The 2011 season has just started and we're already thinking about the year-end rankings. Our friend John Bolan used a number of indicators to calculate how the Top 10 will look at the end of 2011. Isn't this a perfect time to get playful and test our projection abilities?

My friends and I play a game each year before the new tennis season begins: "Name the Top 10 players in order at the end of the year". We all have favorites, but I try to use a little logic in the picks.

First, see where the players finished this year. Then think about which good players have been injured for long periods during 2010. Finally, consider how many points players have to lose. Players with many points now must play better than players with fewer points to retain their ranking. Of course we all have personal favorites and think that different players will either rise or sink in the rankings.

My pick for number 1, Victoria Azarenka, has a combination of all the above factors – she has been injured, has fewer points to lose than anyone else in the Top 10, and is definitely a rising young star. Number 2, Justine Henin, and number 3, Maria Sharapova, also fit in the same mold.

One can’t forget to rank the Top 3 players from 2010. Kim Clijsters, Caroline Wozniacki and Vera Zvonareva are my next 3 picks. Although they have many points to subtract, they are the best 3 players in 2010.

Number 7 is Yanina Wickmayer. She is young and very strong. 2011 will be her breakout year.

Dinara Safina has very few points to lose, has been injured all 2010 and has more to prove than any other player. She will be back in the Top 10. Dinara is also my pick for a comeback player of the year 2011.

Ana Ivanovic is determined. She is working very hard.

In the last spot is Jelena Jankovic who will be steadier in 2011 and hold onto her Top 10 ranking.

There is no expectation on my part that any of you will agree with me on these picks! That is why we play the game! So use the comments and make your picks!

It will be interesting to get back to these projections when the 2011 season finishes. The time will come before we know it! (photos: Karla St John, John Bolan)

As you know, Women's Tennis Blog is currently on vacation, but I've prepared a number of interesting posts to keep you entertained while I'm away. Even though I won't be updating about tennis happenings in Brisbane, Auckland, Sydney and Hobart, I will give you a bunch of great posts and the first in the series is the compilation of photos of top women's tennis players and their mothers. Enjoy!

Let's start with Caroline Wozniacki and her mother, Anna Wozniacki. Caroline is coached by her father, Piotr, who played professional soccer, but her mother was also an athlete, having played on the Polish women's national volleyball team.

Vera Zvonareva's mother Nataliya Bykova played field hockey and was a bronze medalist at the 1980 Moscow Olympic Games. You can read a very nice story Nataliya herself told a magazine about Vera's early life and the beginnings of her tennis career.

Kim Clijsters' mother is Els Vandecaetsbeek (the blond woman in the picture), a former national gymnastics champion. Kim claims to have inherited gymnast's flexibility from her mother. Read more »

Many brands found their place in our yearly retrospections of WTA players' outfits, most of them even a lot of times, but we had never featured K-Swiss. Their representative, Vera Zvonareva, was doing really good this year – the Russian reached her career-high ranking of No.2 and played two Grand Slam finals (US Open and Wimbledon), therefore it's the perfect time to have a closer look at the sportswear brand of K-Swiss.

As you can see, Zvonareva wore several different outfits during the season, but most of them had a few versions: long sleeves, short sleeves, straps, just a different skirt or a different top, and she constantly diversified in that way.

Read more »

World No.2 Vera Zvonareva received the Best Tennis Player award in her hometown of Moscow, Russia, and eagerly shared her excitement on Twitter.

I got an award from the hands of the chief of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Naryshkin!

It is an honor for me to be recognized in my home country! Thank u so much!!!

In addition, we learned that Zvonareva plans to finish her studies next year and get a degree in International Economics. The topic of her thesis is interesting, as she blended her career of an athlete with economics: Sport as an Instrument in Raising Russia’s Competitiveness in the World. (source: GoTennis.ru via Tennis Info Blog)

Twitter is huge these days and a lot of women’s tennis players are active there so you can get a lot of first-hand info if you follow what they are tweeting. To make it easy for us to be up-to-date with what WTA players are saying, I made a cool widget which compiles all the players’ tweets, and you can see it even if you don’t have a Twitter account.

My list currently includes 35 players such as Caroline Wozniacki, Victoria Azarenka, Serena Williams, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Daniela Hantuchova, Dominika Cibulkova, Venus Williams, Andrea Petkovic, Vera Zvonareva, Kim Clijsters, Sania Mirza, Bethanie Mattek Sands, and many others, and I will add more as more players join Twitter.

To see what players are saying just visit Women’s Tennis Blog and scroll down to the widget located below the fourth post on the homepage. It looks like this:

I hope you like this new addition to Women’s Tennis Blog. If you think I missed out on someone, let me know and I will add them to the list! (photos: Ralf Reinecke, Women Who Serve)

Vera Zvonareva played one of her longest two-setters to record her second win at the 2010 WTA Championships. The second-seeded Zvonareva saw off Victoria Azarenka 7-6(4) 6-4, but only after recovering from 2-4 in the first set and 1-3 in the second. Seed number eight Azarenka came to Doha fresh off her Premier-level Kremlin Cup title, but that very victory in the Russian capital gave her less time to prepare for the season-ending Championships. Zvonareva is now the leader in the White Group with 4-0 set win/loss record.

In the second match of the day, Kim Clijsters, playing her first match since winning the US Open in September, opened her Doha campaign with a 6-2 6-3 win over Jelena Jankovic. The third-seeded Clijsters hit seven aces, but double faults were her weak point this time as she made a total of 10. The Belgian is the only player in the field to have won the WTA Championships in the past and she achieved that feat two times, in 2002 and 2003.

In the Maroon Group, Samantha Stosur pulled off the first upset of the tournament by beating world number one Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-3, without even losing her serve. Stosur did face break points, but saved all six of them, while she converted two of her three opportunities to break the top-seeded Wozniacki. Stosur is now the best performer in her group, with 4-0 set win/loss record. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Dear readers, Women's Tennis Blog has become an attractive place for guest posters. This time Jay from www.OnCourtAdvantage.com wanted to contribute his preview of the Sony Ericsson Championships. Check out his favorites for the prestigious Doha title.

The Sony Ericsson Championships (SEC) have begun and will run for 6 days through to Women’s Singles Final on Sunday 31 October. Due to the unique Round Robin format used for this tournament we are blessed with the fantastic opportunity to see these top players clash more often than in any other tournament.

The SEC will produce a number of rematches of Grand Slam quarterfinals, semifinals and singles finals like Schiavone versus Stosur (2010 Roland Garros Final), Clijsters versus Wozniacki (2009 US Open Final) and Clijsters versus Zvonareva (2010 US Open Final).

In no other tournament are you required to beat at least 4 if not 5, of the world’s Top 8 ranked players to win the title. The degree of difficulty is extreme and at least one player will show us the qualities of a true champion this week.

The maroon group is:

(1) Caroline Wozniacki
(4) Francesca Schiavone
(5) Samantha Stosur
(7) Elena Dementieva

The white group is:

(2) Vera Zvonareva
(3) Kim Clijsters
(6) Jelena Jankovic
(8) Victoria Azarenka

Predictions:

Let me just warn you that in tennis more than any other sport you should never bet on the outcome of a match. Instead invest your funds into enjoying, watching, playing and improving the great game we love.

Anyone who REALLY understands this game knows that in the vast majority of matches, both players will have critical moments and opportunities that can swing the match either way and often there can be a number of these situations with the same match.

On any given day it is the player who in the above mentioned situations that can:

Produce the better strategic nous;
Make the better decisions;
Execute their shots during the BIG points; and
Copes best with mental challenges that usually dictate who triumphs on the day.
But if you really want a prediction THEN…

Who will make the semifinals?

The maroon group:

Based on the form that has taken the 20-year-old Wozniacki to be the current World No.1, you would have to lean towards the 1.77m Dane as the favorite to win her group. The youngest player in the field leads the WTA Tour in match wins – 59 – and singles titles this year, 6 titles from 7 finals.

The 1.66m Schiavone would probably be the next best chance to take the second semifinal spot. The eldest player in the field is in great physical condition and will be prepared to peak this week and in the Federation Cup Final following the SEC.

The 30-year-old Italian has enormous pride in representing her country and in her own performance, which suggests she will fight relentlessly. The steely resolve of the Lioness could prove too much for Dementieva’s fragile ankle and Stosur’s current lack of confidence.

The 29-year-old Dementieva forfeited with an ankle injury last week in Luxembourg as she did in the 2010 Roland Garros semifinals. The 1.8m Russian’s strongest component of her game is her court movement and court coverage, so if that is compromised it will be much tougher for her.

The 26-year-old Stosur has not been in good form recently but does possess a serve and forehand that can win her matches. The 1.72m Australian is well suited to hard courts and has won her most recent match against Wozniacki and Dementieva. Stosur also holds a winning record over Schiavone.

Best Guess = No.1 Schiavone and No.2 Wozniacki. Read more »

The first two matches at the WTA Championships in Doha finished very quickly, with Vera Zvonareva and Caroline Wozniacki handily defeating their opponents.

Zvonareva lost just three games against Jelena Jankovic in the White Group and it’s Zvonareva’s fourth straight victory over Jankovic, which includes the defeat of Jankovic in 2008 at the same tournament. The second-seeded Zvonareva won eight straight games from 4-3 in the first set and finished the match 6-3 6-0.

The second match of the $4.55-million season-ending event was played in the Maroon Group, and top-seeded Wozniacki thrashed Russia's Elena Dementieva 6-1 6-1. Dementieva came to Doha troubled by an ankle injury which forced her to withdraw from last week’s tournament in Luxembourg.

Zvonareva could take the No.1 ranking from Wozniacki if two conditions are met: 1) that Zvonareva reaches the final unbeaten 2) that Wozniacki doesn't win more than one match. (photos: angelicalbite)