German world No.100 Sabine Lisicki defeated Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in a rain-delayed final of the AEGON Classic in Birmingham and collected her second WTA title.

En route to the Birmingham trophy, the unseeded Lisicki defeated Kimiko Date-Krumm (62) in the first round, Kirsten Flipkens (111) in the second, Tamira Paszek (80) in the third, Magdalena Rybarikova (69) in the quarters, Peng Shuai (20) in the semis and finally Daniela Hantuchova (28). As you can see, only one Lisicki's opponent was ranked lower than her. However, it is not really surprising that Lisicki managed to defeat them, as she was ranked No.22 in 2009, prior to her health problems.

In today's final against Hantuchova, Lisicki hit eight aces to Hantuchova's single ace, and allowed Hantuchova only one break point opportunity which the Slovak didn't convert. Final score: 6-3 6-2.

It's a very nice introduction to the grass-court season to Lisicki, whose only Grand Slam quarterfinal was at Wimbledon 2009. Her following season was marred by a left ankle injury – she skipped Wimbledon, as well as many other events, including her title defense at Charleston. This year Lisicki has received a wildcard into the main draw of Wimbledon. (photo: Getty Images via AEGON Classic)

Serena and Venus Williams are set to play the AEGON International in Eastbourne, and even though some fans are still finding it hard to believe the sisters will indeed show up, it is highly likely that their comeback is for real. To celebrate the return of the biggest names, the WTA Tour has even made a short video of the Williamses practicing ahead of their first competitive tournament in a long time – Serena hasn’t played since last year’s Wimbledon, which is practically a year, and Venus hasn’t played since January’s Australian Open (while even before that, after Roland Garros 2010 she played only Wimbledon and the US Open).

At the Premier-level grass-court tournament in Eastbourne, Serena will open up against Bulgaria’s world No.33 Tsvetana Pironkova, last year’s Wimbledon semifinalist. In the second round, Serena could face the tournament’s top seed,  Vera Zvonareva, whom she defeated to win the Wimbledon crown last year. Venus will face eighth seed Andrea Petkovic in the first round. Tough beginning for the sisters!

While the Williamses are practicing, there are players in real action, at two tournaments going on now. I'm sure you're wondering how Ana Ivanovic performed in the Birmingham semis against Daniela Hantuchova - well, not so surprisingly, she lost, but did she really have to convert only two of 20 break points? The score was 6-7(2) 6-3 6-2 for Hantuchova, who will play Sabine Lisicki in the final. Lisicki beat Peng Shuai 6-3 6-1 in the semis.

At the other tournament taking place this week, the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open 2011, Danish world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki reached the final and the 38th-ranked Lucie Safarova will be her last obstacle for the title. Note that the event in Denmark is played on hard court and it's between the clay and grass part of the season! (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

After a first round bye Ivanovic defeated world No.118 Anna Tatishvili 6-1 6-0 in the second round in 44 minutes, in the third round world No.45 Rebecca Marino was beaten 6-3 6-2 in 59 minutes and today in the quarterfinals Ivanovic's quick progress continued with a 6-3 6-4 win over the 94th-ranked Mirjana Lucic, also in just seconds less than an hour. Ok, now, does she even need a coach?

The next obstacle of the second-seeded Serb will be pretty serious. It will be Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova who also reached the semifinals without losing a set and has won 11 of her last 14 matches, including the recent 6-1 6-3 victory over world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki at the French Open. (photo courtesy of Tony)

Ana Ivanovic

The former No.1 Ivanovic’s biggest problem is to find a coach that suits her, someone who would give her proper guidance and be there for her. She's kind of looking for the one which is extremely difficult to find and in the meantime she's watching her tennis results drop, her confidence going away and her career slowly passing by. When you add all the injuries to the picture, the situation is pretty demoralizing.

Last year Ivanovic stopped working with Heinz Gunthardt because he wasn’t able to fully dedicate himself to her. For most of this year, Ivanovic traveled with only a hitting partner, having suddenly parted with coach Antonio van Grichen.

"First I have to find a good one," the 23-year-old said. "Then, someone who will commit. And someone willing to travel. And someone with whom to get along, because you do spend a lot of time together."

I'm wishing Ana the best of luck in finding that stability and guidance she desperately needs.

The grass-court season has started and Ivanovic is playing in Birmingham today, against Anna Tatishvili. (source: ESPN, photo: sr_cranks)

The 2009 runner-up Li Na has defeated Maria Sharapova for the second year in a row at the AEGON Classic, last year in the semifinals but this year in the finals to claim her first WTA title on grass.

The first set was closely fought,  with the second-seeded Sharapova making a 3-1 lead only to let Li break back and level at 3-3. During the first set Sharapova, twice titlist in Birmingham, had and converted only that one break point, while Li converted 2 of her 8 chances to break and win the first set 7-5. Li then rolled through the second set 6-1.

By winning her third WTA singles title, the first Chinese women's tennis player to enter the Top 10 will return to the elite group. (photo via AEGON Classic)

Maria Sharapova put an end to an amazing winning streak of qualifier Alison Riske to reach the AEGON Classic final for the fourth time in seven visits to Birmingham. The Russian’s opponent in the title match will be Li Na, who defeated her in the last year’s semifinals.

Riske had never won a WTA main-draw match before this week, but even after victories over Sandra Zahlavova in the first round, former world No.5 Chakvetadze, ninth seed Aleksandra Wozniak and third seed Yanina Wickmayer, the 19-year-old had fuel in her tank and took one set from Sharapova who came through with the 6-2 4-6 6-1 score.

Top seed Li Na of China also played a three-setter to beat Aravane Rezai 6-1 3-6 6-3 in the second semifinal and reach the trophy round. The Chinese No.1, who was upset by Magdalena Rybarikova in the 2009 final, is 1-5 in career meetings with Sharapova. (photo by Richard)

Second seed Maria Sharapova won two matches on Thursday, one of which lasted for three days, and she continued with winning on Friday to reach the semifinals of the AEGON Classic, the tournament she has won two times.

Sharapova first beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands in the second round, in a match greatly affected by rain, then she defeated fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-3 6-1 (their first encounter after Kudryavtseva upset Sharapova in the second round of Wimbledon and later on stated how she got the extra motivation from hating Sharapova’s outfit), and today she has eliminated Sesil Karatantcheva, who had upset tenth seed and defending champion Magdalena Rybarikova in the previous round.

In her seventh successive semifinal at the tournament, Sharapova will face 185th-ranked qualifier Alison Riske of the United States. The 19-year-old Riske is an interesting opponent because she came to Birmingham without even one main draw victory on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, but at the 2010 AEGON Classic she first upset 9th seed Aleksandra Wozniack, then Anna Chakvetadze, and then third seed Yanina Wickmayer in the quarterfinals. (photos by Richard and © Neal Trousdale)

Twice Birmingham champion Maria Sharapova had to play her rain-interrupted second round match for three days to finally beat Bethanie Mattek-Sands at the AEGON Classic in Birmingham.

The match was first supposed to be played on Tuesday before being cancelled, then the rain delayed it for Wednesday when it was disrupted again at 4-0 40-30 in favor of the second-seeded Sharapova. Finally, the match was completed on Thursday with the score 6-0 6-3.

Due to these rain delays Sharapova is forced to play her third round right after her second round, and at the moment she is playing against fellow Russian Alla Kudryavtseva. (photo by our reader Richard)

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.

The Wimbledon dress was neat and elegant.

Later in the season Sharapova started wearing a headband, which wasn’t welcomed by the majority of tennis audience. I never really mind it. Maria can get away with a lot of things.

Of course, for the US Open there were two dresses – for day and night.

What’s your favorite dress Sharapova wore in 2009? I like the US Open night dress the most – it's simple, the cut is nice, and I like the combination of black and silver.

Impressively, this is the third consecutive year Women’s Tennis Blog is featuring a revision of Sharapova’s Nike outfits. I'm sure you would like to remind yourselves of what the Russian was wearing on court in 2007 and 2008. Do you maybe think her style was better in the past? (photos: Maria Sharapova's official website, Ralf Reinecke, Stephane Martinache)

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)