Our stats analyst Omair is already famous for his statistical articles and now he's inspired Ludolf, another reader of Women's Tennis Blog and fan of tennis numbers, to contribute his take on the WTA rankings, i.e. he compared the actual rankings with the performance of players at the biggest events – Grand Slams and WTA Championships. Enjoy!

The WTA ranking does not rank properly the strength of players in the sense of the ability to win a match or a tournament. The main reason is that it is cumulative and therefore underestimates players without a sufficient number of tournaments. We need to compute an average to avoid this. Moreover, the WTA ranking considers tournaments with weights not depending on the quality of players on them.

To achive the above-mentioned goal it seems to be more appropriate to take the average result from majors and the WTA Championships, the tournaments where the best players are almost always present. By the result of a player we mean the number of her losses (including the rounds which she did not achieve), i.e. 0 for the winner, 1 for the defeated finalist, 2 for defeated semifinalists, and so on. The results for the last 52 weeks are presented in the table, completed by the WTA ranking (after the Australian Open) for comparison. (FO: French Open, W: Wimbledon, USO: US Open, WTA: WTA Championships, AO: Australian Open)

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It’s only now that Li Na has returned home after her last month’s historic victory at the French Open and the WTA organized a celebration in Beijing. The China's first Grand Slam singles champion also attended a prize ceremony in her home province of Hubei, which awarded her with $94,000 and named her the Hubei Pioneer of Breakthrough.

Other than those two events, Li decided to rest at home and stay away from the limelight.

Since I have returned, I have tried my best to not go out if I can help it and just stay at home. Perhaps everyone's recognition of me is greater and their expectations will be higher, but to me I don't want to change the life I have been leading.

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China's Li Na has been sponsored by Nike and the sportswear company was quick to celebrate the Roland Garros victory of their tennis partner. Nike featured Li's photo in their Paris store and organized an event with the Asia's first Grand Slam singles champion giving autographs, posing for the pictures with fans and talking to the press.

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China’s Li Na yesterday became the first player from an Asian nation to win a Grand Slam singles title and it means a lot not only to China but to the entire tennis world as Li’s success is expected to fuel the sport's rapid growth in the most populous country.

In the above video you can see the final moments of the 2011 Roland Garros championship match in which Li defeated Italy's holder Francesca Schiavone 6-4 7-6(0).

And here's Li's post-match interview. Read more »

China's Li Na has just made a tennis revolution – the 29-year-old defeated last year's winner Francesca Schiavone in the final of Roland Garros and the sport not so popular in China is now expected to bloom, or at least to start blooming, and when you have a population of so many people in question than it's a really big deal. As for the very championship match, Li was solid, had precise shots and was in charge more or less throughout the match, which can be described as one calm Grand Slam final, without much fuss and excessively expressed emotions.

The world No.7 Li had a straightforward win in the first set. In 39 minutes the Chinese sixth seed faced no break points, took Schiavone's serve in the fifth game and simply marched on to take the set 6-4. The second set Li continued in the similar fashion, breaking Schiavone's serve in the very beginning and at 3-1 Li had a great opportunity to bring the match too close to an end, but she netted a clear shot and the world No.5 Schiavone slowly managed to get back into the match when she leveled at 4-4. Then both players held their serves until the tiebreak in which Li started shining again and actually won it without losing a point! Final score: 6-4 7-6(0). Read more »

Here we go again, two players pretty much no one was talking about in the lead-up to the French Open are now in the final of the claycourt Grand Slam – Francesca Schiavone and Li Na. Schiavone was mentioned here and there, mostly as last year's surprise champion, while Li, we can safely say, was totally neglected. Anyway, Schiavone beat Marion Bartoli 6-3 6-3 in today's semifinal (yes, Bartoli reached the final four, which just adds to the fact that predictions are useless) and Li defeated Maria Sharapova, the most favored player to win the tournament.

Before anything I'd like to repeat that Schiavone and Li are playing the final of the French Open and Caroline Wozniacki, Kim Clijsters, Vera Zvonareva, Victoria Azarenka, Samantha Stosur, Jelena Jankovic, Petra Kvitova, Julia Goerges are all gone. Many of them long gone!

The world No.5 Schiavone made a big statement by reaching the final again. Even if the Italian doesn't win the remaining match, she has proved that her last year's success wasn't just an incidence, and even though people will always argue and mention the circumstances or whatever, I think the 30-year-old Schiavone has a solid proof that she can rock. Her quarterfinal against Anastasia Pavlyuchekova this week was one of best showcases for Schiavone's physical and mental capabilities.

Every now and then the seventh-ranked Li becomes "the first Chinese player who ________". In January she played the Australian Open final as the first Chinese Grand Slam finalist in women's singles, and now, just a day after becoming the first Chinese to reach the singles semifinals at Roland Garros, she's become the first Chinese to play the finals, by ousting three-time Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova 6-4 7-5. Li made twice more winners than the Russian (24 to 12), five less unforced errors (23 to 28), seven double faults less (3 to 10), and hit one ace to her opponent's zero.

Schiavone and Li have a 2-2 career head-to-head record. Their last and only match on clay was at last year's Roland Garros and Schiavone won 6-4 6-2 in the third round. Although, as unpredictable as women's tennis is, this statistical point doesn't mean much. (photos: chascow, Stephane Martinache)

In two quarterfinals that took place today at Roland Garros, players that advanced are those that actually consider, or at least used to consider, clay their least preferable surface.

Maria Sharapova is not a good slider on clay and four years ago at the very same tournament she famously compared her movement with a "cow on ice", but now, with a different setting in women’s tennis, she’s a title favorite and today she had a straightforward 6-0 6-3 win over Andrea Petkovic to reach the semifinals. The three-time Grand Slam champion, seeded seventh this year, is now only two wins away from completing a career slam. Just to mention, Sharapova did play the semifinals of Roland Garros in 2007 and lost to Ana Ivanovic. She lost in the quarters three times. Read more »

First-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova looked to be following up her upset of world No.3 Vera Zvonareva with an upset of defending champion Francesca Schiavone when the score was 6-1 4-1 for the 19-year-old Russian.

However, Schiavone, 11 years older than her opponent, dragged out a 7-5 second-set win and in the third set she raced to a 5-1 lead. Even though Pavlyuchenkova managed to level at 5-5, the fifth-seeded Italian was determined to finish the job, and on her third match point defeated the 14th-seeded Russian 1-6 7-5 7-5.

In the semis Schiavone will play the winner of the Marion Bartoli vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova quarterfinal. (photo by our reader Tony)

Maria Sharapova won her ninth straight match on clay, the streak featuring her Rome title, by defeating Agnieszka Radwanska in the fourth round of Roland Garros 7-6(4) 7-5. The Russian will be playing her fifth quarterfinal at the tournament, but only once did she make one step further, in 2007 when she reached the semis.

The three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova, who has a chance to complete a career slam this week, came back from 4-1 down in the first set, leveled to 4-4, then both players held their serves to take the set to a tiebreak. In the second set Sharapova faced set points, but saved all five of them and finished the job in that set.

It’s interesting to compare Sharapova’s and Radwanska’s stats because of contrasts in most departments. Sharapova hit 7 aces to Radwanska’s 1, but also 7 double faults to Radwanska’s 0. When it comes to winners and unforced errors the situation is equally unbalanced. Sharapova hit almost 4 times more unforced errors (44 to Radwanska's 12), but also much more winners, 47 to 13.

Andrea Petkovic, who defeated Maria Kirilenko 6-2 2-6 6-4 in the fourth round, will be next Sharapova's opponent. Other quarterfinal pairs are: Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. Marion Bartoli, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova vs. Francesca Schiavone, and Li Na vs. Victoria Azarenka. (via Sharapova's official website, photo courtesy of our reader Tony)

Traditionally, Women's Tennis Blog is doing Grand Slam fashion overviews, so let's see what major sports brands have on display at Roland Garros 2011.

World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki brought nothing new to the fashion table of Roland Garros – the 20-year-old Dane, who bowed out of the tournament in the third round already, wore the adidas by Stella McCartney Ruffle Dress which she debuted at Indian Wells in March.

Adidas impressed with an array of bright colors that perfectly contrast/match the red clay of Roland Garros. Above you can see the variety of pink, orange and green combinations on Daniela Hantuchova, Sorana Cirstea, Andrea Petkovic, Maria Kirilenko and Arantxa Rus. Here you can read more about Adidas' French Open collection.

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