Maria Sharapova will play doubles only for the third time since 2005 and her new partner will be Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium. The two will team up at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford which starts July 26.

Last two doubles matches Sharapova played were at the 2009 Indian Wells with Elena Vesnina and at the 2005 Birmingham with Maria Kirilenko.

Sharapova has won three doubles titles in her career: the 2004 Birmingham with Maria Kirilenko, and Tokyo and Luxembourgh in 2003 with Tamarine Tanasugarn. Wickmayer still has no Sony Ericsson WTA Tour doubles titles. As for their ranking, Sharapova is currently unranked in doubles, while Wickmayer is ranked 131st. (photos: Stephane Martinache, © Neal Trousdale)

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 »

The Williams sisters, seeded second, have won their third doubles title of the season, beating Chan Yung-Jan of China and Monica Niculescu of Romania 6-4 6-1 in the final of the Bank of the West Classic.

Serena's and Venus' two previous 2009 doubles titles came at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

Shortly before winning in doubles, Venus had lost to Marion Bartoli 6-2 5-7 6-4 in the singles final. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

World No.14 Marion Bartoli of France beat seven-time Grand Slam champion and world No.3 Venus Williams 6-2 5-7 6-4, after 2 hours and 43 minutes of play in the final of the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.

Bartoli took the first set and had a 5-3 lead in the second set, but didn't manage to end the match then, and Wililams won the set 7-5 to take the encounter to the decider.

Bartoli established a 2-0 lead in the third set, but Williams later leveled at 3-3. Bartoli then broke Williams once again, the break which turned out to be crucial, as all the following games went with serve and Bartoli capitalized on her first match point, in the 10th game of the third set.

The last year’s Stanford finalist won her fifth WTA singles title and second this year, while Williams has now lost her fifth out of seven finals at the tournament.

As for the prize money, the winner earned $107,000 and the runner-up $56,000.

Additional info: Venus Williams is scheduled to play doubles final later today, partnered with sister Serena Williams, and against the pairing of Yung-Jan Chan and Monica Niculescu. (photos courtesy of Colleen and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

World No.3 Venus Williams is now just one step away from her third Bank of the West Classic title, having reached her seventh final at the tournament. Her opponent in the title match will be last year's finalist, France's Marion Bartoli.

The second-seeded Williams crashed third seed Elena Dementieva 6-0 6-1 and scored her ninth win, and sixth straight, in 11 career encounters with the Russian.

In the other semifinal, eighth seed Marion Bartoli won a see-saw match against Samantha Stosur 6-3 1-6 6-1. Bartoli took control of the deciding set by winning four games in a row en route to the two-hour, four-minute victory.

Williams and Bartoli have met only once before, in nothing less than the final of Wimbledon, and the American won 6-4 6-1.

Additional info: Along sister Serena, Venus Williams is also competing in the doubles final at Stanford. (photo courtesy of our reader Colleen)