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 »

For the first time in her long career Nadia Petrova beat three Top 10 players in one tournament and won her 12th and most valuable WTA title by ousting Agnieszka Radwanska in the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

To make the victory even bigger, Petrova not only overcame tough matches (a three-hour battle against Petra Martic in the third round, a 6-4 4-1 deficit against Sara Errani in the quarterfinals, Grand Slam champion Samantha Stosur in the semis, and finally world No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska), but also a nagging back injury that forced her to withdraw from Seoul last week.

After storming through the first set in the title match against defending champion Radwanska 6-0, Petrova felt flat and lost the second set 6-1. At 4-3 for Petrova in the third set, Radwanska was 40-30 up on her serve, but two double faults cost her the game and soon after the match. Final score: 6-0 1-6 6-3.

The 30-year-old Petrova started her professional career 13 years ago, in 1999, but she still has the drive and ambition for greater heights:

There are a few players who have won Grand Slams after 30, and I feel like I don't want to walk away from tennis without accomplishing the same.

(source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Nadia Petrova reached the Toray Pan Pacific Open final by overpowering Samantha Stosur 6-4 6-2. Petrova's first serve percentage was just 36%, but she hit nine aces and won 17 of 20 points on her first serve. Moreover, she faced no break points until the last game of the match when she saved all the three. Stosur, who made a string of unforced errors, had to take a medical timeout due to an abdominal injury.

Defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska joined Petrova in the final with a rapid 6-1 6-1 win over Angelique Kerber. The third-seeded Radwanska was in absolute charge of the semifinal against one of the most solid players of the season, recording 20 winners to just four unforced errors. Kerber, fifth seed in Tokyo, is actually the most prolific WTA player this year when it comes to the number of match wins (58), but her 34 unforced errors made her disappear against Radwanska. Read more »

Semifinals are set at the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo: Nadia Petrova vs. Sam Stosur and Angelique Kerber vs. Agnieszka Radwanska.

Nadia Petrova was the first to advance, with a massive 3-6 7-5 6-3 win over Sara Errani in two hours and 36 minutes. The Russian actually won one point less than her opponent in the tense match (101 to Errani's 102), but saved 7 of 12 break points, while Errani saved 7 of 13.

The encounter of Maria Sharapova and Sam Stosur followed. Both started strongly, with 100% of first serves won up to 2-2 40-15 for Stosur in the first set. However, there was an exchange of breaks for 4-4 and it was Stosur who held her serve then and broke Sharapova again in the end, for a perfect conversion of break points and 6-4. Read more »

An upset is always lurking when Lucie Safarova is in the game, and given her walkover relaxation in the second-round and Maria Sharapova’s hard labor against qualifier Heather Watson to reach the third round, the encounter of the Czech and the Russian promised a close battle. In the end, favorite Sharapova did advance, this time in not more than an hour and 45 minutes, 6-2 7-6(5), but only after surviving a comeback of 0-3 to 6-5 on the side of Safarova in the second set.

In the quarterfinals, the second-seeded Sharapova will face eighth seed Samantha Stosur, who beat Dominika Cibulkova 6-4 7-5. As for the other members of the final eight, Sara Errani won 12 of the last 15 games to recover from 3-6 0-1 and defeat Marion Bartoli 3-6 6-2 6-2. Her next opponent will be Nadia Petrova, who stopped Petra Martic, the conqueror of Petra Kvitova.

Top seed Victoria Azarenka beat Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-2 and will play Angelique Kerber, who lost just two games against Urszula Radwanska, 6-1 6-1. Agnieszka Radwanska is through to the quarters, with a 6-4 6-3 win over Jamie Hampton, while Caroline Wozniacki edged Li Na, who committed 76 unforced errors, 4-6 6-3 6-4. (photo: Tennis Buzz)