Women's Tennis Blog is back from vacation. I spent more than two wonderful weeks in China and now it's time to resume posting. Thank you all for being so supportive and not minding the long break without women's tennis news here.

First of all, I would use this opportunity to once again thank all of you for voting for Women's Tennis Blog in 2009 Baseline Awards, as thanks to you my blog won the in the Best Tennis Blog category.

Secondly, I missed quite a few tennis events and stories during my time off, and I would like to do a little wrap-up of what happened while I was away. The Brisbane International and the ASB Classic are over and here's what happened there.

Brisbane saw an all-Belgian epic final, with Kim Clijsters defeating Justine Henin 6-3 4-6 7-6(6). En route to victory Clijsters saved two match points and wasted three.

Just after the Brisbane final, Henin withdrew from the Sydney International because of the left leg injury sustained in that title match. Henin wanted to make sure she was healthy for the upcoming Australian Open.

The other WTA tournament I skipped to cover was the ASB Classic in Auckland. The titlist at the event was Yanina Wickmayer who defeated top seed Flavia Pennetta 6-3 6-2 in the final. The victory was the best moment of Wickmayer’s career as she entered the Auckland draw after a court overturned a year's ban imposed by the Belgian doping authority.

The most exciting off-court piece of news is that Nike signed an eight-year, $70-million endorsement deal with Maria Sharapova. In addition, the Russian will be getting a percentage of sales from the line she'll help develop. Wow! And by the way, Sharapova beat Venus Williams 6-3 6-4 at an exhibition event in Thailand.

Feel free to mention in the comments some stories that I missed to write about that you find interesting. I would love you to enrich this post by your links and perspective on the past two weeks. (photos via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

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It seemed insane when Dinara Safina entered the Brisbane International, because just shortly before entering the tournament the Russian had stated that because of her back injury she might skip the Australian Open, which is after the Brisbane event in the calendar.

So now it comes as no surprise that Safina pulled out of the January 3-10 event, due to the back injury which forced her out of the Sony Ericsson Championships at the end of the 2009 season. (source: AFP, photo: chascow)

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This is a bit old news that I didn't have time to report earlier: Dinara Safina has entered the Brisbane International, a warm-up tournament for the Australian Open, despite the serious back injury which forced her to pull out of the Sony Ericsson Championships and threatened her participation in the first Grand Slam of the year.

"The Brisbane International will be the perfect tournament to get some tough match practice in the lead-up to the Australian Open. I am looking forward to the challenge and I cannot wait to get there," said Safina who handed Serena Williams the year-end No.1 ranking by withdrawing from the Sony Ericsson Championships.

Safina joins Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters and Ana Ivanovic in a very strong women's field at the Brisbane International. (source: ESPN, photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

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Ana Ivanovic and Fernando Verdasco had been dating since the 2008 US Open, but the word is out that their romantic relationship has ended.

According to a friend of Ana's, the tennis star broke up with her boyfriend earlier this month, during the tournament in Brisbane.

I have to say it was suspicious. Those statements of Ana and Fernando, that tennis comes first, plus, I don't remember seeing a picture of them together this year. Moreover, Ivanovic was training in Australia for some time already, and Verdasco was nowhere to be seen. Also, Ana lost in the quarterfinals of the Brisbane International, but she didn’t stay at the tournament to watch Fernando, who went all the way to the finals. Instead, Ivanovic flew to Melbourne right away.

I’m kind of happy for Ana. She can do much better, and she's proved it. As some of you may have noticed from my comments, I didn’t feel their relationship from the start, even though they were being spotted together all the time. (source: Fox Sports)

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Second seed Victoria Azarenka defeated Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-1 in the final of the Brisbane International to claim her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title.

Prior to the final in Brisbane, the 19-year-old Belorussian reached four WTA finals, but always ended up as runner-up: in Estoril and Tashkent in 2007 and Gold Coast and Prague in 2008.

However, this time it was different. Azarenka dominated the third-seeded Frenchwoman, breaking serve six times and winning in 71 minutes.

Azarenka didn’t drop a set on her way to the Brisbane International title, but that doesn’t mean she was unchallenged. The world No.15 was pushed to the limits by Jarmila Gajdosova in the second round (76(4) 75) and by Lucie Safarova (76(5) 64) in the quarterfinals. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, photo via Brisbane International)

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