Billie Jean King has posted stories about her career to a new iPhone app for storytelling, Broadcastr, so when you go past Madison Square Garden, you can hear King telling the story of her worst memory ever, how she lost a match despite leading 6-0 5-0 and how Rod Laver immensely helped her after the defeat.

Broadcastr lets anyone easily create and share audio recordings on an interactive map, so when you take a walk, you can automatically hear stories pinned to your physical location, like an audio tour of the whole world.

King's organization, WorldTeamTennis, is an official Broadcastr partner.  They'll be making more tennis stories available in the coming months. (photos via Broadcastr and Edwin Martinez1)

Japanese tennis star Kimiko Date Krumm is appearing in a commercial for what seems to be beer, but is actually an "alcohol-free beertaste beverage". The company behind the product is Kirin Brewery, selling two of the most popular beers in Japan.

Do you think Andrea Petkovic would drink this after a concert on Valentine's Day? (via Forty Deuce)

Gisela Dulko defeated Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-3 7-6(5) in the final of the Abierto Mexicano TELCEL and became the first Argentinian to triumph at that tournament. The fourth-seeded Dulko had played the Mexican event five times, but always struggled, never going past the quarterfinals.

The 73rd-ranked Dulko, once ranked as high as No.23, looked to be cruising to victory when she established a 6-3 5-1 lead and served for the match. But it wasn’t to be so easy, as the world No.79 Parra Santonja fought back to force a tiebreak. However, Dulko won in straight sets and earned her fourth career title - the first three came in Budapest and Forest Hills (2007) and in Fes (2008).

As for Parra Santonja, not only did she reach the final in singles, she also played the doubles final, paired with Lourdes Domínguez Lino. However, she finished runner-up there as well, to Mariya Koryttseva and Ioana Raluca Olaru.

Additional info: Gisela Dulko is featured in the latest issue of SportWeek, Italy’s sports magazine. Check out the modeling photos after the cut. Read more »

Morgan of Fetch Sport contacted me to share their new spring/summer 2011 collection and I decided to show it to you. Fetch prides itself on providing style and function both on and off the tennis court, and from what I can see at their website, it’s true.

This LA sportswear brand was launched in the fall of 2006 by former Southern Methodist University tennis player Christopher Louis, who wanted to unite his love of tennis and fashion.

The Fetch Sport logo shows the relation between dogs and tennis. You may think there’s none, but listen to Christopher’s story:

"I’d be teaching and people walking their dogs would ask me, ‘Hey, can we have a tennis ball for our dog?’. I’d give them a ball and seeing dogs with the ball in their mouth, I thought that would be a cool logo."

Fetch also has a series of t-shirts featuring famous encouraging tennis expressions such as "c’mon", "allez" and "vamos". Fetch, where's "ajde", I have to ask?

And finally, who is wearing Fetch? American WTA players Alexandra Mueller and Riza Zalameda.

You're free to give your feedback on the line. Do you like Fetch?

Dear readers,

Today I am going on a two-week vacation in Thailand! Unfortunately, I will miss all the tournaments leading up to the Australian Open, but I will come back just in time for the first Grand Slam of the season.

Women's Tennis Blog will be alive while I'm away. I've prepared some articles in advance. There will not be updates on the tournaments in Australia, but I've made two series of articles:

1) photos of tennis players and their mothers – I thought it would be nice to draw some attention to the mothers of WTA stars, who are undoubtedly behind a great portion of the success of their daughters,

2) reviews of players' official websites – websites are an important possession of all public figures nowadays, so let's see how successful some WTA players are in creating their online presence.

There will also be a couple of guest posts, from a former sports writer and tennis junkie, Merlisa, and our great contributor, John Bolan.

And of course, Happy New Year everyone! Thank you for being such a great support for Women's Tennis Blog, I can't thank you enough! I hope that 2011 will be another great year for tennis and for our little community here.

By the way, I will celebrate the New Year's Eve in an airplane haha. At midnight I will be somewhere above Europe, according to my calculation.

See you in 2011!

Looking forward to an awesome and sunny Australian Open!

Marija

(photos: Rene Ehrhardt, Victoria Peckham)