Serena Williams seems to be too intimidating for Maria Sharapova, who despite her grandeur can't seem to stand up against the American, not having beaten her since 2004, the period which now includes 13 losses after Serena's today's 6-1 6-4 straightforward victory in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open. It's actually Sharapova's first loss in eight claycourt finals, while Serena was, as strange as it may seem, playing her first final on red clay since the 2002 French Open.

The top-seeded Williams raced through the first four games, then Sharapova somehow managed to hold her serve in a game that lasted about as long as the sum of the first four, but her opponent quickly closed the deal, finishing the set in just 32 minutes. The seed No.2 Sharapova offered resistance in the second set, breaking Serena's serve in the opening game and holding her own for a 2-0 lead, but she gave away that advantage by allowing her serve to be broken to love by double faulting on 0-40 in the sixth game of the set. In the tenth game Serena again broke Sharapova to love and won the match and 643,000 EUR in prize money. Read more »

We're having Top 2 WTA players in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open and the No.1 ranking is on the line – if Maria Sharapova wins, she will take the prestigious position from Serena Williams. Moreover, Sharapova is playing the 50th final of her career, in the previous 49 her record was 29-20, while Serena is looking for her 50th title in her 66th final.

A day after surviving Anabel Medina Garrigues in the quarterfinals, Serena won a tight 7-5 6-2 two-setter against Sara Errani, who was twice a break up in the first set, and will now try to become the tenth player in history to win 50 WTA titles, and the only active player to do so. In the following semifinal, Sharapova secured a 6-4 6-3 victory over Ana Ivanovic by winning a close first set and overcoming Ivanovic's initial 2-0 lead in the second set. It's not just any win for the Russian, it's her 500th career win and only seven other active players have achieved the feat, including of course Serena Williams, who leads Sharapova 12-2 in the head-to-head stats, not having lost to her since 2004. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Top seed and defending champion Serena Williams recovered from a second-set bagel against clay veteran Anabel Medina Garrigues in the quarterfinals of the Mutua Madrid Open, only her seventh career loss of a set at love, and in the third set she rebounded from 2-4 and later from two points from defeat at 4-5 15-30 to win 6-3 0-6 7-5. Williams' opponent in the semis will be seventh seed and claycourt expert Sara Errani, who beat Ekaterina Makarova 6-4 6-3. Never in their four previous meetings had Errani defeated Williams.

Second seed Maria Sharapova is also through to the semifinals, with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Kaia Kanepi, but if she wants to get the number one ranking she'll have to hang in there and see Serena leave one round earlier than her. Seed No.16 Ana Ivanovic was the last to move into the final four, taking out sixth seed Angelique Kerber 6-3 6-1 in a match that lasted just 57 minutes, thus reinforcing her recent 7-5 7-5 win over the higher ranked German in the Fed Cup. The semifinal of Sharapova and Ivanovic will be a rematch of the last month's indoor clay meeting in the Stuttgart final eight, when Ivanovic lost a three-set marathon and Sharapova went all the way to the title and the Porsche. Sharapova has won the last five matches against Ivanovic, dating back to 2007. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

The speculations about the love story between WTA world No.2 Maria Sharapova and ATP world No.28 Grigor Dimitrov started in the end of November 2012 when the Russian beauty was shopping in Milan and her Bulgarian colleague appeared in the footage of the stroll through the fashion city, but now, five months later, the couple finally decided to come out and confirm their relationship publicly by kissing and hugging in the streets of Madrid on Wednesday night, which of course the paparazzi diligently recorded.

The confirmation of the love match between Sharapova and Dimitrov comes about a year after Sharapova's end of engagement to basketball player Sasha Vujacic, whose fiancée she became in October 2010, while the split that happened in late spring was confirmed in the end of August 2012. Read more »

First of all, I'm glad to be back after a week-long Orthodox Easter holiday relaxation in the mountains – I got a bit blown away by the laid back lifestyle and nature and didn't feel like turning on my computer But here I am now, tuning back in during the early rounds of the Mutua Madrid Open and this Wednesday's most notable result was Ekaterina Makarova's upset of Victoria Azarenka in the second round.

Never before, in nine previous tries, had Makarova defeated a Top 3 player, and her today's victory is even more notable since Azarenka had been undefeated this season with a 18-0 record and in the first round of Madrid she eliminated last week's Portugal Open champion Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.

The world No.3 Azarenka looked to be heading to a straightforward triumph after cruising through the first set 6-1, when the 24th-ranked Makarova raised her game to win the second set and rallied from 1-3 down in the third to score a 1-6 6-2 6-3 victory. At the two previous editions of the Madrid tournament Azarenka finished as the runner-up, but this time it was her first event since withdrawing prior to the Indian Wells quarterfinals in early March due to a right ankle injury. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

For the sixth year in a row, Women's Tennis Blog is using the relaxed off-season period to review the on-court styles of our top players and brands. Of course, who else will kick off the series than our fashion darling Maria Sharapova. Let's see what the Russian wore in the year that saw her complete a Career Slam and win the Olympic silver.

In 2012, the Nike-clad Sharapova continued her subdued sporty femininity. Glamour, layers, frills and popping details have not described the Russian's tennis style since last year. Of course, Masha is still the most glamorous WTA player, but on court that glamour is toned down now, fitting the simple, everyday wearable category. There still are details in her designs, but you have to look deeper to find them.

White with electric green accents was Sharapova's color combination for the Australian sun and it transcended to the indoor hardcourt of Coubertin Stadium in Paris.

At Indian Wells, the 25-year-old wore a blue dress with light blue scales on the sides and in the back, matching the color of the straps.

*Visit the full list of retrospections of WTA players' yearly outfits*

Very ordinary red tanks followed for four tournaments, paired with simple white and black skirts. Read more »

Two years after the couple first met at the 2009 Madrid Open, on Wednesday, July 27th, 2011, Gisela Dulko married Argentine footballer Fernando Gago. Now around their first wedding anniversary, we're featuring the lovers in our WTA Players and their Boyfriends/Husbands series.

The wedding took place in the Palermo district of Buenos Aires, while the celebration with 400 guests was at a lavish Tattersal salon reception. According to our reader Luciana, Dulko and Gago first lived in Rome, while now they're living in Madrid. Read more »

Red clay, green clay, blue clay – it's all the same for Serena Williams, even though it's her least favorite surface. The American became the first champion on the infamous blue clay by demolishing world No.1 Victoria Azarenka in the final of the Mutua Madrid Open.

The top-seeded Azarenka finished the first set with a double fault and the match with an awkward missing of the ball and that can pretty much sum up the short Madrid final which lacked in competitiveness and rallies. In the third game of the match, trailing 0-2, Azarenka made three double faults to drop serve again and then quickly go even further down, 0-4, before winning her first game, which didn't mean much as Serena soon won the set 6-1. The second set was not a very different story, only that Azarenka won two more games. Final score: 6-1 6-3.

Serena hit 14 aces to Azarenka's zero! And Azarenka had only six winners in the entire match, compared to Williams' 26. Moreover, Williams won an astonishing 91% points on first serve, while Azarenka won 63%.

All in all, Serena stormed through the tournament to stay unbeaten in her last 13 matches on clay, losing a set only to Caroline Wozniacki in the Madrid quarterfinals. Besides Wozniacki and Azarenka, Serena also defeated Elena Vesnina, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, second seed Maria Sharapova and Lucie Hradecka en route to the Ion Tiriac trophy and $631,000 in prize money. The Mutua Madrid Open title is Serena's 41st career title! (photo: © Neal Trousdale)