Dear readers, our now already famous stats expert Omair couldn't resist the urge and found time in his busy schedule to analyse the upcoming Australian Open quarterfinal between Kim Clijsters and Caroline Wozniacki. Numbers speak in Wozniacki's favor, but is everything in numbers? Let's see if we can conclude something.

There are so many things you plan on doing, but you you never get to complete them. That is what happened with me, when I had planned on making a probability analysis for the Australian Open 2012, it never got complete and then I got heck of busy. Being an audit trainee no doubt has its perks of excessive late sittings and no weekends, but I just could not resist my urge to analyse the Australian Open quarterfinals, using the performance of the quarterfinalists so far in the tournament. I will be using the stats to look into the quarterfinal showing, as to who has a better shot at making the semis. Let's first analyse Kim Clijsters and Caroline Wozniacki.

Kim got her ankle twisted in her fourth round epic battle against Li Na. Wozniacki won't get a better chance than this to avenge her previous losses to the former world No. 1, after all it was Clijsters who denied Wozniacki the taste of her first major when she beat the Dane in the US Open final in 2009.

Wozniacki has yet to lose a set in this tournament, while Clijsters has already lost one to Li, and was on the brink of defeat in straight sets but turned it around to emerge as a winner. Thousand dollar questions are: Will Clijsters' ankle hold to let her complete in the last Australian Open of her career? Will Clijsters have enough in tank to battle past Wozniacki who has no doubt the best defensive skills at the moment?

Clijsters is 2-0 against Wozniacki, but their last meeting at the year-end Championships in 2010 went the distance. Let us have a look at what the numbers say when we see each player's first four matches at the Aussie Open 2012:

Wozniacki has +8% advantage in the first serves, but what is important is that although Wozniacki has higher 1st serve percentage, Clijsters' 1st serve winning percentage is much higher than Wozniacki's, but so are her double faults. Clijsters has been serving 4+ double faults on average in each match so far, which means losing her serve at least once in each match by only double faults.

What is more worrying is Clijsters' ratio of winners and unforced errors. If you look at the number of winners, Wozniacki is not far behind, but if you look at the number of unforced errors Wozniacki comes out as a cleaner one by a huge margin. Clijsters has a differential of negative 24, whereas Wozniacki has a positive differential of 4. Break point conversion rate, receiving points won percentage again go in Wozniacki's favour. The department where Wozniacki lags is the points won at net. While Clijsters has lost only one point out of her 18 net trips (95%), Wozniacki managed to win only 68% of her net trips. Read more »

The fourth round of the Australian Open feautred a rematch of last year's final and the outcome was the same – Kim Clijsters defeated Li Na. The score 4-6 7-6(6) 6-4 took the Belgian to the quarterfinals, but within those numbers hide four match points, a painful ankle injury at 3-3 in the first set and a gruelling fight of both players.

With her foot thickly wrapped and 2-6 in the second set tiebreak, Clijsters started her big comeback by winning six points in a row to take the match to the third set, which she opened with a 4-0 lead. Li then slowly recovered to 5-4 down, but it was Clijsters who closed out the match to her advantage.

After the victory, the Belgian winner of four Grand Slam titles said that it was one of her best comebacks, while the disappointed Li can live off the number of matches she won in January, a great improvement from her horrible second half of 2011.  Read more »

Besides doing yearly fashion retrospections for specific WTA players, Women's Tennis Blog is famous for reviewing outfits for every Grand Slam. The Australian Open is entering its second week and the time is just right for us to have a closer look at what the players are wearing. Last year Venus Williams grabbed all the attention with her EleVen designs, but the American is sadly absent this time. In 2012 the spotlight is more evenly distributed and brands such as Nike, Adidas and Fila are leading the pack.

Caroline Wozniacki’s love life is booming, at least its online representation suggests that, and her fashion designer Stella McCartney opted for the color of passion for the world No.1’s Australian Open. Wozniacki accessorized the red dress with a heart-shaped Danish flag pendant that her boyfriend Rory McIlroy gave her for Christmas.

Adidas Adizero used a shade of red for their predominantly peach dress worn by Ana Ivanovic, Daniela Hantuchova and Sorana Cirstea.

Serena Williams is wearing a blue Nike dress with wide tank straps and pleated bottom.

Read more »

Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova didn't sweat much in their third round victories at the Australian Open.

Serena's opponent Greta Arn was the closest to challenging the American in the beginning of the first set, when she had a break point in the opening game, but that was all from the Hungarian who was quickly overpowered 6-1 6-1. Despite that, Serena claims that she's nowhere near her desired form and is just playing through the rust.

Sharapova was also quick, losing just three games to Angelique Kerber to reach the fourth round 6-1 6-2. The Russian has actually lost just five games so far at the tournament. Read more »

Following a 6-3 6-2 victory over Tamira Paszek and going 46-0 in Grand Slam openers, Serena Williams defeated Barbora Zahlavova Strycova 6-0 6-4 in the second round of the Australian Open and won an impressive 500th match in her career. Even more so, it’s Serena’s 16th consecutive match win at the Australian Open, the tournament she has won five times.
Here’s what the 13-time Grand Slam champion, who now doesn’t even know what to pick for her next milestone, said about the achievement:

It's great. I haven't even thought about it. It's like the ultimate. It's really, really cool. The first thing I asked, of course, Is there anyone that achieved a thousand?  I guess not. I never will get there either. But it's really cool.  500 is a lot of matches to play, let alone to win, so it's pretty cool.

Two points before the end of the match against Zahlavova Strycova, Serena twisted her right ankle, but luckily there was no pain and it was a different ankle from the one she injured this month in Brisbane. After the match, Serena assured the fans that both her ankles are doing good.

Additional info: Together with Andy Roddick Serena is playing the mixed doubles and they are facing top seeds Kveta Peschke and Mike Bryan in the first round. Serena already has to Grand Slam mixed doubles titles to her name, but she hasn’t played that type of competition at a major tournament since 1999.