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Dear readers,

I feel obliged to write this short note to update you on what's going on. I'm still on vacation, for six more days. I'm really sorry I haven't had much time to update Women's Tennis Blog, but as soon as I return everything will be back to normal. I hope you understand.

Right now I'm in Shanghai again. I visited Beijing for four days, and I spent one day in Hangzhou. I'm having a great holiday and I hope you understand that I can't spend much time on the Internet. In addition, here in China there is no access to Facebook and similar websites, so I can't be active there as well.

I promise I'll answer all your comments and emails when I come back.

And of course, thank you all so much for voting for Women's Tennis Blog in 2009 Baseline Awards! I'm so happy my blog has won this award for the first time. It's all thanks to your support!

See you in a few days!

All the best,

Marija

Women's Tennis Blog is more than two and a half years old and I feel it would be wonderful to give some space to our readers to present themselves. A lot of different people visit Women's Tennis Blog, some come and go, some come occasionally, some are with us daily, and a few of them have been with us from the very beginning.

I think it would be wonderful to get to know you, to learn more about the community we have here and for you all to see who else is visiting the same place as you do.

I would like to know more about you. Where are you from? What are you doing in life? Do you play tennis and what's your level? How old are you? When did you start reading Women's Tennis Blog? Or even simpler, just share what you feel like sharing, and tell us something about yourself that you think describes your personality well.

Don’t be shy and come join the conversation!

I'm so excited to see the comments section! (photo: AlejoC)

Dear readers,

I'm writing to announce that posting is likely to be slower in the next two weeks, as I'll be on vacation in Shanghai, China. I'm bringing my laptop and I should have the internet connection in my hotel, but I will probably be very busy exploring the metropolis and China in general.

I have prepared some nice posts in advance, such as the retrospections of players' 2009 outfits that I promised to some of you, and I'll also try to cover the new important stories that will come up. However, I probably won't have time to write as often and answer all your e-mails and comments right away.

Enjoy your holiday season!

Marija

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)

Tennis players come from all over the world, and hence the pronunciation of their names is often a difficult and confusing task. The following video is therefore a precious reference, as native speakers read aloud the names of players from their countries.

Here you can see a list of the names in order. (via Forty Deuce)