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)

Stosur committed eight double faults and was broken four times, including three in the second set. In addition, the 25-year-old Stosur made 32 unforced errors, compared to Pennetta's 16.

Last year's LA finalist Pennetta pulled off two Top 10 upsets to reach the final. She defeated Nadia Petrova and Vera Zvonareva in back-to-back matches, before overcoming former world No.1 Maria Sharapova in the semifinals.

Pennetta is now on an 11-match winning streak, winning back-to-back titles in Palermo and Los Angeles. Doubles specialist Stosur, who has 22 doubles titles to her name, fell to 0-5 in singles finals after this latest defeat.

Winning the LA Women's Tennis Championships title Pennetta earned $107,000. Interestinlgy, although it's Pennetta's eighth singles title, it's only her second one from a non-claycourt tournament. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Australian Samantha Stosur decisively defeated unseeded Romanian Sorana Cirstea 6-3 6-2 and advanced to her first final this season. The 19-year-old Cirstea, ranked 28th in the world, had upset Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska en route to the semifinals.

No.13 seed Stosur has played four singles finals on the WTA Tour, and has won 22 doubles titles, but singles titles are still lacking in her résumé and she will be looking for her first one this weekend at the LA Women's Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife.

Tenth-seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy edged an unseeded Russian Maria Sharapova 6-2 4-6 6-3. Sharapova, still trying to find the form she lost due to the long shoulder-injury layoff, hit 61 unforced errors, which included 16 double faults.

The 61st-ranked Russian said she had made good accomplishments, but there was a lot of room for progress as well, which takes time.

Stosur was a semifinalist last week in Stanford, while Pennetta, last year’s runner-up in Los Angeles, is on a 10-match winning streak, having come to LA after winning the trophy in Palermo.

Stosur and Pennetta will play each other for the first time. (photos via Ralf Reinecke and chascow)

The quarterfinals of the LA Women’s Tennis Championships are over and we have our semifinalists: Maria Sharapova will play Flavia Pennetta, and Samantha Stosur will face Sorana Cirstea.

Maria Sharapova claimed a straight-set win over Poland’s Urszula Radwanska, but it was far from easy – the Russian broke Radwanska only once in the first set, in the 18-point third game, and was 3-5 down in the second set. The final score was 6-4 7-5.

Seed No.10 Flavia Pennetta defeated second seed Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-2, and thus earned her tenth Top 10 win. Pennetta is now on a nine-match winning streak, having won in Palermo prior to playing the LA tournament.

Sharapova and Penneta will meet in the semis. They have played each other two times so far, but their last encounter was over three years ago.

No.13 seed Samantha Stosur rallied from 6-4 3-1 down to beat No.14 seed Zheng Jie 4-6 6-3 6-4, the winner over world No.1 Dinara Safina in the third round. Stosur will play Soraca Cirstea in the semis, after the Romanian won a marathon with No.8 seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6(4) 1-6 7-5.

Stosur easily won the only meeting with Cirstea, which was in this year's French Open quarterfinals. (photos courtesy of Stephane Martinache and Bobby)

The 23nd-ranked Zheng had beaten a world No.1 before – Ana Ivanovic in the third round of last year's Wimbledon – but had never beaten Safina.

"She’s a good player and it’s tough to play her," said Safina after the third-round defeat. "In this match I didn’t do the right things. I should have played better. Today, she took her chances and beat me."

Zheng, the 14th seed, will next face Australian 13th seed Samantha Stosur, who dominated current world No.11 Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-2 in the third round. Stosur has scored her sixth win over a Top 15 opponent this year. Also, she has defeated former top-ranked players in consecutive weeks, having beaten Serena Williams in the Stanford quarterfinals.

World No.61 Maria Sharapova, after upsetting third seed Victoria Azarenka in the previous round, rebounded from a slow first-set start for the second straight day and defeated Alona Bondarenko 4-6 6-0 6-3. In the quarterfinals, Sharapova will face Poland's Urszula Radwanska, who got a walkover from No.12 seed Li Na due to a right knee injury. (photo via Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Young tennis star Caroline Wozniacki had a moment of living the dreams of women worldwide, meeting celebrated soccer player, and model we can add, David Beckham.

Wozniacki met some Los Angeles Galaxy players, and hence she had the pleasure of meeting Beckham as well.

Additional info: World No.8 Caroline Wozniacki is seeded fourth at the LA Women's Tennis Championships. The Dane is playing Romania's Sorana Cirstea in the second round. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Russia's Maria Sharapova advanced to the second round of the LA Women's Tennis Championships by defeating Slovakia's world No.60 Jarmila Groth 6-0 6-4.

Sharapova said after the match that Groth's plan was to attack from every possible angle. However, Sharapova returned many of those balls, and advanced despite being inconsistent in the second set.

World No.61 Sharapova will next face third seed Victoria Azarenka.

BTW: The winner last week at Stanford, Marion Bartoli, withdrew from the LA Women's Tennis Championships due to a right calf strain. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

World number five Svetlana Kuznetsova has pulled out of the August 3-9 LA Women’s Tennis Championships presented by Herbalife due to a foot injury.

Kuznetsova hasn't played WTA tournaments since losing in the third round of Wimbledon. In addition, she missed the LA event last year as well.

The LA Women’s Tennis Championships has attracted 10 of the world's leading 15 players, including world number one and defending champion Dinara Safina. (photo: Jacob)

The fourth-seeded Russian, who ended Jelena Jankovic’s run to No.1 spot in the rankings by defeating her in the previous round, totally dominated Pennetta’s serve, breaking her six successive times.

With this victory French Open runner-up Safina has climbed to a new career-high ranking of No.8. (source: Reuters, photo via Great Tennis Photos)

If top-seeded Jankovic had won the tournament she would have occupied Ana Ivanovic’s No.1 spot in the rankings, but always-injured JJ lost the first set in the tie-break after which Safina quickly took the second set and completed her victory. "In the second set, I couldn't go anymore. My legs were shaking a little," said the world No.2 who entered the LA tournament with a left knee injury.

No.10 seed Pennetta will play her first Tier II final which she reached by overcoming Bethanie Mattek 3-6 6-2 7-5 in the final four. (source: BBC, photos: Getty Images)