Maria Sharapova has still not recovered 100% from her ankle injury sustained at the Tokyo tournament in the end of September and the latest news is that the Russian will not play the Brisbane International starting January 1 in Australia.

However, Sharapova reassured us that the injury will keep her off the courts for long and she is expected to play at the first Grand Slam of the season, the Australian Open which starts two weeks later.

After the injury occurred, the 24-year-old did show up at the WTA Championships in October, but lost both her matches – to Samantha Stosur (for the first time in ten meetings!) and Li Na. (photo: Fiji Water, source: Tennis.com)

Omair, our stats expert, is using numbers to clarify our never-ending debates. This time he will examine the emergence of players who reached the top of the WTA rankings without winning a Grand Slam - Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina and Caroline Wozniacki – and closer investigate their performance in the years they became number ones. Part 2, to be publish next week, will look into the slamless No.1 years of players that had crowned their careers with major titles. You'll see, it's a revealing perspective!

A lot of debate has been going on over the last few years regarding the coveted world No.1 spot in the WTA rankings. Issues have been raised that the WTA ranking system is flawed, that the player must win a Grand Slam before she gets to the top. Is the WTA ranking system really flawed? And is it mandatory for a player to be a Grand Slam winner before she attains No.1 in the rankings? If yes, then why? And if no, then why has the hype been created?

These are the questions that will be debated on forever. As for me, being the best player in the world does not mean that you have to win all the tournaments or you have to win some specific events. For me, the best player in the world is the one who has been the most consistent throughout the year. You should not be ranked the best player in the world if you win all the four majors and do poorly the rest of the year. A player doing well in all the tournaments has all the right to be the best player in the world. How do you define the best player? What is your opinion on who should be the world No.1 player?

THE BEGINNINGS OF "SLAMLESS NUMBER ONES": WHO WAS THE FIRST AND WHEN WAS THE TERM COINED?

The term "slamless No.1" first appeared in August 2003 when Kim Clijsters became the first Belgian ever (man or woman) to be ranked world No.1. During that stellar season, Clijsters compiled a 90–12 singles record. Her singles win total was the highest single-season total by any woman since Martina Navratilova in 1982. Clijsters was also the first woman to play more than 100 singles matches in a year since Chris Evert in 1974.

Amelie Mauresmo followed in the footsteps of Kim Clijsters in 2004, when Mauresmo became the first French player to attain the top spot in the WTA rankings. Jelena Jankovic then repeated the same feat in 2008 and clinched the year-end top spot as well. Dinara Safina followed in 2009 and Caroline Wozniacki in 2010.

While Clijsters did go on to win her first Grand Slam at the 2005 US Open, and Mauresmo did it at the Australian Open 2006, Safina, Jankovic and Wozniacki are still in the hunt of their first ever major trophy. Will they ever be able to win it, only time will tell us.

Let's have a look at the seasons of the these five players, during which they first attained the top spot. Let the numbers do the talking, and let yourself be the judge as to who do you think did the best during her season that saw her attain the world No. 1 ranking for the first time. Do comment on how do you people see the seasons of these five players.

PERFORMANCE OF SLAMLESS WORLD NUMBER ONES IN THE YEAR THEY REACHED THE TOP RANKING

GRAND SLAM RESULTS OF SLAMLESS WORLD NUMBER ONES IN THE YEAR THEY REACHED THE TOP RANKING

Read more »

Dear readers,

I am excited to inform you that Women's Tennis Blog has once again been nominated for the best tennis blog in the Baseline Awards and I hope you will take a few minutes of your time and vote for your favorite online spot You can cast your vote here. The 2011 is the fifth edition of the awards at www.onthebaseline.com and if you remember Women's Tennis Blog won in 2009. Last year Forty Deuce took the honor, but I hope Women's Tennis Blog will have the edge this time.

Other blogs nominated this year are TennisSpin.net, Beyond the Baseline, ZooTennis, Tennis Served Fresh and Forty Deuce. Of course there are also other categories at the awards, such as: Player of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, Best Non-Grand Slam Final of the Year, Twitterer of the Year, etc.

Voting is open until January 2 and winners will be announced on January 5. Take action!

Interesting developments! A few days ago we learnt that Ana Ivanovic ended the second edition of her cooperation with fitness coach Scott Byrnes and now we're hearing that the former world No.1 is currently working with her boyfriend Adam Scott's physio, renowned golf osteopath Tina Maio of Australia.

Byrnes supposedly had some exercises for Ivanovic that she thought no longer suited her needs and Maio came up with better solutions for her shoulder and abdominal problems. However, it is still not defined whether the Serb will hire a new fitness coach full-time. (source: Tennis.com, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Images of Serena William's Rally Statement dress for the 2012 Australian Open have surfaced and from what we can see Nike will continue to take the path they've been following in the recent years for Serena – sporty dresses, pretty and simple designs in one predominant color.

I like how Serena looks in well-fitting dresses with few accessories in design (no ruffles, excess material and stuff) and in colors that are not bland. Striking green, blue, red, pink, etc. with touches of some other vibrant color for contrast, or even only black or white, perfectly suit Serena's skin tone and character.

Soon I will post a retrospection of all Serena's 2011 dresses, so stay tuned for more Nike fashion! In the meantime, check out outfits Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki are expected to wear at the first Grand Slam of the 2012 season. (source: DeShawn Besabella)

Adidas is among the most present clothing companies in the tennis world and after featuring the brand's Barricade line on the example of Andrea Petkovic, it's my pleasure to review the Adidas Adilibria and Adizero dresses worn by Daniela Hantuchova and Ana Ivanovic.

Hantuchova was the first to open the season, wearing last year's well-known pink Adidas Women's Fall Adilibria dress, which the Slovak had worn at the 2010 US Open.

From January's Australian Open to April, Ivanovic and Hantuchova wore the beautiful purple Adidas Adilibria dress with an open back, which looks nice but is not favorable for tanning. At Indian Wells Hantuchova also sported the tank from the collection, combined with a white skort.

In Stuttgart Hantuchova launched the pink and orange version of the dress and it was present throughout the clay season, including Roland Garros, and the start of the grass-court season in Birmingham and Eastbourne. In Birmingham semifinals Hantuchova and Ivanovic even played against each other in the same dresses – is that the thing Bethanie Mattek Sands dreads? Read more »

The Serbian sisters are out of sync and it could be a good sign. Only yesterday did we report that Ana Ivanovic stopped working with Scott Byrnes as her fitness coach and today we're learning that former world No.1 Jelena Jankovic has a new coach in her team, German Henner Nehles, a former UNLV standout player. Nehles will travel to Australia with Jankovic, who has also hired Korey Goodwin as her fitness trainer.

Jankovic’s last coach was Ricardo Sanchez and the Spaniard is now proudly working with top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki.

Additional info: IMG is no longer managing Jelena Jankovic. The Serb started cooperating with IMG in January 2009, but has now replaced the agency with Linda Long, a former executive with Puma and Nike. (source: Tennis.com, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

There was a big women’s tennis exhibition event in Singapore during the weekend, and elsewhere in Asia there was more relaxed tennis going on – the reigning Roland Garros champion Li Na welcomed fellow WTA star Sabine Lisicki and men’s tennis greats Pete Sampras and Carlos Moya in her hometown of Wuhan, China, for an exhibition tournament. Read more »

Tennis.com is reporting that Ana Ivanovic and her fitness trainer Scott Byrnes have ended their cooperation again. Byrnes had been Ivanovic's coach from 2006 to 2009 and they renewed their cooperation in July 2011. Five months have passed and Byrnes is leaving the Ivanovic team in the middle of the off-season. It seems that the end of Ivanovic's coaching woes is not in sight.

The world No.22 Serb is currently in Australia with her boyfriend Adam Scott. Her official work days will start with the Brisbane International tournament which starts on January 1st. (photo: Robertus Pudyanto)

A big tennis exhibition featuring six WTA stars (including two Top 10 members) took place on December 16-18 in Singapore and Italian Flavia Pennetta walked away with a victory bowl, defeating Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in the final 6-4 7-5. Pennetta ended the tournament with a 3-0 win-loss record and besides the older Polish sister she defeated Daniela Hantuchova and 2011 US Open winner Samantha Stosur. Read more »