A year ago I interviewed Bethanie Mattek Sands about her favorite tennis outfit, her tattoos, her best friends on the WTA Tour, etc. This fall I had an opportunity to interview the American again and I asked her about her 2011 season, her leisure activities and of course her opinion on the on-court WTA fashion.

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? Read more »

Petra Kvitova is the hottest player of the moment with her WTA Championships title and the year can also be considered hers, as she won Wimbledon as one of her six titles in 2011. The Czech is now enjoying her career-high ranking of number two and the next season is expected to be more than bright for this 21-year-old. Now let's see how little Kvitova was handling the tennis racquet 17 years ago.

Petr, thank you for telling me about the video! Read more »

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. Read more »

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)