinci and No.8 Sara Errani. (photo: chascow)

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 »

China’s Li Na has retained her perfect match record this season by upsetting world No.1 and top seed Caroline Wozniacki and becoming the first Asian player in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam final in singles.

The victory didn't come without excitement – Wozniacki took the first set as Li made 17 unforced errors to 7 winners, and then the Dane had a match point at 5-4 in the second set. The thing that makes tennis amazing is that it's never over til it's over – Li shot a risky forehand, saved the match point and eventually won the set 7-5. In the third set Li again had more unforced errors than winners, although only two more, but Wozniacki hit zero winners! Can't beat that!

The ninth-seeded Li won the match 3-6 7-5 6-3 and continued to write tennis history for China.

Li’s opponent in the championship match will be Kim Clijsters, who has played in the finals of three of four Grand Slams, although she was victorious only at the US Open. With a 6-3 6-3 victory over second seed Vera Zvonareva in the semis, third-seeded Clijsters closely approached her second straight Grand Slam title.  But before the Belgian holds the winner's trophy, she'll have to overcome Li, who defeated her this month in the Sydney final. As for overall career record, Clijsters leads Li 4-2.

Additional info: Reuters has a great factbox about the progress of Chinese tennis. (photos: Tidalist)

Vera Zvonareva and Kim Clijsters joined Caroline Wozniacki and Li Na in the semifinals of the 2011 Australian Open, after the Russian second seed defeated Petra Kvitova 6-2 6-4 and the Belgian third seed defeated Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3 7-6(4). This means that we have the top three seeds in the semis, and Li who is yet to lose a match this season.

Zvonareva reached her third successive Grand Slam semifinal, in straight sets, but not before Kvitova, who had upset Samantha Stosur and Flavia Pennetta earlier in the tournement, went from 0-4 to 2-4 in the first set, and more importantly, from 0-3 to 4-3 in the second. Clijsters also advanced in straight sets against Radwanska, who was playing her first tournament in three months.

The semifinal pair of Zvonareva and Clijsters has met 9 times in their careers. Clijsters won their first five meetings, until 2006, but from then on Zvonareva won three of their four matches, all happening in 2010. (source: WTA Tour, photo: Upali)

Second seed Vera Zvonareva is two matches away from reaching her third successive Grand Slam final (after Wimbledon and US Open last year), as she edged the first set and cruised through the second for a 6-4 6-1 victory over unseeded Iveta Benesova.

Zvonareva’s quarterfinal opponent will be Wimbledon 2010 surprise semifinalist Petra Kvitova, who took out fifth seed Samantha Stosur in the third round and on Monday she fought back to beat Flavia Pennetta, seed No.22, 3-6 6-3 6-3.

After wasting six break opportunities, Kim Clijsters was pushed to tiebreak by unseeded Ekaterina Makarova in the first set. The third-seeded Clijsters won the tiebreak 7-3, and soon after the whole match 7-6(3) 6-2.

Quarterfinal pairs (seeding is in brackets):

(1) Caroline Wozniacki vs. (6) Francesca Schiavone
(30) Andrea Petkovic vs. (9) Li Na
(12) Agnieszka Radwanska vs. (3) Kim Clijsters
(25) Petra Kvitova vs. (2) Vera Zvonareva

(photo: © Neal Trousdale)