Love is booming in the world of women's tennis. Every few weeks we have a marriage, an engagement, a baby or a pregnancy announcement and new relationships seem to be blossoming as well. A bunch of the new couples are still under the veil of secrecy, like Serena Williams and her coach Patrick Mouratoglou, Maria Sharapova and 21-year-old Bulgarian player Grigor Dimitrov, Victoria Azarenka and Redfoo from LFMAO, Daniela Hantuchova and her mixed doubles partner Fabio Fognini from Italy, but the one romance that we can confirm based on all the kissing photographed on a Melbourne beach is between Ana Ivanovic and Mark Stillitano. Read more »

In a dramatic and scrappy final that had it all – twisted ankles, bumps on the head, preceding controversy, a crowd favorite player and interrupting fireworks – Victoria Azarenka prevailed 4-6 6-4 6-3 against Li Na on Rod Laver Arena and won her second Grand Slam title, extending her streak in January matches to 21-0.

Li opened the meeting with a double fault and allowed to be broken right away, but Azarenka soon found herself 5-2 down and even though she approached her opponent to be just one game down, 5-4, and saved three set points, the first section of the match ended just as it began, with a double fault, this time by the top-seeded Azarenka.

The second set started with Azarenka's 3-0 momentum and just as Li got a break back she went over on her left ankle and started hopping, clearly hardly putting weight on her foot. There was a medical timeout to tape the ankle up and as the match resumed Li hung in there and leveled to 4-4, before losing the set 6-4. Read more »

Serena Williams was practically unbeatable for months, her reign over the WTA world was unbelievable, and if you had to pick one player to beat the 15-time Grand Slam champion in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open would the name Sloane Stephens have crossed your mind?

Stephens is the only teenager in the Top 50, across the net she had the most intimidating WTA opponent, and even though she was playing in a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first time, the 25-ranked 19-year-old pulled off the biggest shock of the tournament with a 3-6 7-5 6-4 upset, coming back from 6-3 2-0 down.

Since April last year, Serena has won 57 matches and lost just three and the young Stephens can proudly say she belongs to the trio, ending Serena's 20-match winning streak which included the 2013 Brisbane International title en route to which Serena actually beat Stephens. Read more »

Maria Sharapova reached the Australian Open semifinals, losing just nine games on the way, which is the tournament record, and will next face Li Na, who reached the final four by ending Agnieszka Radwanska's perfect 13-0 winning streak of 2013.

Can you believe that Sharapova has not only lost just nine games in five matches at the Australian Open, but she dropped her serve just twice! Sharapova's quarterfinal opponent Ekaterina Makarova was wiped off the court in 66 minutes, 6-2 6-2, but she was one of the players that earned a break against the second seed this fortnight, alongside Venus Williams.

Li has now made the semifinals in three of the past four years at the Australian Open. Even the player with the best win-loss record this season, actually the only player that beat her in 2013 (in Sydney semifinals), couldn't stop her at the tournament where she feels at home. Li won an unpredictable first set against Radwanska, that lasted more than an hour, and from 0-2 down in the second set she took control by winning five straight games. In total, there were 10 breaks of serve and final score was 7-5 6-3.

The semifinal will be a match between the Australian Open runner-ups of the two previous years. Sharapova leads 8-4 in their meetings so far, including all the three they had last season.

Tomorrow we're having the remaining two quarterfinals: Victoria Azarenka vs. Svetlana Kuznetsova and Serena Williams vs. Sloane Stephens. (photos: © Neal Trousdale)

Monday action at the Australian Open completed the quarterfinal line-up and a special treat was to see Svetlana Kuznetsova doing well again. The matches of Day 8 saw Serena Williams wasting little energy to crush Maria Kirilenko 6-2 6-0, Sloane Stephens reaching her first Grand Slam quarterfinal with a 6-1 3-6 7-5 win over Bojana Jovanovski (Stephens will now crack the Top 20!) and top seed Victoria Azarenka easing past Elena Vesnina 6-1 6-1, but Azarenka's next opponent is the one I wanted to focus this article on – two-time Grand Slam champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, who is making a comeback statement with the fourth-round upset of tenth seed and former world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki 6-2 2-6 7-5.

Kuznetsova used to be a huge threat, but it's been a while since her name was in the headlines shoulder-to-shoulder with the WTA top names. Last season was her first in 11 years that she didn't finish in the Top 50, largely due to the knee injury that forced her to skip all post-Wimbledon events, but the Russian, despite struggling with crutches and blisters on her hands, used the time off to refresh her mind and came back to the Tour lurking as a low-ranked underdog. Read more »