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)

It is not a surprise that Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters reached much better position than their WTA ranking. It should be noted that the average results of these players (and some others, too) are not relevant in the same degree as of the other players due to a small number of tournaments they took part in. For instance, had Kim Clijsters reached the next round at the French Open, she would have taken the 6th position with the average of 3.50. Also, Samantha Stosur and Agnieszka Radwanska got significantly worse result than their WTA ranking.

We can conclude that the first three players are significantly better than others, except maybe Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters. This is in a good correlation with the WTA ranking, which need not be true in general.

There are some weak points of this average result. First, rather small number of tournaments is considered, hence the average has a rather big deviation. This has been already pointed out for Kim Clijsters. Let us also note that the first three players have the smallest possible differences. Also, it does not describe the actual level of players but an average in past 52 weeks.

What do you think of this perspective? It's nice to have one more approach, but as Ludolf himself stated, it still has many flaws and the fact that only five tournaments are taken into account, it's pretty limited. Plus, almost all the best players showed up at the tournaments analyzed, but still it's "almost". (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

MARIJA: What will you remember the 2011 season for?

BETHANIE MATTEK SANDS: Even though my 2011 season ended early due to injury I was able to reach a career high ranking and still get some of my best wins to date. The win at Hopman Cup with my partner John Isner was an amazing start to my season and I really felt I was able to gain some momentum and confidence. Off the court I have to say the Wimbledon Player Party will always be memorable as I got to rock a custom Alex Noble dress on the red carpet.

MARIJA: How is your shoulder injury now? Will you be perfectly healthy for the start of the new season and the Hopman Cup?

BETHANIE MATTEK SANDS: I'm happy to say my shoulder has come along way from where it was. I've been able to practice the last couple weeks but the time off and rehab I was able to take really helped it heal up. I'm excited to be going back to Perth for Hopman Cup at the end of December. If it wasn't such a far flight I would be "down under" more often!

MARIJA: What was your favorite activity you had more time for during the rehabilitation process? I read that you enjoyed cooking?

BETHANIE MATTEK SANDS: I recently bought a beach cruiser and I'll take my doggy Ruger out for a bike ride with me. He's normally really good at running next to me, until he sees a rabbit! Besides that I've been able to do a little baking in the kitchen and right now my two favorites are Paula Deen's monster Cookies and my own Sweet potato Pie. I'm always very health conscience when I eat but I'll never skimp out on the good ingredients in my desserts!

MARIJA: You have a unique style, so I would like to ask you which WTA player would you point out as interesting fashion-wise? I’m asking this because on your website I read your statement saying:

"Yeah, I was watching a match – two girls dressed head-to- toe in the same thing, blonde hair, ponytail – and I didn’t even know who was who, and I play with them!"

BETHANIE MATTEK SANDS: I think so many players have a great sense of style off the court. On court attire can be tough because a lot of the girls are told what to wear by their sponsor. I think Venus has had some really stand out outfits this year, my favorites was her colorful dress at Australian Open and her Wimbledon white skort outfit. Whats cool about her wardrobe is she actually draws up her own ideas… I'm jealous! I really need to work on my drawing skills before I can start doing that.

MARIJA: Your cooperation with Lady Gaga’s designer Alex Noble for your Wimbledon clothes will be remembered for years to come. Will you work with him again?

BETHANIE MATTEK SANDS: I loved meeting and getting to know Alex Noble this year. I think he is so creative and it was a blast to get to pick his brain and see a little bit of his design process. I hope to work with him again for another event this upcoming year!

MARIJA: What do you think of WTA’s recent promo activities such as Xperia Hot Shots and the Strong is Beautiful campaign?

BETHANIE MATTEK SANDS: I think the WTA's "Strong is Beautiful" campaigned turned out amazing. I love photo shoots… It's always fun to get your hair and makeup done and take some fun pictures that turn out pretty.  As much as we love training, practicing and working hard, our action shots aren't always the most flattering!

Bethanie, thank you for taking your time to answer my questions. I wish you a successful 2012 season and a lot of fashion fun! By the way, why am I not surprised that Bethanie admires Venus' style? (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Petr, thank you for telling me about the video!

This article is part of Women's Tennis Blog's highly-popular series featuring WTA stars when they were children. We've already had a similar video of three-year-old Dinara Safina, and many other awesome photos and clips including:

Amelie Mauresmo, Ana Ivanovic, Caroline Wozniacki, Dominika Cibulkova, Elena Dementieva, Jelena Dokic, Jelena Jankovic, Justine Henin, Kim Clijsters, Lindsay Davenport, Maria Kirilenko, Maria Sharapova, Marion Bartoli, Martina Hingis, Monica Seles, Sara Errani, Sam Stosur, Tatiana Golovin, Tracy Austin, the Williams sisters and Zheng Jie.

Petra Kvitova will take a few days of rest following her Wimbledon title run.  The 21-year-old Czech was playing Wimbledon on painkillers and now she's decided to skip next week's NURNBERGER Gastein Ladies in Austria to fully recover.

Kvitova was supposed to be top seed at the $220,000 event and Julia Goerges will now take that place.

The video I included in this article instead of a photo is Kvitova's photo shoot with her Wimbledon trophy and men's singles champion Novak Djokovic. Kvitova attracted a lot of positive attention with her blue gown at the Wimbledon Champions Ball.

I was inspired to do this post when I saw that many news sources, including The Telegraph and Guardian, claimed this guy was Petra Kvitova's father. He may have been the most noticeable face in Kvitova's box, but he is not the 2011 Wimbledon champion's father. I found that the man is Jaroslav Navratil, a former professional tennis player from Czechoslovakia.

Here are photos of Kvitova's father Jiri Kvita, who introduced Kvitova to tennis.

Jiri is a teacher.

In the photo below you can see Kvitova's brothers Jiri and Libor, and her mother Pavla. Father Jiri is in blue shirt.

Do you have some good sources that confirm the identity of the man in the first photo? Do you have some more photos of Kvitova's family? (photos via Tennis Forum, Denik.cz)

Don't be surprised when you visit the WTA Tour rankings page and don't see Serena Williams there. She's on page 2 now!

Having failed to defend her Wimbledon title, falling in the fourth round to Marion Bartoli, Serena Williams dropped from No.25 to No.175! No doubt she can just as quickly climb back, but still, what a slump! It's Serena's lowest ranking since 1997!

Serena's sister Venus suffered a much milder fall. Now she is No.34, and prior to Wimbledon she was No.30.

Petra Kvitova, the 2011 Wimbledon champion, has risen from No.8 to No.7, while Caroline Wozniacki, who lost in the fourth round along with Serena and Venus, remains No.1.

Reminder: Remember when Kim Clijsters won the US Open and ended by being ranked lower afterwards? (photo: Tidalist)

The 21-year-old Kvitova delighted women's tennis with her confident and solid performance against Maria Sharapova in the women's singles final. No screams, big stage or the credentials of her opponent could shake Kvitova's game, she was determined and stable in her 6-3 6-4 win over the three-time Grand Slam champion. As for the rankings, Kvitova has risen from No.8 to No.7.

The Czech Republic was also triumphant in women's doubles, as their Kveta Peschke together with Katarina Srebotnik pulled off a 6-3 6-1 win over Sabine Lisicki and Samantha Stosur. Pesche is experiencing Grand Slam glory for the first time, and together with Srebotnik has risen from No.6 to No.1 in doubles rankings.

Just like her two compatriots, Iveta Benesova won a Grand Slam title for the first time, in her first partnership with Jurgen Melzer, who is also a left-hander. They defeated Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Vesnina in the final 6-3 6-2. (photos via Wimbledon)

Nike has had a lot of reason to celebrate as we had an all-Nike semifinals at Wimbledon 2011 with Petra Kvitova, Maria Sharapova, Sabine Lisicki and Victoria Azarenka. When the world No.8 Kvitova  lifted the greatest tennis trophy on Saturday, Nike already had a tribute to the Czech prepared. When Li Na won Roland Garros last month, Nike also had everything ready for the party.

The 21-year-old Kvitova was also given a tribute by her racquet sponsor, Wilson.

And here are Kvitova's tributes to:

• modesty: "I don't want to change, I just want to be like everyone else, I'm nothing special."
• her game: "Some special tactics, it wasn't."
• stability: "I don't care about the noise. When I play I don't think about it. I just play my game. Azarenka was also noisy and I don't care."

(via Down the Line, quotes via Women Who Serve)

Petra Kvitova, 21, may have played her first Grand Slam final, and not only that, she played against former world No.1 and 2004 champion Maria Sharapova, but apart from the shaky serve in the opening game, Kvitova showed no signs of nervousness and went all the way to the biggest tennis trophy with a 6-3 6-4 win. The most powerful sign of Kvitova's mental strength, something very welcome in women's tennis, was the final game of the match which Kvitova quickly won with great serves without losing a point.

The weakest link in Sharapova's game was her serve, and here's one illustration: in the first set the Russian three-time Grand Slam champion won just 14% of points on her second serve. I often had a feeling that Sharapova was afraid to serve. After the coin toss she chose Kvitova to start the match. Also, the crucial sixth game of the first set Sharapova lost with a double fault and Kvitova earned a 4-2 lead. Sharapova's mental toughness got its time to shine when she served an ace on Kvitova's set point in the first set, but overall in the match, the eighth-ranked Kvitova was much more solid and not even the never-give-up attitude could save Sharapova. The first seven games of the second set featured five breaks of serve, and that fifth one was earned by Kvitova, who soon worked her way to the Wimbledon title.

Kvitova, who cracked the Top 10 this year, has won her fourth title of the season, after Brisbane, Paris and Madrid. (photo via Wimbledon)

Coach Dan Aronovic released his second free tennis lesson video on YouTube this week just in time for Wimbledon. His newest video, called the Tennis Volley with Salsa, is a short, funny and entertaining lesson on how to play the net in tennis. It will be followed by a 30-minute tennis lesson for download in the coming week, which provides drills, tactics and winning points at the net. This strategic tennis lesson will require a small fee of $9.95 for download. The Tennis Volley video can be downloaded from www.otzsports.com.

"The volley has become a 'lost art' in tennis, with most pro players slamming the ball from the backcourt", Coach Dan said. "But as Wimbledon shows us, more players will come to net because of the low bounce on grass. My volley instruction is modeled on the classic volleys of players like Billie Jean King, Stan Smith, Margaret Court and John Newcombe. I wanted to pass on this lost art of the volley to the current generation."

"The idea of reaching a wide audience is exciting, and the internet is a wide-open teaching forum", remarked Coach Dan. "The lessons I have given to my private students have worked very well as I try to simplify the tennis strokes so everyone can do it. I am happy to say that I have received thousands of positive comments about my Tennis Serve video from all over the world.  This doesn’t replace a private tennis coach, but it does provide a thorough explanation for those players who want a different approach to hitting the ball.  My affiliation with Own the Zone who make the very popular OTZ band vibration dampener allows me to get my instruction out to the masses."

Own the Zone hosts the Coach Dan videos, sells the OTZ band vibration dampeners and the technically cool Rudy Project sunglasses. Band dampeners are used by Maria Sharapova, Andy Roddick and teenage tennis star Bernard Tomic. The Tennis Volley video can be found at the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ulit8A_LK4s and on the Own the Zone site as well at www.otzsports.com.