Carlos Rodriguez, who we are identifying with the now retired seven-time Grand Slam champion Justine Henin, will start to coach Li Na on a trial basis as of August 16 and according to the current plans their cooperation will last until the end of the season. Rodriguez will travel full-time with the 30-year-old Chinese.

For the most part of Li's career, her husband Jiang Shan was coaching her. Last year Michael Mortensen led her to the French Open title, but they stopped working together just a few months later, in September.

At the ongoing Olympics, Li lost in the first round to Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 3-6 6-3. (source: Tennis.com, photo: chascow)

In the first round of the Olympic Tennis Event and on the first day in 100 years that rain sent the Olympic tennis indoors, Julia Goerges upset second seed Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5 6-7(5) 6-4.

En route to the victory, Goerges fired 56 winners, including 20 aces, 17 forehand winners, 12 backhand winners and 5 volley winners. Her differential of winners to unforced errors was +31, while Radwanska's was just +3.

To make the win even bigger for Goerges, Radwanska's last tournament and actually her last final came at the same Wimbledon venue this month. (source: WTA Tour, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Bojana Jovanovski clinched her first WTA title at the Baku Cup in Azerbaijan to become the first Serbian women's tennis player to lift a trophy this season, even though the start of the Olympics was stealing the attention from the International-level tournament.

In the final, the 97th-ranked Jovanovski defeated Julia Cohen 6-3 6-1, who had lost in the qualifying stage of 34 previous WTA events in a row. From 2-2 in the first set, the fifth-seeded Jovanovski lost just two of the next 12 games to win the match. To reach the final Jovanovski beat Lesia Tsurenko in the first round, Valeria Solovieva in the second, compatriot Aleksandra Krunic in the quarters and second seed Alexandra Panova in the semis.

Before the 2012 Baku Cup, Jovanovski's best results were the 2011 Sydney semifinal and three quarterfinals.

On the opening day of the Olympic Tennis Event, the highest-ranked Serbian player Ana Ivanovic won against Christina McHale 6-4 7-5, while world No.20 Jelena Jankovic lost to Serena Williams 6-3 6-1. (source: WTA Tour, photo via Baku Cup)

The Olympic Games are just around the corner and all the tennis players who have qualified are excited about joining the biggest sporting event in the world, while those left behind are dreaming about being able to play the next time. Now I'd like to ask you: Do you think the Olympic Tennis Event is at par with Grand Slams or do you see the gold medal as less important than a Grand Slam trophy?

Here's what WTA players are saying:

It’s getting closer and closer. I’m getting little butterflies in my stomach. As a tennis player, you get to play Grand Slams what seems every other week. You don’t think about the Olympics. It’s an added bonus. – SERENA WILLIAMS, 2000 and 2008 gold medalist with sister Venus in the women’s doubles

The Olympics is one of my biggest goals. Growing up, the Olympics was a huge part of our culture, so I can’t wait to be an Olympian. – MARIA SHARAPOVA, Russia's first female flag-bearer Read more »

During the 2012 French Open Croatian Petra Martic attracted the most attention so far in her career by reaching the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the first time and ousting a Top 10 player, Marion Bartoli, for the first time. Following the claycourt Grand Slam, Martic ascended to a career-high of No.42 in the WTA rankings. Lured by her spring success, I decided to feature the 21-year-old Petra in the Childhood Photos and Videos of Women's Tennis Players series.

At the age of four, little Petra approached her mother Sandra with a definite decision that she wants to be a tennis player, even though her mother played handball and her father soccer. Besides naming tennis as her profession of choice, Petra added: Read more »

Fila has revealed the Olympic collection, containing different outfits for each country: Serbia, Russia, Kazakhstan, Spain, Romania, Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, New Zealand, etc.

Serbian Jelena Jankovic will wear a predominantly red Essenza Dress, with touches of the other two colors from the Serbian flag – blue and white. On the chest, besides the Fila logo, there is Serbian coat-of-arms, while the back features Serbian flag.
Read more »

With the Olympic Games approaching fast, occasion is perfect to enrich our WTA Players and their Boyfriends/Husbands series with the information about a couple of a women's tennis player and an Olympic medalist – Hungarians Greta Arn and her famous boyfriend Zsolt Nemcsik.

The 33-year-old Arn is the winner of two WTA titles (Auckland and Estoril) and her highest ranking was No.40, achieved in May 2011. Her boyfriend, 34, is a sabre fencer and one of his greatest achievements was a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens.

Thank you, Patty, for telling me about Arn's boyfriend and contributing to our series, which is so far featuring the marriages of Karolina Sprem, Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Elena Dementieva. Stay tuned, a lot more content is waiting to be added! Also, feel free to send me your tips about the partners of WTA players via Women's Tennis Blog's contact form. (photos: WTA, © Neal Trousdale)

In their first meeting in almost four years, second seed Dominika Cibulkova defeated good friend and top seed Marion Bartoli 6-1 7-5 in the final of the Mercury Insurance Open for her second WTA title and second Premier one.

Before their encounter in the final, Bartoli said:

Dominika and I love to practice with each other. We've practiced many times. We have been best friends since so many years now. It's obviously a final, so we're going to try our best to win, but it's great to play against your best friend, because even if you lose, you're happy for them.

After losing the first game of the match, Cibulkova won the next six to win the first set, while in the second she was trailing 4-1 before taking six of the next seven games and winning the match to add the Carlsbad title to her last year's Moscow.  Read more »