Women's Tennis Blog is back! Sorry for this week of absence. I traveled to Brussels and I had expected I would be updating my blog, but access to the Internet was too expensive and complicated so I decided to make a short break. Anyways, there was only the Fed Cup going on over the weekend and Serbia and the Czech Republic became the finalists when Serbia defeated Russia 3-2 and the Czechs defeated Italy 4-1 in the semis. The Fed Cup final will be played in the beginning of November.

Let's see what else happened this past week:

• Kim Clijsters is still recovering from her hip injury and will skip the French Open.
• Svetlana Kuznetsova shocked with a new haircut.
• Jelena Jankovic is reportedly on a trial with coach Zeljko Krajan, who has stopped working with Dominika Cibulkova this month. Krajan is most famously known for his cooperation with Dinara Safina.
• Andrea Petkovic returned to action for the first time since Sydney, playing the Fed Cup, but lost her singles rubber to Sam Stosur.
• Caroline Wozniacki released music video for "Oxygen".
• Maria Sharapova turned 25 on April 19. Yes, just 25!

Referring to her statement in the Telegraph:

I think tennis players are actually underpaid, but I might be a little biased. I like to think we are rewarded for the hard work we put in.

Thanks for the patience, friends. From tomorrow I'll resume normal posting.

Twice defending champion Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki was a match away from winning her third straight Copenhagen title, the tournament fans practically considered hers, but the trophy at the event's third edition went into the German hands as Angelique Kerber defeated the home favorite 6-4 6-4. In each set Wozniacki made two breaks, but Kerber made three.

To win the title at the 2012 e-Boks Open the second-seeded Kerber defeated Stephanie Foretz Gacon, Anne Keothavong, sixth seed Mona Barthel in the quarters, third seed Jelena Jankovic in the semis, and finally the top-seeded Wozniacki.

Kerber finished last season ranked No.32, but now she's No.15 with two titles to her name (her first WTA title is Paris 2012). (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

For the second time this year Italian Sara Errani won both the singles and doubles titles at the same event – in Acapulco in February and now in Barcelona. Moreover, this is the fourth year in a row that an Italian player has won the Barcelona Ladies Open, after Roberta Vinci in 2009 and 2011, and Francesca Schiavone in 2010.

In singles, the seventh-seeded Errani defeated third seed Dominika Cibulkova 6-2 6-2 in the final, while in doubles, alongside Roberta Vinci, she won an all-Italian doubles final with a 6-0 6-2 victory over Flavia Pennetta and Francesca Schiavone. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Caroline Wozniacki is now just one step away from claiming her third e-Boks Open title and remaining the only champion in the tournament's three-year history. Her opponent in the final will be Angelique Kerber, whom she defeated last year en route to the Copenhagen trophy, but note that at the time Kerber was world No.76.

Let's see how the top two seeds reached the final. The seed No.1 Wozniacki beat Petra Martic 6-3 6-2 by breaking the Croat's serve twice in each set. Wozniacki did lose her own serve once in the first set, but from then on she didn't face a break point. The 15h-ranked Kerber took out third seed Jelena Jankovic, 6-2 6-1, without dropping serve. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki converted all her four break opportunities and safely advanced to the semifinals of the e-Boks Open with a 6-0 6-3 victory over Alize Cornet, current world No.107, but once ranked 11th.

After struggling in the opener against Urszula Radwanska, Wozniacki cruised past Pauline Parmentier and now Cornet to increase her record at the e-Boks Open to 13-0, and 19-0 in sets.

The top-seeded Wozniacki's next obstacle to her third straight Copenhagen title will be the winner of the match between Bojana Jovanovski and Petra Martic.

The other semifinal is an encounter of seeds No.2 and No.3, Angelique Kerber and Jelena Jankovic. Both survived three-setters. Kerber battled past fellow German Mona Barthel 6-2 0-6 7-5 in the quarterfinals, while Jankovic came back from a set down and won ten straight games to dramatically defeat Kaia Kanepi 4-6 6-1 6-3. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

The greatest claycourt event in tennis is soon to start and sports fashion designers are set to show their vision of how tennis fashion should look in order to perfectly fit the spring, the red clay and the big occasion such as Roland Garros. We already showed you what we expect the Nike players to wear - Maria Sharapova in dark, olive  tones, Serena Williams in three shades of green, while Victoria Azarenka will be in colors similar to the clay. Let's see now how Adidas is envisaging the spring look.

Adidas by Stella McCartney is refreshingly abandoning red and moving on to lemon for Caroline Wozniacki. Actually, red migth stay, but in the accessories – wristband and visor. Read more »

Dear readers,

Professional tennis coach Florian Meier from OnlineTennisInstruction.com is back to give you another great video tip. This one is a forehand tip. Florian discusses the windshield wiper forehand, which is a very common term in tennis these days. Many recreational players make mistakes in trying to copy this so-called windshield wiper motion from the professional players.

If you enjoy the video and want to see more of Florian’s free video tips go ahead and click on the image below the video where you can sign up for his free newsletter.

Florian's video tips are meant to be actionable and effective in a short period of time and he believes that:

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 he is excited to be a part of it.

FOREHAND TIP: THE WINDSHIELD WIPER FOREHAND

If you sign up you will receive Florian's Top 5 video tips straight to your inbox. In the Top 5 video series all four areas of the game are covered. There are tips for:

- Improving your groundstrokes and missing less in the net,
– Developing a better service motion,
– Playing smarter and hitting to the right targets,
– Developing more efficient footwork,
– Improving your mental game.

Florian explains:

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.

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. Visit his website to get more free tennis tips.

Caroline Wozniacki is through to the quarterfinals of the e-Boks Open, remaining undefeated at her home tournament since its founding in 2010. After a tricky opener against Urszula Radwanska, Wozniacki, so far always seeded No.1 at the e-Boks Open, comfortably defeated Pauline Parmentier 6-2 6-1, for her 12th straight win there and the number of 17 sets won in a row.

Second seed Angelique Kerber needed much more energy to advance to the final eight, but eventually defeated Anne Keothavong 4-6 6-3 6-3 for an all-German meeting against Mona Barthel.

Serbs Jelena Jankovic and Bojana Jovanovski are also through. The third-seeded Jankovic beat Yulia Putintseva 6-3 6-1, losing just one game from 3-3 in the first set. Jovanovski pulled off an upset, beating fourth seed Monica Niculescu 6-7(6) 6-4 6-1.

Here are the e-Boks Open quarterfinal pairs: Caroline Wozniacki (1) vs. Alize Cornet, Bojana Jovanovski vs. Petra Martic, Kaia Kanepi (5) vs. Jelena Jankovic (3), Mona Barthel (6) vs. Angelique Kerber (2). (photo: © Neal Trousdale)