I can say I’m pleased with Chinese brand ANTA at the 2009 French Open. They have finally made a dress worthy of Jelena Jankovic, and Zheng Jie looks super cute in the lavender/purple outfit.

Jankovic’s French Open dress has much more details in design and print than her previous ANTA ones. Also, the color is lively. Plus, they made the shorts match the dress – I hated those white shorts underneath the orange dress.

Zheng Jie, who became the highest-ranked female Chinese player recently by reaching the No.15 spot (beating Li Na’s No.16 back in 2007), is wearing a blouse trimmed with pleats and a cloud-like print on the collar. Read more »

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Last week, before my leaving for Prague, I promised to make a summary of all the things I would have missed in the tennis world, and here it is.

Sabine Lisicki and Roberta Vinci were victorious, Lisicki at the Family Circle Cup, and Vinci at the Barcelona Ladies Open.

Two weeks ago we announced that Dinara Safina was to overtake Serena Williams at the top of the rankings, and that day has come today. It’s interesting to point out that Safina and her older brother Marat Safin are the only brother-sister duo to have been No.1 in professional tennis.

Ana Ivanovic made some family photos public and also updated her online diary, talking about the Easter traditions in Serbia. I can make a note that Serbs are Orthodox Christians and their church calendar is the Julian calendar and not the Gregorian calendar, so Easter in Serbia was celebrated yesterday, April 19.

In addition, Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams have been nominated for 2009 Laureus World Sports Awards.

Maria Sharapova is supposedly about to return before the French Open. Russia's Fed Cup captain Shamil Tarpishchev said: "I spoke with her father the day before yesterday and he told me that she is training seriously for Roland Garros. She is getting ready to play a couple of tournaments before the French Open. Maria is now back to full training. We can only hope that she does well." I have to see it to believe it, though.

Of course, Sharapova’s continuing her modeling career. The latest are her photos for Nike, and Nike must have known we missed Masha, so they gave us plenty of her in one place.

Vera Zvonareva badly hurt her ankle while playing against Virginie Razzano at the Family Circle Cup. She has two torn ligaments, one full tear and one partial.

Zheng Jie signed with ANTA, the Chinese brand already promoted by Jelena Jankovic. The Asia’s No. 1 WTA player also visited her home province of Sichuan, the first time after the devastating earthquake hit it last year in May. Don’t forget that Zheng donated her Wimbledon prize money to help the victims of the disaster.

I hope this summary is giving you a nice overview of the events I missed to report because of my Prague adventures.

Glad to be back blogging,

Marija

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From what I've seen, the most beautiful off-court photos of women’s tennis players were taken by celebrity photographer Lorenzo Agius. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, look at the last year's pictures of the glamorous tennis ladies here.

Lorenzo photographed WTA stars again, and thanks to Gulf News we have some behind-the-scenes photos from the recent shoot in Dubai. Read more »

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Out of four matches played to wrap up the fourth round of the Australian Open, two were finished with players retiring. To my great disappointment, Zheng Jie and Victoria Azarenka had to give up their fight for the quarterfinal spot because of health problems.

The No.22 seed Zheng sprained her left wrist and was forced to retire trailing 4-1 in the first set against eighth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova.

As for Azarenka, No.13 seed, she won the first set against seed No.2 Serena Williams 6-3. In the second set, trailing Williams 4-2, Azarenka was visibly suffering under the hot conditions, and with tears in her eyes retired from the match due to dizziness and gastrointestinal illness.

In the other two matches, Dementieva, the fourth seed, remained undefeated in 2009, crushing No.18 seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-2, while Carla Suarez Navarro won an all-Spanish encounter against No.21 seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3 6-2. Suarez Navarro upset one of the favorites for the title Venus Williams in the second round, coming back from 5-2 down in the third set and saving match points to win the match.

American Serena Williams will meet Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals, and is 4-1 against the Russian, while Dementieva will play Suarez Navarro for the first time in her career. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photos: Getty Images)

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The J B • GROUP Classic 2009, a tennis exhibition in Hong Kong set to take place January 7th-10th, will have a star-studded lineup. There will be four groups of players and Jelena Jankovic, Maria Sharapova, Venus Williams and Zheng Jie will lead their groups.

The event will feature teams of three players from four regions of the globe, Team Europe, Team Russia, Team Americas and Team Asia Pacific. The third player in each group is a possible Star of Tomorrow.

Team Europe
Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) – World No.1
Agnes Szavay (Hungary) – China Open Champion 2007
Michelle Larcher De Brito (Portugal) – Portuguese No.1 Read more »

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