On Monday our guest poster and stats lover Omair dug us into the numbers of his detailed analysis about the number of wins year-end Top 10 players scored over Top 10 players in 2011 and their best tournaments. Now it's time for Part 2 and a different perspective – results of the Top 10 stars approached through their losses.

First have a look at the table showing average rank of players who defeated each of the year-end Top 10 players and the lowest-ranked player to beat year-end Top 10 players during 2011. 

Vera Zvonareva needs to be mentioned here for her consistency as she is the only one of the Top 10 who was not beaten by a player ranked outside Top 35, while the rest of her colleagues from this elite group were beaten at least twice. The lowest-ranked player to defeat Zvonareva during 2011 was Tsvetana Pironkova, ranked 33rd (seeded 32nd) during the third round of Wimbledon.

Of Zvonareva's 22 losses only three came at the hands of players ranked between 30 and 35 and interestingly they came at the hands of players ranked 31, 32, and 33. Also, a total of only three losses came at the hands of players ranked between 21 and 29, while the rest of 16 came at the hands of Top 20 players. Average rank of Zvonareva's conquerors was 15, while the average rank of the conquerors of all the remaining Top 10 players was not even within Top 20.

Victoria Azarenka also needs to be mentioned here, because only five of her 17 losses came at the hands of players ranked outside Top 20, and of those five losses two came at the hands of Serena Williams who had low ranking due to her health problems and lack of play. Average rank of Azarenka's conquerors in 2011 was 23.

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We can soon start calling our reader Omair a stats expert. After seeing his "Comparative analysis of Top 10 players and their performance at big tournaments in 2011" received so well, Omair eagerly rushed to thrill us with more analysis, this time focusing on the year-end Top 10 players and the ranking of opponents that they beat in 2011 (Part 1) and on the ranking of opponents that beat them (Part 2). Let the tables do the talking!

The table above shows the number of tournaments where a year-end Top 10 player defeated more than one Top 10 player. Petra Kvitova tops here with three tournaments, at two of which she defeated three or more Top 10 players en route to the title (Madrid and WTA Championships). World number one Caroline Wozniacki is the only Top 10 player who did not beat two Top 10 players in a single tournament.

Let's continue with tables showing tournaments won by each Top 10 player and tournaments where the player (though did not end up winning the event) ended up beating two or more Top 10 players.

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In the beginning of the year our loyal contributor John Bolan made a prediction of how Top 10 would look like at the end of the season and a lot of readers presented their Top 10 picks in the comments. Now that the tennis 2011 has ended, I thought it was perfect time to ask John to do a comparison of the prediction and the actual season-ending rankings. He was eager to accept my proposal. Continue reading to see the shocking changes over the last 11 months, such as Justine Henin and Dinara Safina not playing any more and Petra Kvitova, who was never even mentioned, joining the elite big time.

On January 8, 2011 the Women’s Tennis Blog published my article "Who will be Top 10 players at the end of 2011?".  My picks were listed with reasons why I chose them. Many fans used the comment section to submit their picks. Now that the year is over, let’s find out how we did.

Most of us only named about 5 out of the 10 Top finishers. The reason that we did so poorly was the injury factor. Five of the top players were injured for most of the year – Justin Henin, Kim Clijsters, Dinara Safina, Serena Williams and Venus Williams. Most of us had at least 3 of these injured stars on our Top 10 list. The most difficult factor in picking the Top 10 is trying to guess who will not be able to play a full season and 2011 was an unusual year with so many of the top stars injured for so long.

No one picked the number 2 finisher – Petra Kvitova. Only one person picked Marion Bartoli and only one picked Andrea Petkovic. These omissions hurt the overall accuracy of our picks. Read more »

This blog likes to give its faithful readers an opportunity to contribute and show their take on women's tennis, so here's Omair's analysis of our year-end Top 10 players and their 2011 results at Grand Slams, Premier tournaments and the WTA Championships. Have a look at what the numbers suggest.

Just to note, in the following tables CW is Caroline Wozniacki, PK is Petra Kvitova, VA is Victoria Azarenka, MS is Maria Sharapova, LN is Li Na, SS is Samantha Stosur, VZ is Vera Zvonareva, AR is Agnieszka Radwanska, MB is Marion Bartoli and AP is Andrea Petkovic.

WIN-LOSS RECORD OF THE YEAR-END TOP 10 PLAYERS AGAINST EACH OTHER IN 2011

The win-loss record is in itself self-explanatory, showing who has been the most dominant player - Petra Kvitova. Please also note the number of wins by a player against Top 5 players, especially for Top 5 players.

OVERALL WIN-LOSS RECORD IN 2011

Kvitova is not the leader only in the percentage of wins over fellow season-ending Top 10 players, but is also the leader in yearly win-loss record overall.

2011 GRAND SLAM WINS OF TOP 10 PLAYERS

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For those of you who didn't see my shoutout in the Women's Tennis Fans Facebook group, our childhood photos series is becoming more and more famous, and it even earned a dedicated article at Tennis.com, including a thumbnail on the homepage! What more can you ask for?

In that light, let's continue the series and feature the highest-ranked Belarusian in WTA history, whose 2011 was her best career season - Victoria Azarenka. Don't you love the modest look at little Azarenka's face? I can imagine her saying: "When I grow up I want to be the best tennis player in the world, to play on grand courts and win big matches in front of huge crowds."  Read more »

Petra Kvitova crowned her 2011 season with titles at Brisbane, Paris, Madrid, Wimbledon and very recently Linz, and now she's put the icing on the cake (the icing worth $1,750,000) by winning the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships on her tournament debut. Kvitova's opponent in the final, Victoria Azarenka, gave significant resistance and made the final highly entertaining, but it was Kvitova who went all the way to a 7-5 4-6 6-3 victory.

Just when it seemed the first set would finish before it even warmed up, with a desperate look on her face Azarenka won her first game of the match in the sixth game and she didn't stop there. From 1-5, Azarenka broke Kvitova's serve to love two times and leveled to 5-5. Then Kvitova finally held her serve again and in the following game capitalized on her fifth set point. Read more »

Petra Kvitova finished the round-robin phase of the WTA Championships at the top position in the Red Group, with all the three matches won, while Victoria Azarenka was the leader of the White Group, and the two have now reached the $4,900,000 tournament final by beating their semifinal opponents – Kvitova rebounded to beat Samantha Stosur, Azarenka was solid against Vera Zvonareva.

The first semifinal of the day was Kvitova vs. Stosur. Even though it was Kvitova who earned an initial lead, Stosur won the first set 7-5 and had a break point to go 2-0 up in the second set. The Czech debutante at the tournament then won six of the next eight games to win the set 6-3 before going 5-0 up in the decider. Stosur did manage to get closer in the third-set score, but the match finished to Kvitova’s advantage 5-7 6-3 6-3. Read more »

I'm regularly reviewing fashion at Grand Slams (take a look at this year's tennis outfits at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) and this time I've decided to add the season-ending Championships, as another great tennis stage. The singles field at the $4,900,000 tournament this year played in Istanbul consists of eight players, so only the mere quantity of players significantly reduces the diversity of outfits. Therefore, nothing can outclass Grand Slams as the best stages for all the fashion fun, although some stars had brand new looks prepared for the WTA Championships.

Li Na and Victoria Azarenka are sporting neat outfits, but they are nothing new, we've seen them in previous tournaments. Li is wearing Nike Women's Holiday Smash Classic Top and Pleated Skort. Azarenka already gave a lot of exposure to her Nike Women's Holiday Set Point Graphic Tank and a matching skort during her run to the Luxembourg title and Tokyo semifinals.

Petra Kvitova, another Nike representative, is just like Azarenka wearing purple and grape tones. Caroline Wozniacki is wearing the best of her recent Adidas by Stella McCartney dresses, which she should've worn at the US Open, in my opinion, instead of the similar dress in white. Read more »

Victoria Azarenka was the last player to come to Istanbul because she was occupied by winning the title in Luxembourg. Remember, the Belarusian was the only one missing in the glamorous player photo shoot introducing the luxurious tournament with the prize money of $4,900,000. The world No.4 continued her Luxembourg form (she didn't lose a set en route to the trophy) and at the WTA Championships she recorded two solid victories to reach her first semifinals in her third appearance at the tournament.

After dominating Samantha Stosur in her first round-robin match 6-2 6-2, with the same score Azarenka took out French Open champion Li Na to become the first certain member of the Istanbul final four. The fifth-ranked Li earned zero break points against Azarenka and hit 22 unforced errors more than her opponent (39 to 17).

Li was successful in her first match of the tournament, beating Maria Sharapova 7-6(4) 6-4. (photo: sr_cranks)

At the WTA Championships Victoria Azarenka continued her dominance over Samantha Stosur, not giving the Australian even one set in all their five meetings.

The seventh-ranked Stosur excitingly closed the opening day of the WTA Championships with her first win over Maria Sharapova in their ten meetings. Wednesday's order of play put the Stosur vs. Azarenka match first, and whether Stosur was emotionally and physically tired from her yesterday's accomplishment or Azarenka was too good, Azarenka crushed Stosur 6-2 6-2, with the Australian showing brief resistance only at the end of this White Group match, by saving three match points. (photo: sr_cranks)