Dear Readers, here's a guest post from sportswriter and tennis fan David Fearnhead voicing his discontent with Maria Sharapova's screaming. Do you share his opinion?

Buried somewhere in the tennis rule book is an article on hinderance. It states that "If a player is hindered by an opponent then he or she wins the point, unless it's unintentional, in which case the point is replayed." Much of the implementation of this law is down to the umpire. There are obvious cases where this has been used. Remember the beads of Venus Williams’ hair falling out and spraying all over the court during the ’99 Australian Open, or more recently Elena Dementieva’s troublesome hat.

However an old adversary of the Women’s game is rearing its ugly head once more – grunting. I agree with Nick Bollettieri’s assertion that when you’re putting all into hitting the ball as hard as you can you are going to make some noise as you exhale, but there is a world of difference from these breathy strains and the outright screaming of some players.

Nobody expects players to remain completely silent. There should, however, be limits. Exhibit A for the prosecution would be the clash between the talented Czech player Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova and Maria Sharapova at this year’s Wimbledon. This third round match-up had everything for a thrilling encounter. Sharapova was finally coming back into form and Zahlavova-Strycova had just come through a three-setter in which she ousted the number 24 seed Daniela Hantuchova.

Sharapova took it in two sets, edging the first 7-5 followed by a more comfortable 6-3 in the second. However this does not tell the full story of the match. Sure at times it seemed like hawkeye was deliberately favouring Sharapova, and you have to applaud the Russian’s ability to read the lines and know when to challenge, but one niggling doubt over the legitimacy of that victory remains. On that afternoon number one court echoed to the constant screams of the 16th seed. These were not the strains of player trying to put every ounce of herself into every strike, but a seemingly deliberate attempt to destabilize her opponent. Read more »

Justine Henin injured her right elbow during the fourth-round defeat by fellow Belgian Kim Clijsters at Wimbledon and will not play tennis for about two months. The break will affect her participation in the "Best of Belgium" exhibition match in Brussels against Clijsters on July 8 (Henin will only attend the event) and, more importantly, the seven-time Grand Slam champion will have to miss the US Open which starts August 30. The former world No.1’s diagnosis is partial ligament fracture at the right elbow. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

The final of Wimbledon 2010 will feature first-time Grand Slam finalist Vera Zvonareva and 12-time major singles champion Serena Williams as they overcame their unseeded opponents in the semifinals.

The first to advance was seed No.21 Zvonareva with a 3-6 6-3 6-2 over surprising semifinalist Tsvetana Pironkova, who had defeated the Russian in their only previous meeting. The world No.82 Pironkova, who stunned Venus Williams in the quarterfinals even though she had never been past the second round of a major, started the match well, but Zvonareva managed to hang in and turn it around.

Prior to this year’s event, Zvonareva hadn’t been to the second week of Wimbledon in six years. She will mount back to the Top 10 in the rankings, from her current position No.21. Read more »

Wimbledon may have strict dress code but there still is enough space for players and their brands to experiment and bring something new and exciting. Let's see how successful they've been this year.

Let's start with Venus and Serena Williams. We've already paid close attention to both Venus' Eleven dress and Serena's Nike dress, but it's worth mentioning them again – Venus was definitely unique with fringes all over the bottom part of the dress, while Serena wore a more classic design inspired by strawberries and cream and a cute narrow headband. Just to use the opportunity to mention that the sisters, twice defending champions, lost in doubles quarterfinals today to Elena Vesnina and Vera Zvonareva 3-6 6-3 6-4.

Chinese brand ANTA and Jelena Jankovic were simple and classy at this year's Wimbledon. JJ also sported a customized racquet bag and was fully equipped for the greatest Grand Slam.

Once my favorite tennis fashion designer Stella McCartney seems to be lacking inspiration as Caroline Wozniacki has been wearing pretty much the same dress for months. Now I can't blame her, why bother when you're going to lose your match in 46 minutes (sorry, Caro). Talking about Stella, we have to mention Maria Kirilenko who looks awesome even in the simple adidas BARRICADE top and skort. Read more »

Defending champion and top seed Serena Williams reached the semifinals of Wimbledon with a 7-5 6-3 win over ninth seed Li Na, while her sister Venus, five-time Wimbledon champion and last year’s runner-up, crashed out to world No.82 Tsvetana Pironkova in the quarters.

Li didn’t break Serena’s serve until 5-2 in the second set and Serena then immediately broke back to advance to the semifinal meeting with world No.62 Petra Kvitova, who had never won a match at Wimbledon before this year. To reach the semifinals, Czech Kvitova defeated Kaia Kanepi after saving five match points and coming from 5-2 down in the deciding set (final score: 4-6 7-6(8) 8-6).

Second seed Venus Williams lost her quarterfinal match against Tsvetana Pironkova in straight sets 6-2 6-3 and Pironkova has thus become the first Bulgarian to reach semifinals of a Grand Slam in the Open Era. Prior to Wimbledon 2010, world No.82 Pironkova had recorded just one victory at the tournament.

Pironkova’s opponent in the semifinals will be seed No.21 Vera Zvonareva who upset eighth seed Kim Clijsters 3-6 6-4 6-2 even though the Belgian entered the match with a perfect 5-0 record against the Russian. Clijsters’ game was worsening as the match progressed and Zvonareva reached her second Grand Slam semifinal.

The 2010 Wimbledon semifinals are yet again proving how unpredictable women’s tennis is nowadays. Who would have thought that semifinal pairs would be Serena Williams vs. Petra Kvitova and Vera Zvonareva vs. Tsvetana Pironkova. I’m sure absolutely no one was even close! At present, world No.1 Serena is the only WTA player you can count on. (photo: sr_cranks)