As promised, Women's Tennis Blog is continuing its tradition of revising on-court outfits from the season behind us. This year's retrospections will start with the best-dressed WTA player – Nike-clad Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova started the season late, because of her career-threatening shoulder injury, playing her first match of 2009 at the BNP Paribas Open in March. She was introducing herself to competitive tennis slowly, playing doubles first, but her style had to be spot-on from the very beginning, and it was.

People argued that Sharapova’s Roland Garros dress had too much fabric, but I liked it, and I especially favored the blue color against the red clay. Read more »

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Slovakia's Magdalena Rybarikova claimed her first WTA Tour singles title after beating Li Na in Sunday’s final at the AEGON Classic.

The 13th-seeded Rybarikova bageled Li in the first set and won the second set in a tiebreaker to close out a 6-0 7-6(2) victory. The 20-year-old Rybarikova wasn’t broken once in her first WTA singles final and beat the fourth-seeded Li in just 73 minutes.

The Chinese world No.20, who knocked out Maria Sharapova in the semifinals, was hoping for her third WTA title.

Winning the AEGON Classic title, the 58th-ranked Rybarikova took home $37,000.

Additional info: Rybarikova has gained direct entry into the Wimbledon main draw for the first time. Last year, she passed the qualifying, but lost in the opening round. (photo: Getty Images via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

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Maria Sharapova was beaten by fourth seed Li Na 6-4 6-4 in the semifinals of the AEGON Classic in Birmingham.

The former Wimbledon champion, who had been looking for her third title in Birmingham, suffered six breaks of serve while Li was avenging her Roland Garros defeat.

The world No.20 Li will play Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia, who defeated Sania Mirza of India 3-6 6-0 6-3 in the other semifinal.

Sharapova will spend next week practicing at Wimbledon, which starts June 22. (photo courtesy of our reader Richard)

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Since her comeback, Maria Sharapova has remained undefeated on her favorite surface and reached the semifinals of the grasscourt Birmingham event.

Sharapova won her fourth match on grass this season by defeating last year’s Birmingham runner-up Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium. The Russian, making her way back after nine months out with a shoulder injury, won 6-1 2-6 6-3.

Sharapova will next face Chinese fourth seed Li Na, whom she defeated just two weeks ago to reach the French Open quarterfinals. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

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Because of bad weather, only today did Maria Sharapova finish her yesterday’s match, and she had to play another one on the same day. Fortunately, both finished victoriously for the Russian.

The former world No.1 needed only two minutes to wrap up a rain-delayed second-round match with Alexa Glatch, and win it 6-3 6-4. Next for Sharapova was seventh seed Francesca Schiavone, and she raced past her 6-1 6-3 to reach the quarterfinals of the Wimbledon warmup event.

Sharapova goes on to face Belgian world No.61 Yanina Wickmayer, who saw off 14th seed Roberta Vinci 6-1 6-4. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

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