Australian Alicia Molik retired from professional tennis last year in September because she was tired of coping with all the injuries, but the 28-year-old feels fresh and fit again and is ready to return to the Tour.

The former world No.8 didn’t want to wait for a wild card into the 2010 Australian Open to be handed to her by Tennis Australia and will instead try to earn her spot in the main draw by playing the next week’s wildcard tournament.

Molik is satisfied on the personal front as well. She recently got engaged to Perth-based man called Tim.

Women’s Tennis Blog has once again been nominated in the Best Tennis Blog category of the annual Baseline Awards.

Our competitors in the category are Open Court with Stephanie Myles / Peter Bodo’s Tennis World / Steve Tignor’s Concrete Elbow / Straight Sets Blog by The New York Times / Tennis Talk, Anyone? / ZooTennis. I can see that the 2007 and 2008 winner, the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Player Blogs, is not in the list this year.

There is a total of eighteen categories, and they include Player of the Year, Most Improved Player of the Year, Best Grand Slam Final of 2009, Biggest Upset of 2009, Most Emotional Moment of 2009, and even Twitterer of the Year.

Voting is open until December 28th, and the winners will be announced on January 1, 2010. If you like what you see here on Women's Tennis Blog, visit www.awards.onthebaseline.com, click on "Vote Today" and vote for us.

The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour made an analysis of the presence of countries on the women's tennis scene and of course Russia is the leader.

Players from Russia had more than twice as many Top 100 players in the 2009 year-end rankings as the second-place country and won more than twice as many Tour singles titles as the second-place country.

I remember Kim Clijsters’ observation when she returned to the Tour: "A lot of Russian is being spoken in the locker room."

Players Ranked in 2009 Year-End Top 100 (As of November 9, 2009)

Russia: 15
Czech Republic: 6
France: 6
Germany: 6
Italy: 6
United States: 5
Romania: 4
Spain: 4
Belarus: 3
Belgium: 3
China: 3
England: 3
Slovakia: 3
Switzerland: 3
Ukraine: 3
Australia: 2
Austria: 2
Chinese Taipei: 2
Croatia: 2
Hungary: 2
Japan: 2
Poland: 2
Serbia: 2
Argentina: 1
Bulgaria: 1
Canada: 1
Denmark: 1
Estonia: 1
India: 1
Israel: 1
Kazakhstan: 1
Latvia: 1
Slovenia: 1
Uzbekistan: 1

Additional info: The United States has the record with six players in the year-end Top 10 in 1981, 1982 and 1983.

Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Singles Titles in 2009

Russia: 13
France: 5
United States: 5
Belarus: 4
Italy: 4
Denmark: 3
Spain: 3
Belgium: 2
Israel: 2
Germany: 2
Hungary: 2
Serbia: 2
Australia: 1
Austria: 1
Czech Republic: 1
Japan: 1
Romania: 1
Slovakia: 1
Switzerland: 1
Thailand: 1

Additional info: Russians won eight of the 19 Premier-level events in 2009, while no other country captured more than two Premier titles. (photos: Ralf Reinecke, Elisa)

Virginia Ruano Pascual has retired from tennis at the age of 36. The Spaniard won 42 doubles titles and three singles titles during her career on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Ruano Pascual has 10 Grand Slam doubles titles to her name, including six French Open ones. Eight of those Grand Slam titles she won paired with Paola Suarez of Argentina, one with countrywoman Anabel Medina Garrigues in 2008, and one is a mixed doubles title she won partnered with Thomas Carbonell in 2000.

The three singles titles Ruano Pascual claimed on the WTA Tour came in Tashkent (2003), Budapest (1998) and Cardiff (1997).

Ruano Pascual's highest ranking in doubles was No.1 and in singles No.28. (source: Women Who Serve)

Maria Sharapova is appearing in a new commercial for Clear Shampoo, the product of Unilever with which the Russian signed a deal earlier this year.

I don’t remember Sharapova's hair looking anything like this, neither her voice sounding like that, but hey, Clear Shampoo makes it all possible. (via Down the Line)