Victoria Azarenka Top Female Tennis Player Photos Gallery

The heatwave affecting America’s East Coast claimed its first casualty at the US Open on Wednesday when 10th seed Victoria Azarenka departed the tournament in a wheelchair after collapsing on court.

The 21-year-old from Belarus, one of many credible outside bets for the women’s title, keeled over when trailing Argentina’s Gisela Dulko 5-1 in their first round match as
temperatures again came close to three figures.

Eighth-seeded wildcard Victoria Azarenka registered a convincing 6-4, 6-1 win over fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova on Sunday afternoon to capture the singles title at the 2010 Bank of the West Classic.

Azarenka claimed her fourth career singles title- all on hard court- while becoming the fifth different Bank of the West Classic singles champion in the last five years. With the win, she improves to 4-6 in 10 career finals. Azarenka, who celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday, is projected to rise to No. 12 in the Monday’s new Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles rankings after winning the title.

A quarter-final appearance at the Australian Open suggested she meant business, but since then only a final appearance in Dubai is worth mentioning.

The 20-year-old split with long-time coach Antonio Van Grichen and her game has unravelled several times this year, revealing her fiery temper.

Possessing one of the best two-handed backhands in the game, as well as one of the loudest grunts, the American-based star has the ability to go deep in a major, but a first-round exit in Paris has summed up her current slump.

A good draw is imperative to her chances of reaching the second week at Wimbledon and current form suggests Azarenka is a long shot for the title.

Vera Zvonareva Russian Tennis Players Pics

MOSCOW: World number three Vera Zvonareva will lead Russia in this month’s Fed Cup semi-final against Italy, the Russian tennis federation (RTF) said on Tuesday.
Zvonareva will be joined by 14th-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (21) and Ekaterina Makarova (39) for the April 16-17 tie in Moscow, the RTF said on its website (www.tennis-russia.ru).

Zvonareva replaces former world number one Maria Sharapova, who looked sluggish in Russia’s 3-2 quarter-final home win over France in February when she lost her first singles match and was replaced for the reverse rubber the following day.
Russian Vera Zvonareva overcame a whipping desert wind on Sunday to dethrone Ana Ivanovic at the Indian Wells Masters, overcoming the frustrated holder 7-6 (7-5), 6-2 for the title

The match was played in desert gusts which sent sand through the air and made holding serve a challenge. A total of 19 break points were up for grabs in the unpredictable conditions. There was only one ace served in the two-hour battle.
The Moscow semi-final will be played at a specially-built indoor court laid on top of an ice rink at the 14,000-seat Khodynka arena.

Read more: http://www.sportsclb.com/vera-zvonareva-to-lead-russia-in-fed-cup-semifinal/#ixzz1Xf9UxYVd

Kim Clijsters Belgian Tennis Player

Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters was born 8 June 1983. She is a Belgian professional tennis player. As of 14 February 2011, Clijsters is ranked World No. 1 in singles and is a former World No. 1 in doubles. She shares the record for most Grand Slam singles titles won as a mother with Margaret Court.

Clijsters is the reigning singles champion at the US Open and the Australian Open. She has also won 41 WTA singles titles and 11 WTA doubles titles. She has won four Grand Slam singles titles: three at the US Open, in 2005, 2009 and 2010 and one at the Australian Open in 2011. She has also been runner-up in four Grand Slam singles tournaments, and won the WTA Tour Championships singles title in 2002, 2003 and 2010. In doubles, she won the French Open and Wimbledon titles in 2003. Clijsters announced her retirement with immediate effect on 6 May 2007, but almost two years later, on 26 March 2009, she publicly declared her intent to return to the WTA tour for the 2009 summer hard court season. In only her third tournament back, she won her second US Open title, becoming the first unseeded player and wildcard to win the tournament, and the first mother to win a major since Evonne Goolagong in 1980.