World No.1 Victoria Azarenka barely broke a sweat all week at the China Open, including the Sunday's final against world No.2 Maria Sharapova, to claim the $848,000 prize and her fifth title of the season (after Sydney, Australian Open, Doha and Indian Wells). Alize Cornet won just one game against Azarenka, 6-1 6-0 in the first round, Sabine Lisicki fell 6-4 6-2 in the second, Elena Vesnina 6-3 6-3 in the third, Romina Oprandi 6-2 6-0 in the quarterfinals, ninth seed Marion Bartoli 6-4 6-2 in the semis and second seed Maria Sharapova 6-3 6-1 in the final. You can't ask for a better run to a WTA title, let alone a Premier Mandatory one.

For the amazing third time in the hardcourt finals this year, Azarenka thrashed Sharapova. In the Australian Open final she beat her 6-3 6-0, in the Indian Wells final 6-2 6-3 and today the score was alike. Truth be said, both players had a negative differential of winners to unforced errors, but Azarenka was much better with -7 compared to Sharapova's -21, which included 39 unforced errors.

Azarenka has Linz and the WTA Championships left on the schedule for 2012, while Sharapova will focus just on the WTA Championships. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

World's two highest-ranked players and top two seeds of the China Open tournament will face each other in the title match – No.1 Victoria Azarenka and No.2 Maria Sharapova. Neither has lost a set all week, actually, they didn't lose many games either, except Sharapova's tight first-round match against Simona Halep.

The first on court was Sharapova, facing home favorite Li Na in the semis. The Russian fell behind 1-3, before winning 11 of the next 12 games for a clean 6-4 6-0 score. In the other semifinal, Azarenka took on Marion Bartoli, the player who ended her 26-match winning streak in Miami. Just like in her other matches this week, the Belarusian didn't waste much time. She was tested in the first set, before storming to a 5-1 lead in the second and finishing the match on Bartoli's serve, having failed to serve it out in the previous game. Final score: 6-4 6-2. Azarenka has now surpassed Angelique Kerber in the number of match wins this season, with 61.

Azarenka is 6-4 head-to-head against Sharapova and has won their last five meetings on hardcourts. This season Azarenka leads Sharapova 3-1. Moreover, this will be their sixth meeting in the title match and in those encounters Azarenka is also leading, 4-1. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Top seed Victoria Azarenka was the first to advance to the China Open semifinals, ending the impressive week of world No.69 Romina Oprandi, who took out Urszula Radwanska, Camila Giorgi and seed No.11 Ana Ivanovic en route to the quarters. It took Azarenka just 55 minutes to win 6-2 6-0, converting all six of her break points. Azarenka has been  in control all week, she has not lost a set yet and only against Sabine Lisicki she had a less straightforward match, but was never troubled.

In the second quarterfinal of the day, surprisingly, Maria Sharapova lost no games to Angelique Kerber, leader in match wins this season, and to add to the shock factor, Kerber retired trailing 6-0 3-0, even though there was no apparent sign of injury or illness. In the first set, Kerber hit 8 winners and 5 unforced errors and yet she was bageled. Thanks to Chris Skelton's amazing stats on Twitter, we learn that since leading Li Na 6-1 3-1 in Cincinnati, Kerber has lost 32 of her last 35 games against opponents with single-digit rankings.

Li Na secured the eighth and final berth at the WTA Championships by defeating defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska 6-4 6-2 and setting up a China Open semifinal meeting with Sharapova. Azarenka's next opponent will be the winner of the match between Marion Bartoli and Carla Suarez Navarro. (photos: sr_cranks)

Now we know all the quarterfinalists of the 4,828,050 China Open. The Marion Bartoli vs. Carla Suarez Navarro quarterfinal was determined yesterday, while after today's third-round matches we know the six remaining members of the final eight: Maria Sharapova vs. Angelique Kerber, Victoria Azarenka vs. Romina Oprandi and Agnieszka Radwanska vs. Li Na.

Second seed Maria Sharapova was the first to advance on Thursday, with an easy 6-0 6-2 victory over Polona Hercog in their first meeting. In other news, on the side of her tennis career, Sharapova is working on spreading her Sugarpova candy products outside the US. Her next destination will be Australia, and what better timing for the launch than ahead of the Australian Open.

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After Grand Slams, you are used to our contributor Omair giving unofficial titles to players based on their performances, and for the recently-finished US Open he did the same, but with a little twist, he gave names to players inspired by animated movies. We hope you'll like it!

SERENA WILLIAMS – RANGO

Serena not only won her 15th major, but proved again that she is not done yet with tennis by winning the second straight Grand Slam and the Olympics in between. Serena lost a total of 19 games en route to the US Open final, where she was pushed hard by Victoria Azarenka, who even served for the championship in the third set, but Serena showed her superior class and experience to bring her opponent back to earth and win her fourth US Open title. In doing so, Serena showed everyone that "No man can walk out of his own story", just like Rango.

VICTORIA AZARENKA – VECTOR

Vector from "Despicable Me" tried in every way to let Gru down, but in the end he lost and Gru won. Azarenka gave everything she had, but she came up short to one of the best players in tennis history. Don’t take it negatively. By giving Azarenka the title of Vector, I don’t refer to the vicious methods Vector used in the movie, I am thinking of the positive side of it, that she fought with her whole heart and body, but in the end she had to satisfy herself with the runner-up trophy.

MARIA SHARAPOVA – TANGLED

Sharapova was not at her best in her last three matches, yet she never gave up, fighting hard to stay alive in the fourth round against Nadia Petrova, then in the quarters against Marion Bartoli, and then in the semis she finally got tangled in her service demons and succumbed to the pressure of Victoria Azarenka. Read more »

Grand Slam are always the most exciting venues for tennis glamour and the US Open is the unofficial fashion queen of all the four majors, so let's see what the best brands put on their brightest WTA stars.

Let's start this fashion overview with maybe not the biggest fashion star, but definitely the player who marked this US Open – Kim Clijsters, whose inspiring career has come to a close at her favorite tournament where she had lifted the trophy three times. To honor the Belgian's last event, her clothing sponsor Fila produced a special collection with a symbolic star pattern.

Ana Ivanovic (who reached her first Grand Slam quarterfinal since her title win at Roland Garros 2008), Angelique Kerber (last year's semifinalist) and Laura Robson (besides Clijsters, the biggest story of the tournament) were all sporting Adidas Adizero. The bright yellow Adidas outfits may have ruled the US Open courts, and the three players mentioned here all played the fourth round, but the next brand we'll cover is clothing all the four semifinalists!

Of course, it's Nike! Champion Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova traditionally have both day and night dresses. Serena wore navy and pink with lime details, while Sharapova went for more subtle tones – liquid pink and solid dark without many loud contrasts.

PREVIOUS US OPEN FASHION OVERVIEWS

2011 - A look at the beautiful colors at Flushing Meadows
2010 - Fashion hits and misses of tennis in New York

Victoria Azarenka and Sara Errani prefer separates. The world No.1 is popping in a yellow and black combination, while the Italian, sharing the look with Julia Goerges, wore a pleated navy skirt with pink and yellow stripes and a tank. Read more »

Serena Williams was just seventeen when she won her first Grand Slam, at the very stage of the US Open, and now as a 30-year-old she's triumphant yet again, defeating world No.1 Victoria Azarenka 6-2 2-6 7-5 in the final and winning her 15th Grand Slam singles title and her fourth at the US Open.

In the beginning it looked like Azarenka would end up just like all the other Serena's opponents, crushed, but in the second set the Belarusian put all her assets on display, taking the match to the thrilling third set, in which she earned an early lead and later even served for the match, but it's not over til it's over, especially when Serena is on the other side.

En route to her 60th career final, Williams lost just 19 games and spent an average of just one hour and eight minutes on court per match, and after the first set against Azarenka, it seemed that the numbers wouldn't build up much after the final either. Serena opened with a dominant 6-2 first set, closing it out by breaking Azarenka's serve to love, while Azarenka barely won more than one point in Serena's service games.

The situation changed completely in the second set, though. Azarenka lifted her game, Serena's forehand went off, and the Belarusian saw herself leading 5-1 and quickly winning the second set, mirroring the first-set scoreline, 6-2. Now the things got complicated, especially as we knew Azarenka's 12-0 record in three-set matches this season. Read more »

Our guest blogger Omair was correct in his US Open semifinal predictions. He said that Victoria Azarenka would have the edge over Maria Sharapova and take her out in three sets, and that's exactly what happened in the intense match that absolutely lived up to the expectations, while Serena Williams cruised past Sara Errani in the other semifinal, as fearfully predicted. Let's see what Omair is saying about the upcoming championships match between Serena and Vika.

A great showdown of two Grand Slam champions, one the winner of the first Grand Slam of the season (Australian Open), the other the winner of the last Grand Slam concluded (Wimbledon), a reigning world No.1 and a deemed world No.1. This will be a rematch of the pair's last year's US Open third-round encounter, whose second set was one of the best tennis sets ever.

The pair has already met ten times, with Azarenka managing to win just one of those ten encounters, and winning just one set in the nine encounters she lost. This will be their fourth meeting this year and Serena has won all the previous three in straight sets (however, none of the three were played on hardcourts).

Let's see the average stats of Serena and Vika in their last five US Open matches leading up to the final:

Azarenka has lost two sets this fortnight, while Williams is yet to lose more than four games in a set. Azarenka has shown the firepower and she tends to push Serena hard, but the match can come down to serve and return, and our stats show that Serena has been better than Vika in both. Read more »