Venus Williams defended her Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships crown by beating Victoria Azarenka of Belorussia 6-3 7-5 in the final.

The third-seeded Williams benefited from the sole break of Azarenka’s serve in the seventh game to take the first set 6-3. The American continued well and with a 3-1 lead in the second set she seemed to be cruising to victory. However, the fourth-seeded Azarenka then won three successive games. Still, Williams later broke again to establish a 6-5 lead and held her serve to win the tournament.

World No.5 Venus Williams currently possesses the largest number of WTA singles titles among active women’s tennis players. She has now won her 42th, while Justine Henin comes in second with 41.

Last year in Dubai Williams defended the rights of Shahar Peer, the Israeli who was not given a visa to come to the UAE, and this year the American seven-time Grand Slam champion had the honor of beating that same Shahar Peer in the semifinals and later even claiming second straight title at the $2-million tournament. It's also worth mentioning that Peer will return to the Top 20. (photo via Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships)

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The fourth round came to a close on Day 8 of the 2010 Australian Open. Both Serena and Venus Williams progressed, as well as Chinese Li Na and Belorussian Victoria Azarenka.

Top seed Serena Williams routinely defeated home favorite Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-2 in the fourth round. The impressive performance by the American saw her lose only seven points on serve throughout the match, including one double-fault in the second set.

Serena’s opponent in the quarterfinals will be seventh-seeded Victoria Azarenka who won the day’s final match, coming back from a set down to beat Russian Vera Zvonareva 4-6 6-4 6-0 in almost two and a half hours.

Venus Williams had more trouble advancing to the quarterfinals than her sister Serena. The sixth seed lost the first set and was a break down in the second before recovering for a 3-6 6-2 6-1 victory against Italian Francesca Schiavone.

Next for Venus will be seed No.16 Li Na of China who upset fourth seed Caroline Wozniacki 6-4 6-3 to join countrywoman Zheng Jie in the last eight, thus making history for China – it is the first time two Chinese players are in the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event. Li Na and Venus Williams have had only one career meeting, at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, and the winner was Li.

Other quarterfinal pairs include Justine Henin vs. Nadia Petrova and Zheng Jie vs. Maria Kirilenko. (photo via Australian Open)

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Victoria Azarenka is making her debut in our retrospections of players' yearly outfits, thanks to a kind request of our regular reader LuLinQa.

Azarenka is sporting Nike, and looking at all her 2009 outfits in one place I can say that they are the perfect choice for widespread use (in the large portion of Maria Sharapova’s you would stand out too much). All the outfits are well-designed, the colors are just right, and we know that Nike doesn't fail with the quality.

My favorite is the French Open dress, without doubt. I love the simple, yet interesting design, especially the back. The dress is the same as the one she wore in Miami, Rome and Madrid, but I prefer the blue Roland Garros version because it's more eye-catching.

Notice that headbands and visors are a must in Azarenka’s on-court appearance.

What do you think of Azarenka’s outfits? Which one is your favorite?

By the way, this is the first time we are doing a retrospection of players’ outfits in slides. Do you like this new medium?

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Our dear reader Teerin is contributing to Women's Tennis Blog once again, this time by creating a countdown of the best moments in the 2009 tennis season.

Teerin would like to have been able to include more memorable situations, but YouTube videos can't be more than 10 minutes long. Which WTA moments would you add to Teerin's Top 10? I would include the emotional retirement of Ai Sugiyama and also, I would put Kim Clijsters' US Open win on top of the list.

Teerin, thank you so much for your continuous and active support of Women's Tennis Blog.

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Dinara Safina handed a match to Jelena Jankovic, pulling out from the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha when serving at 1-1 in the first set. The reason for the Russian’s withdrawal is a back injury, which is likely to prevent her from playing the start of the next season, including the 2010 Australian Open.

Safina said the bone structure in her lower back is "starting to fracture", and that she has had the injury for three months. Today, she couldn't handle the pain.

Jankovic lost her first round-robin match to Victoria Azarenka, so this present from Safina must have been welcome.

Safina regained the top-ranking on Monday, but she will again hand it to Serena Williams, who will finish a season at No.1 for the second time in her career.

Earlier in the day, Caroline Wozniacki beat Victoria Azarenka 1-6 6-4 7-5, recovering from a first set blowout and saving a match point in the third set. Azarenka was leading by a break four times in the decider, but Wozniacki fought back each time. It was Wozniacki's first match at the Sony Ericsson Championships ever. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

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