Only yesterday were we speculating what WTA players would be wearing at the start of the 2010 season, and now we already have one confirmation – Ana Ivanovic will certainly sport the yellow and red adidas adilibria dresses in the year to come.

Ivanovic will wear the yellow version of the dress at the Australian Open, while the red one is planned for the French Open.

The dresses are made of 100% recycled PES (polyester) and are part of the adidas sustainable Better Place range. ClimaCool® moisture management technology is included in the upper back and neck area, which keeps player’s body as cool as possible.

The adidas Barricade V will be Ivanovic's shoes of choice.

Jacob, thank you for telling me about the video!

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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 »

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The 2009 French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova revealed in an interview for sovsport.ru what she will spend her prize of €1 060 000 on. The Russian is planning to buy an accommodation in Moscow and a luxurious watch, while the most part she will donate to church.

Here’s what Kuznetsova said:

I am planning to buy an accommodation in Moscow, I am still renting an apartment. Also, I have promised to myself to buy a good expensive watch. The majority of the money I am going to donate to my church. There the director of orthodox temple is my spiritual father. I try to be there as often as possible, to think about something personal, something eternal. But I have a very busy schedule. Occasionally, the father himself visits me. No matter how strange it sounds, I am a very religious person and I try to attend church even in other countries.

Considering the prices of apartments in Moscow, I keep wondering how it's possible that she will give a majority of the money to church. However, all the respect for Kuznetsova, honorable move. (source: Tennis Info Blog, photo: Stephane Martinache)

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The two weeks of Paris claycourt excitement are over, and the rankings are mirroring the turbulence.

Dinara Safina is still No.1, despite her unfortunate and miserable loss in her second successive final of Roland Garros, and in general, the Top 4 order stayed unchanged, with Serena Williams, Venus Williams and Elena Dementieva all holding on to their positions.

The 2009 Roland Garros champion Svetlana Kuznetsova moved from No.7 to No.5.

Jelena Jankovic’s slide continues, as she dipped one spot, from No.5 to No.6, just like Vera Zvonareva, from No.6 to No.7. The biggest change in the Top 10 has happened to the last year's Roland Garros champion Ana Ivanovic, who quickly fell from No.8 to No.13, after two solid years inside the Top 10 – including 12 weeks at No.1. As a result, Victoria Azarenka moved from No.9 to No.8; Caroline Wozniacki moved from No.10 to No.9; and Nadia Petrova rose from No.11 to No.10.

Unexpected Roland Garros semifinalists Dominika Cibulkova and Samantha Stosur both climbed a lot in the rankings. Cibulkova rose from No.19 to a career-high of No.14, while Stosur rose from No.32 to No.18 (she was previously ranked No.27 at most).

Li Na earned her place in the Top 20 for the first time since 2007 by rising from No.25 to No.20.

Sorana Cirstea broke into the Top 30 for the first time, climbing from No.41 to No.27, while Michelle Larcher de Brito and Stefanie Voegele both cracked the Top 100 for the first time.

And of course, former world No.1 Maria Sharapova, who played Roland Garros 2009 ranked 102nd, has risen to No.73 after her quarterfinal finish. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

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The 2009 French Open championship match was much shorter and less thrilling than we had expected, with Svetlana Kuznetsova quickly defeating favorite Dinara Safina 6-4 6-2 in an-all Russian final. To make things worse, the world No.1 Safina double-faulted on the championship point.

The top-seeded Safina opened the match which began with an exchange of breaks. In the eighth and ninth game there was another exchange of breaks, and both players had a 40-0 lead on their opponent’s serve. Despite being quickly broken back in the ninth game, Kuznetsova broke Safina yet again in the tenth game, and took the first set.

In the second set, the seventh-seeded Kuznetsova earned breaks in the sixth and eighth games, to prevent the 23-year-old Safina from claiming her maiden Grand Slam title.

Safina has failed to crown her spectacular clay-court season, including her impressive run to the French Open finals, by losing her third Grand Slam final and second successive at Roland Garros. The 23-year-old Kuznetsova won her second Grand Slam title in her fourth major final.

Moreover, we are still having a shaky and slamless player on top of the rankings. Safina had an excellent chance, as well as ability, to make herself stand out from the rest, but she wasted the opportunity and hence failed to restore balance in women’s tennis.

The 74-minute match is the eighth consecutive straight sets women's final at Roland Garros. (photo: Stephane Martinache)

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