World No.1 Victoria Azarenka survived a leg injury which did impair her movement and defeated Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals of the Qatar Total Open for her 16th straight win this year.

Azarenka won the first set 6-2 and after an exchange of breaks in the beginning of the second set at 1-1, the top seed made a bad step on her left leg and injured it so that she needed a medical timeout and the consequences on her movement were visible. However, Radwanska didn't take advantage of her opponent's troubled movement. Even though Azarenka lost a game full of unforced errors on her side and trailed 1-2, from then on she was on a roll, broke Radwanska's serve two times, including without losing a single point for a 5-2 lead. Azarenka didn't manage to serve out the match right away and dropped serve, but in her next service game she was perfect and closed out the match to love. Final score: 6-2 6-4.

We'll see how Azarenka's injury will react when it cools off and how ready she will be for the final against Samantha Stosur, who advanced when Marion Bartoli retired with a right calf injury at 6-3 for Stosur. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

Victoria Azarenka won Sydney, then the Australian Open, and now in Doha she comfortably reached the semifinals with a 6-0 6-4 victory over Yanina Wickmayer, which is her 15th consecutive match win this year. What do you think of her way of claiming and confirming her No.1 ranking?

In all her three Doha matches, against Mona Barthel, Simona Halep and now Yanina Wickmayer, the top-seeded Azarenka was dominant. The first set of the quarterfinal Azarenka even called "a perfect set", while the second set wasn't far from great either, as even though Wickmayer broke her two times to get the match back on serve, Azarenka kept striding forward and closed out the match with a love service game.

In the semifinals Azarenka will play fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who defeated Christina McHale 6-1 6-1. The other semifinal will feature third seed Samantha Stosur and fifth seed Marion Bartoli. Stosur made her way past Monica Niculescu 6-2 2-6 6-3, and Bartoli also went through in three sets, against Lucie Safarova 7-5 4-6 6-1. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka is safely through to the quarterfinals of the Qatar Total Open after overcoming Simona Halep's resistance early in their third round match. The world No.63 Halep took Azarenka's serve and held for a 3-1 lead in the beginning of the match, but from then on it was all Azarenka, as the seed No.1 won ten straight games for 6-3 5-0, before winning the match 6-3 6-1.

Yanina Wickmayer will be Azarenka's opponent in the quarterfinals. The Belgian, who took out seventh seed Francesca Schiavone in the second round, advanced to the final eight with a 6-4 6-0 victory over Ksenia Pervak. Wickmayer and Azarenka will meet for the first time. (photo: Johan Rivera, follow him on Twitter @HobbiesPlus)

One of the greatest singers of all time, Whitney Houston, passed away at the age of 48 on February 11, and the whole world was struck, including the WTA community. Therefore, I decided to make a WTA tribute to Whitney by compiling tweets of women's tennis players mentioning the voice behind so many timeless love songs.

Serena Williams

Caroline Wozniacki

Dinara Safina

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Victoria Azarenka

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The status of a new WTA number one and a Grand Slam champion brought all the attention to Victoria Azarenka and people started digging more info about the Belarusian, particularly asking me about her boyfriend whom she mentioned in her Australian Open trophy speech:

I would like to thank my team—you guys have been supporting me for so long and believing in me, and it made me realise that I can believe in myself and I can finally raise this trophy. I want to thank my parents, who are watching for sure now, my friends, my boyfriend and my grandmother, the person who inspires me the most in my life.

So who is Victoria Azarenka's boyfriend?

His name Sergei Bubka (see his closeup photo here). He is a 24-year-old Ukrainian pro tennis player residing in Monte Carlo, just like his girlfriend. Currently his ATP ranking is No.157, the highest was No.145, and he is yet to win an ATP title in either singles or doubles. Read more »