Some of the WTA Tour players dressed elegantly last night for the annual Ralph Lauren Sony Ericsson Pre-Wimbledon Party hosted by Richard Branson at The Roof Gardens.

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Sixth seed Vera Zvonareva has officially pulled out from the 2009 French Open.

The Russian sustained an ankle injury chasing a ball last month at the Family Circle Cup, and we can’t say we didn’t expect her to withdraw from the French Open. However, it’s a huge shame, since uninjured Zvonareva could have done very well at the Grand Slam.

Lucky loser Katie O'Brien of Britain will take Zvonareva’s spot in the draw. (photo courtesy of Women Who Serve)

Vera Zvonareva has been named a "Promoter of Gender Equality" as part of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's partnership with UNESCO.

Zvonareva’s role will be to raise awareness of gender equality issues, and have a direct involvement in current and future women's leadership programs to be developed through the UNESCO-Tour partnership.

Here's what the world No.6 Russian said about the honor:

I think that the UNESCO-Sony Ericsson WTA Tour partnership is incredibly important and this is a role that I value highly and will work extremely hard in helping young girls and women all around the world to gain better opportunities to succeed in whatever they wish to do. In particular I very much believe in the importance and value of education and the rights of all women and girls to have equal access to it.

Other WTA players that already have that role are Venus Williams, Tatiana Golovin and Zheng Jie, as well as Tour founder Billie Jean King, who was named "Global Mentor for Gender Equality" in November last year. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo: Stephane Martinache)

Russian world number six Vera Zvonareva signed with IMG, global sports and entertainment company, for exclusive worldwide marketing and management representation.

"I feel like I have worked really hard and accomplished quite a lot on court the last six months and working with a company like IMG, that has such a worldwide presence will  help me capitalize on these results.  It will be great to have a global team guiding and helping me to take care of my business career so I can focus on my tennis," said the 24-year-old Zvonareva.

Fernando Soler, Head of IMG’s Tennis Division, added, "We are really looking forward to working with Vera at this exciting time in her career.  She is a very talented athlete with tremendous potential and we are thrilled she has chosen IMG to further develop her blossoming tennis career."

The only bad thing is that Zvonareva’s amazing form has been interrupted by an ankle injury sustained at Charleston this month. Her doctors have declared that she will be out from two to twelve weeks. (photo via Forty Deuce)

Last week, before my leaving for Prague, I promised to make a summary of all the things I would have missed in the tennis world, and here it is.

Sabine Lisicki and Roberta Vinci were victorious, Lisicki at the Family Circle Cup, and Vinci at the Barcelona Ladies Open.

Two weeks ago we announced that Dinara Safina was to overtake Serena Williams at the top of the rankings, and that day has come today. It’s interesting to point out that Safina and her older brother Marat Safin are the only brother-sister duo to have been No.1 in professional tennis.

Ana Ivanovic made some family photos public and also updated her online diary, talking about the Easter traditions in Serbia. I can make a note that Serbs are Orthodox Christians and their church calendar is the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar, so Easter in Serbia was celebrated yesterday, April 19.

In addition, Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams have been nominated for 2009 Laureus World Sports Awards.

Maria Sharapova is supposedly about to return before the French Open. Russia's Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev said: "I spoke with her father the day before yesterday and he told me that she is training seriously for Roland Garros. She is getting ready to play a couple of tournaments before the French Open. Maria is now back to full training. We can only hope that she does well." I have to see it to believe it, though.

Of course, Sharapova’s continuing her modeling career. The latest are her photos for Nike, and Nike must have known we missed Masha, so they gave us plenty of her in one place.

Vera Zvonareva badly hurt her ankle while playing against Virginie Razzano at the Family Circle Cup. She has two torn ligaments, one full tear and one partial.

Zheng Jie signed with ANTA, the Chinese brand already promoted by Jelena Jankovic. The Asia’s No. 1 WTA player also visited her home province of Sichuan, the first time after the devastating earthquake hit it last year in May. Don’t forget that Zheng donated her Wimbledon prize money to help the victims of the disaster.

I hope this summary is giving you a nice overview of the events I missed to report because of my Prague adventures.

Glad to be back blogging,

Marija

After claiming the 2009 Indian Wells doubles title with Victoria Azarenka, Vera Zvonareva went on to win in singles too, defeating defending champion Ana Ivanovic 7-6(5) 6-2 in the Sunday’s final.

The fifth-seeded Ivanovic started both sets with a 2-0 lead. In the first set Zvonareva won four games in a row to give herself a 4-2 lead, then Ivanovic came back and was even close to taking the first set, but lost in the tiebreak, while in the second the fourth-seeded Zvonareva won all the games after Ivanovic’s initial lead.

Russia's Zvonareva has won her ninth career singles title on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, and second this season.

Zvonareva is projected to replace Venus Williams at the No.5 spot when the rankings are released on Monday. Ivanovic will remain world No.7. (photo via Yahoo)

Ana Ivanovic is now one step away from defending her Indian Wells title, but she will have to overcome red-hot Vera Zvonareva.

The fourth-seeded Zvonareva reached the final by beating doubles partner Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-3. The Russian didn’t drop serve once during the semifinal, and broke the eighth-seeded Azarenka a total of three times.

"It wasn't much of an experience. It was just a wasted match," Azarenka said. "I didn't play the game I needed to play. It was only unforced errors for me. Vera played well, but I didn't do even 10% of my game."

Despite the loss, Azarenka is projected to debut in the Top 10 when the new rankings are released on Monday.

Ivanovic, the fifth seed, put an end to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova’s dream run, defeating the unseeded 17-year-old 6-2 6-3. Pavlyuchenkova scored her first two Top 10 wins at this year’s Indian Wells by upsetting Jelena Jankovic and Agnieszka Radwanska, but couldn’t get past the defending champion.

The eighth career meeting between Zvonareva and Ivanovic is scheduled for Sunday. (source and photos: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Top seed Vera Zvonareva defeated Sania Mirza 7-5 6-1 in the final of the PTT Pattaya Open to win her eighth career title.

The Russian world No.5 was tested in a long first set, but showed her class in the second when she finished off the error-prone Indian.

The world No.126 Mirza was making her fourth career Tour final appearance and first since 2007 Stanford, where she lost to Anna Chakvetadze, while Zvonareva had lost her three previous finals, all in 2008. (source: Reuters)