Our lucrative and highly professional contributor, Omair, prepared an analysis of the last singles match in the women's draw at the Australian Open, the final between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova. Enjoy the article and share your input in the comments!

Australian Open women's championship match will see two "ria's" facing each other, each trying to outgrunt the other. It will be one of the noisiest women's finals Australian Open has ever had, since both Maria and Victoria shriek loudly. My advice to the people intending to go and watch the match would be to take ear plugs with you or you might get your ears hurt. Ok enough of joking, let's see what we have in store for the final.

Seeing the form both players are taking into the final, it promises to be a great match. Both players have lost just two sets so far in the tournament, both losing one set in the quarterfinals and one in the semis. What is more interesting is that they both lost the same sets. Maria lost the first set in her quarterfinal against Sabine Lisicki, as did Azarenka against Radwanska. Maria lost the second set in her semifinal against Kvitova, as did Azarenka against Clijsters.

Both have not lost a match this year. Azarenka winning Sydney and carrying that momentum to the Australian Open, while Sharapova kick started her 2012 campaign at the Australian Open. Who will keep her winning streak intact in the final? Will it be Maria or Victoria? Read more »

Having reviewed the semifinal between Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova, our guest poster Omair is now moving on to the analysis of Victoria Azarenka's 6-4 1-6 6-3 win over Kim Clijsters to reach her first Grand Slam final.

Everyone had been criticizing the top players for their inconsistency and inability to dig deep through the tournament draws, but with the three of the top four seeds making it to the Australian Open final, along with Kim Clijsters, nobody can doubt the consistency of the top players now.

None of us could have asked for a better semifinal line-up, and the semifinals lived up to their expectations, both the matches producing some jaw-dropping tennis, intense rallies, seemingly impossible shots from players. There were momentum swings in both matches, but overall the quality of tennis was very high and they were worth watching.

Azarenka and Clijsters were the first to walk on to the Rod Laver Arena today to begin the battle for a spot in the championship match. Azarenka moved Clijsters all over the court testing her ankle in the first set, while taking the set 6-4. Clijsters could not find a way into Azarenka's game and by the end of the first set when she got into Azarenka's game it was too late since Azarenka took the set. Read more »

Omair, our favorite and most productive guest poster this Australian Open, is not slowing down and now he followed up his pre-match analysis of the semifinal between Maria Sharapova and Petra Kvitova with a post-match review of Sharapova's 6-2 3-6 6-4 victory.

Both Kvitova and Sharapova took the Rod Laver Arena today knowing that they both had a lot on the line: the No.1 ranking and a spot in the championship match. Kvitova had an edge coming into the match, for it was Kvitova who beat Sharapova on Center Court at Wimbledon in the title match last year in straight sets. Sharapova had revenge on her mind, and revenge was what she got at the end, along with a chance to grab the top spot and a chance to earn her second Australian Open trophy and fourth Grand Slam title.

Sharapova started the match on fire, walking away with the first set 6-2, and it seemed that Kvitova would bow out in straight sets. But we have seen that Kvitova is a fighter and she comes back to win matches. It was Kvitova's turn to show why she is world No.2 as she took the second set to send the match to a decisive third set. Again, it was Kvitova who looked sharper and on a roll, but Sharapova hung in there long enough to let the nerves get the better of Kvitova. Kvitova had a lot of chances to move ahead in the third set, but she just could not capitalise on them. In the end nerves got the better of Kvitova as her forehand sailed long to hand Sharapova the game, set and match. Both played some jaw-dropping tennis throughout the match. Read more »

Our busy tennis fan and loyal contributor Omair has already provided us with a preview of the first Australian Open semifinal on the schedule, the one between Victoria Azarenka and Kim Clijsters, and now let's see Omair's preview of the semifinal clash between Petra Kvitova and Maria Sharapova.

When Kvitova and Sharapova meet for their semifinal, a lot of things will be out there on the line. They are both aware that whoever emerges victorious out of this encounter will keep alive her hope of attaining the top spot. Whoever wins the Australian Open other than Kim Clijsters will be the world No.1 when the rankings are released on Monday.

Sharapova has so far made it to the semifinals of the Australian Open four times (excluding this year's result), and has gone to the final twice. The two times she lost in the semis it was in three sets: in 2005 to eventual champion Serena Williams and in 2006 to Justine Henin. Will she make it to the finals this time and keep her hopes of regaining the top spot alive or will she bow out to the Czech power tower Kvitova?

As for Kvitova, this is her third Grand Slam semifinal and her first at the Australian Open. How will she fare in Melbourne? She obviously has the experience of playing and winning at the biggest stages of tennis, so she will not be fazed by the stage tomorrow. Read more »

Semifinals are set at the Australian Open and the first one on schedule is Victoria Azarenka vs. Kim Clijsters. Our favorite stats analyst, Omair, was so grateful to provide us with his previews of both the semifinal encounters. Let's  start with the Azarenka vs. Clijsters one.

Azarenka comes into this match knowing that she is one of the two players who have beaten Clijsters twice since she came out of retirement, the other player being Vera Zvonareva, if I am not wrong. Azarenka comes into this match knowing that she won her last match against Clijsters, in straight sets. She comes into this match knowing that the top spot is up for grabs and she will have a huge chance if she stops Clijsters – after all there will be no better way to justify her top spot (if she attains it) than by beating Clijsters in the semis, and then either Maria Sharapova or Petra Kvitova in the finals.

Clijsters comes into this match knowing that this is the last Australian Open of her career, and she intends to go out in style which she showed in her match against Li Na and then against Caroline Wozniacki. Read more »

Petra Kvitova defeated Sara Errani 6-4 6-4 in the Australian Open quarterfinals, but before previewing her semi against Maria Sharapova, our stats pro Omair is giving us a closer look at the numbers behind her victory in the final eight. As an introduction, you can check out our yesterday's quarterfinal preview.

Kvitova took the Rod Laver Arena today knowing that she must get to the semifinals in order to have a shot at the top spot, since her rival Victoria Azarenka had already moved to the semifinals. I guess, that was what motivated Kvitova to come out of the 4-1 deficit and defeat Errani in straight sets.

Errani entered the Rod Laver Arena today knowing well that if she gets past Kvitova today, she will not only end Kvitova's dream of attaining the top spot and winning another major but will also become the first Italian ever to reach the Australian Open semifinals.

Errani fought well, but by the end Kvitova's fire was more than Errani could handle. Her brave play, aided by Kvitova's errors, saw her move ahead to 4-1 in the second set, but only for Kvitova to regroup and win five straight games from there on to put an end to Errani's dream of being the first ever Italian to reach Aussie Open semis. Read more »

Our stats expert Omair was again busy and prepared post-match analytics of the Australian Open quarterfinals whose previews he presented yesterday. Let's first see how the numbers look for the quarterfinal in which Maria Sharapova defeated fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova 6-2 6-3.

Maria Sharapova took the Rod Laver Arena today with a purpose on her mind, she wanted to prove her doubters wrong, she wanted to show that she too can be a title threat without any match play before the Grand Slam event. She had every reason to be confident when she took the Rod Laver Arena, for she has never lost in the quarterfinals here at Melbourne.

Coming into today's match Sharapova was four out of four in her previous quarterfinals here at Melbourne and she kept that record intact by making it five out of five through to the semifinals.

When Makarova took the court today she had every reason to feel confident. She had beaten Vera Zvonareva in the third round and then topped it off by beating five-time Aussie Open champion Serena Williams in the fourth round. However, that did not help her much against Sharapova, and that did not intimidate Sharapova, who easily breezed past Makarova to book a semifinal clash with Kvitova.

Let us see what the numbers tell us:

Makarova could not keep the level up and going against Sharapova her first serve winning percentage fell. Still, more alarming was her winning percentage on the second serve that fell dramatically to 36%. If that was not enough she could not win points on Sharapova's serve as well, which is considered to be a liability in Sharapova's game. Her winning percentage on receiving points was only 36%. You can never win against Sharapova by winning only 36% of your second serves and 36% of the receiving points. Read more »

Most of you guys have been watching the Australian Open over the last couple of days and hopefully you are excited to get on the tennis court yourselves. In order to help you with your own game, our loyal reader and contributor Florian from OnlineTennisInstruction.com has put together a series of free tennis video tips and decided to promote them on Women's Tennis Blog. Check out his sample video tip below and feel free to tell him your thoughts in the comments and of course if you like the tip sign up to his newsletter to receive more free video tips.

The video tips are meant to be actionable and effective in a short period of time.

Florian says:

Tennis video instruction is helping tennis players all over the world now get a better idea of what they need to do in order to improve and I am excited to be a part of it!

Here is one of his free video tips:

In the Top5 video series, all four areas of the game are covered. There are tips for:

• Improving your groundstrokes and missing less on the net;
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I spent the past 10 years of my life coaching and researching how tennis players can improve and what I found is that most players get stuck at a certain level and often remain there for the rest of their tennis career. Usually they lack the right information to take their game to the next level and my goal with OnlineTennisInstruction.com is to close that gap. – says Florian.

OnlineTennisInstruction.com is a website focused on helping tennis players improve their game. Florian also writes about current events in pro tennis on his blog and recently had a guest post here where he provided us with his Australian Open preview. Visit his website to get more tennis tips.

Our stats lover Omair didn't leave the quarterfinal previews uncompleted, and here he is with his analysis of the quarterfinal between Maria Sharapova and Ekatarina Makarova, following the preview of the Petra Kvitova vs. Sara Errani quarterfinal, and the post-match analysis of the final eight clashes between Kim Clijsters vs. Caroline Wozniacki, and Victoria Azarenka vs. Agnieszka Radwanska.

One thing I am convinced on is that numbers don't lie, after the analyses I did for the first two quarterfinals. When Agnieszka Radwanska entered the match against Victoria Azarenka she was the cleaner player and she just had to play that way to beat Azarenka, but Azarenka was on fire, forcing Radwanska out of her comfort zone. Only if Radwanska had been able to reproduce those numbers in the quarterfinal she would have won, but she failed to do so. As for Wozniacki and Clijsters, the same thing happened to Wozniacki. The last Australian Open quarterfinal on the schedule pits two "ovas" against each other. One is Ekatarina Makarova and the other is Maria Sharapova.

Sharapova did not play any tune-up events in order to give her ankle, that she injured last year in her match against Kvitova, time to rest. Not even a single person considered Sharapova a title threat owing to her lack of play since her injury, and when the draw came out her chances of making it past the quarters looked even grimmer with a potential clash with Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, but here she is in the quarters and not against Williams but Williams' conqueror.

Makarova and Sharapova both have lost one set so far in the tournament. Sharapova enters the match as the favorite, and has beaten Makarova in both their encounters. However, Makarova's run here so far has shown that she can beat anyone on a given day, even in consecutive matches. Read more »

We already have one Australian Open semifinal set – Victoria Azarenka vs. Kim Clijsters – and our stats lover Omair has looked back on their quarterfinal matches. Let's now see what the numbers and Omair are telling us for the upcoming quarterfinal between Petra Kvitova and Sara Errani.

Who would have thought after Kvitova's run to the quarterfinals of the Aussie Open last year that she would be here again next year fighting for her second Grand Slam and the top spot in women's tennis. At least I was not the one, though I was impressed by her game and I rooted for her when she took the court.

Kvitova has shown us so far that she can have bad patches during her matches, but what has been more important is that she can overcome them and storm back to win. After all that is what she did in her second round match against Carla Suarez Navarro, when she was down a break in the third set and she came back to win the match. Almost similar thing happended to her against Ana Ivanovic in her fourth rounder, when she failed to serve out the match in the second set but regrouped to win it in the tiebreak. Read more »