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 »

It doesn't matter how important a tournament, a match or an opponent is, Serena Williams is like a tornado quickly destroying everything that comes her way. In today's WTA Championships final against Maria Sharapova, the American steadily marched to her third title at the year-ending tournament, without facing either a break point or a deuce in her service games.

En route to the title match, Serena was perfect 3-0 in round-robin action, without even losing a set against world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, Li Na and Angelique Kerber, in the semifinals she also stormed to a straight-set win against Agnieszka Radwanska, only to continue the momentum in the last match of the tournament by routinely taking Sharapova's serve in the fifth game of the first set and the first and ninth games of the second set for a 6-4 6-3 victory.

The second-ranked Sharapova was hanging in there and didn't play bad, but Serena is simply on a pedestal now and the maximum one can do is not to melt away against her. A winner at the speed of 135 km/h and a service game won in just one minute and 21 seconds are just two indicators of Serena's power.

Serena has now won 12 straight matches against world No.1s and No.2s and holds an impressive 58-4 win-loss record this season which includes titles in Charleston, Madrid, Wimbledon, Stanford, Olympic Games, US Open and now WTA Championships. Actually, Serena has never in her career played more matches in one season, with 62 she has now equalled her record from 2009. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

At the Australian Open final back in January, Maria Sharapova won just three games against world No.1 Victoria Azarenka, but today she hit the mark of three games quite quickly, going 3-2 up with a break of serve, which followed an exchange of breaks, and steadily marched on to take the first set. Actually, from 5-4 in the first set, Sharapova won five straight games and experienced no hiccups until the sixth game of the second set. Sharapova needed 16 minutes and 17 seconds to hold her serve after nine deuces, but her next service game she won to love and ended the match.

The 2012 WTA Championships semifinals featured the world's Top 4 players and rematches of two 2012 Grand Slam finals. The final match of the tournament will be a rematch of the Olympic final and I can't wait to see how Sharapova will fare against ice cold and scarily dominant Serena Williams, whom she hasn't beaten in eight years! Both Sharapova and Serena have won the WTA Championship title in their career.

Do you think Serena will ruin Sharapova just as other opponents lately? Can the Russian humble Serena? (photo: Tennis Buzz)

Less than 24 hours after winning the longest best-of-three sets match in the WTA Championships history, Agnieszka Radwanska had to face the merciless Serena Williams and the outcome was not surprising – Serena ran over her opponent in one hour, converting six of seven break opportunities and finishing the match with a crosscourt winner on the line, on Radwanska's serve, without losing a point, 6-2 6-1.

Two longest matches of the tournament featured Radwanska and entering today's semifinal against Serena, Radwanska had ran 9.200 meters on court to Serena's mere 3.500. Exhaustion and fresh and powerful Serena made sure Radwanska would not play another marathon.

Serena likes quick matches and she gets what she likes. The Pole dropped serve at the start of both sets. In the first set she did bring some resistance by rebreaking to level to 2-2, but Serena took charge right away and never looked back. The second game of the second set she won in just one minute and 41 seconds, firing three aces. Radwanska was no match for Williams. Just look at the department of net points – Serena won 13 of 14, while Radwanska went to the net just once. (photo: Moo's Tennis Blog)

Victoria Azarenka joined Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals of the WTA Championships, at the same time clinching the year-end No.1 ranking. The Belarusian recovered from a first-set deficit to beat Li Na, despite the horrible -19 winners-to-unforced errors differential (6/25).

Li started the match with a break and consolidated it for 2-0, but no one expected the situation to unfold that straightforwardly. The Chinese led until 4-2 and even though Azarenka returned to 4-4, Li broke her serve once again and served for the set. But Li likes to give off leads and double faulted to give Azarenka a break back. The Belarusian seized the opportunity, took the set in a tiebreak and finally the match 7-6(4) 6-3, when Li sent a forehand long.

The first semifinal on Saturday is between Serena Williams and Agnieszka Radwanska, a rematch of the 2012 Wimbledon final, while the second semifinal is a rematch of the 2012 Australian Open final between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova. Semifinalists time on court: Radwanska 8 hours 4 minutes, Azarenka 6 hours 32 minutes, Sharapova 5 hours 50 minutes and Williams 4 hours 45 minutes. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)