Hot shot: New Wimbledon babe Gisela Dulko sexy photoshoot

Despite being around WTA Tour for several years, it seems that Wimbledon's crowd has just discovered the sexiness of Argentinian player Gisela Dulko. And it was after Dulko defeated big WTA star Maria Sharapova in the 2nd round, a match that was named "Battle of the babes" by British newspaper The Times. And after her victory, Dulko was named "new glamour queen of SW19" by Daily Mail. No surprise, as I have considered Dulko a real hottie for a long time, but I must admit that Gisela looked incredibly hot in that outfit.


Also last week, Argentinian magazine Brando published an interview with Gisela, which also features a photoshoot were Dulko models in sexy poses. You can see here a sample, but you can check the whole interview and photoshoot on Brando's website

Hot stuff: Wimbledon fashion

Wimbledon's strict dress code does not give much chance to designer's creativity as only white is allowed in player's outfits. Therefore the tournament never stands out regarding fashion as much as the other Grand Slams. Most of the outfits are plain and simple, but sometimes the complements get the attention. For example Nike designed an ellegant jacket for Maria Sharapova and a classy coat Serena Williams.

Venus Williams, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic and Daniela Hantuchova were also among the players that got more attention, all with simple but nice white dresses.

Hot gossip: More of Azarenka, Chakvetadze, Bondarenko & Cibulkova bikini photoshoot on FHM

After being featured in the July French edition of FHM magazine during Roland Garros, the August issue of the British men's magazine international edition, on shelves July 2 coinciding with the Wimbledon tournament, will reveal more sexy pictures from the bikini photoshoot of WTA stars Victoria Azarenka, Anna Chakvetadze, Alona Bondarenko and Dominika Cibulkova.
Of course we will bring you the best pics as soon as we get them, but until then you can watch two making-off videos on FHM's website
http://www.fhm.com/girls/wimbledon-beauties-pose-for-fhm-20090622

Player of the week: Tamarine Tanasugarn

32 years old Tamarine Tanasugarn has shown that she's turning into a grass-court specialist and for the 2nd year in a row she has captured the title in 's-Hertogenbosch.
Tanasugarn started the tournament focused on defending her title and sweeped Barbora Zahlavova-Strycova and 7th seed Iveta Benesova in the 1st and 2nd round respectively, losing just 4 games on each match. The quarter final looked more difficult, as she was facing 3rd seed and WTA #15 Flavia Pennetta. And it really was, as Tanasugarn lost the first set and had to come back to win the match in three sets. The semifinal was the major test for the Thai player, as she had to face WTA #1 Dinara Safina, in a repetition of 2008 final. And like last year, Tanasugarn overcame Safina. Everything looked then easier for Tanasugarn to successfully defend her title, but she was still a step away. And she took it defeating young Belgian Yanina Wickmayer in the final in straight sets.

WTA ranking as of 22-Jun-2009

No changes on WTA Top-10 this week. Eastbourne runner-up Virginie Razzano climbs from #25 to #23, while semifinalists Marion Bartoli and Aleksandra Wozniak move from #12 to #11 and from #23 to #21 respectively. 's-Hertogenbosch runner-up Yanina Wickmayer is the greatest gainer in Top-100 moving 16 places up to #56, while semifinalist Francesca Schiavone climbs from #50 to #43.

Cur	Prv	Name	Country	Rank pts.	Tours.
1	(1)	Dinara Safina	RUS	9801	19
2	(2)	Serena Williams	USA	8158	17
3	(3)	Venus Williams	USA	7217	16
4	(4)	Elena Dementieva	RUS	6591	21
5	(5)	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	6191	19
6	(6)	Jelena Jankovic	SRB	6100	22
7	(7)	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	5360	24
8	(8)	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	4746	17
9	(9)	Caroline Wozniacki	DEN	4680	28
10	(10)	Nadia Petrova	RUS	3520	25

Week #25-26 preview: Wimbledon

Wimbledon (GBR), Grand Slam, £4,275,000
The grass courts of the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club will host once again the most traditional, famous and ellegant Grand Slam. 5 times champion (2000, 2001, 2005, 2007 & 2008), Venus Williams feels really confortable on the grass of Wimbledon and will be the big favourite for the title. Her sister Serena Williams, champion in 2002 and 2003, will be her major threat, and another all-Williams final seems more than likely. Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova and Dinara Safina were the best players in the last few months, but that was on clay and they don't cope especially well with grass. Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and Elena Dementieva seem far from their best tennis, while Vera Zvonareva is just back from a two months absence due to an ankle injury. With this view, it can be expected some big upsets in the early rounds, and youngsters such as Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki or Agnieszka Radwanska, veterans such as Nadia Petrova, Amelie Mauresmo or Virginie Razzano and grass specialists like Marion Bartoli, Samantha Stosur or Tamarine Tanasugarn could get a place in the decissive rounds. Finally Maria Sharapova's performance is unpredictable, as it's only few weeks she's just back from a 9-month injury break and, although she reached the quarter-finals in Roland Garros, she still looks a little bit far from her best.

Week #24: Titles for Wozniacki and Tanasugarn

18-year old Caroline Wozniacki captured in Eastbourne the 5th WTA title of her career and showed that she can also be competitive on grass. In the final, Wozniacki defeated Virginie Razzano by 7/6 7/5 in a very close match. Razzano was the biggest surprise in a tournament full of upsets and retirements, as the best players are focused on Wimbledon starting this week. Marion Bartoli and Aleksandra Wozniak completed the semis as only 2 seeds (Wozniacki and Radwanska) reached the quarter-finals.

In 's-Hertogenbosch, Tamarine Tanasugarn showed once again that she feels really confortable on grass and successfully defended her title. In the semis Tanasugarn defeated WTA #1 Dinara Safina in a repetition of last year's final, and then in the final she overcame Belgian youngster Yanina Wickmayer in straight sets. Francesca Schiavone completed the semis.

Eastbourne (GBR), Premier, $600,000
Final: Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) def Virginie Razzano (FRA) 7/6 7/5

's-Hertogenbosch (NED), International, $220,000
Final: Tamarine Tanasugarn (THA) def Yanina Wickmayer (BEL) 6/3 7/5

Player of the week: Magdalena Rybarikova

After her breakthrough in 2008 season, climbing from #279 to #58 in the WTA ranking, 20 year-old Slovak Magdalena Rybarikova is keeping this season her good progression and last week she captured her first WTA title in Birmingham.


After defeating Amanmuradova and Scheepers in the 1st and 2nd round, 13th seed Rybarikova early faced a major challenge, as she was drawn to meet 1st seed Jie Zheng in the Last-16 round. After a very tight 1st set that Rybarikova took in the tiebreak by 12-10, the Slovak kept her good level to take the 2nd set and complete the upset. In the quarters Magdalena defeated upcoming Urszula Radwanska in straight sets and in the semis she had to comeback from a set down to overcome Sania Mirza. Then in the final Magdalena was facing another Chinese, 4th seed Na Li. And although it was the first WTA final for Rybarikova, she didn't feel nerves or pressure and played her best tennis from the very beggining to take the 1st set by a clear 6/0. The 2nd set was much closer but Rybarikova managed to take it in the tie-break.


With this result, Rybarikova breakes into the Top 50 reaching a career-high ranking at #44. We'll keep an eye on her in Wimbledon.

WTA ranking as of 15-Jun-2009

No changes on WTA Top-10 as none of the top players showed up in Birmingham. Only change in Top-20 is for Birmingham runner-up Na Li, who moves from #20 to #19, while champion Magdalena Rybarikova gains 16 places to reach a career-high at #42. Semifinalists Maria Sharapova and Sania Mirza move from #73 to #59 and from #98 to #78 respectively, with Mirza as the greatest gainer in Top-100. Also good climbs for Marseille ITF $100,000+H champion Raluca Olaru (from #91 to #73), runner-up Masa Zec Peskiric (from #105 to #93) and semifinalist Andrea Petkovic (from #117 to #99).

Cur	Prv	Name	Country	Rank pts.	Tours.
1	(1)	Dinara Safina	RUS	9801	19
2	(2)	Serena Williams	USA	8158	17
3	(3)	Venus Williams	USA	7217	16
4	(4)	Elena Dementieva	RUS	6591	21
5	(5)	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	6191	19
6	(6)	Jelena Jankovic	SRB	6100	21
7	(7)	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	5360	24
8	(8)	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	4746	18
9	(9)	Caroline Wozniacki	DEN	4350	28
10	(10)	Nadia Petrova	RUS	3760	25

Week #24 preview: Eastbourne, 's-Hertogenbosch

Eastbourne (GBR), Premier, $600,000
The biggest grass event on the way to Wimbledon is being held in Eastbourne. The draw is spectacular with 15 of the Top-20 players here, including 10 of the Top-13, with only Dinara Safina (in 's-Hertogenbosch) and the Williams sisters missing it. The list of favourites is long, including Russians Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Vera Zvonareva and Nadia Petrova, Serbians Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic, youngsters Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska, French Marion Bartoli and Amelie Mauresmo and Australian Samantha Stosur.

's-Hertogenbosch (NED), International, $220,000
Despite being an International-level event, the Dutch tournament on grass presents an interesting draw headed by WTA #1 Dinara Safina, who is the biggest attraction and main favourite for the title. Besides Safina, other interesting players taking part are Daniela Hantuchova, Flavia Pennetta, Alona Bondarenko and promising youngsters Dominika Cibulkova, Sorana Cirstea and Birmingham champion Magdalena Rybarikova.

Week #23: Rybarikova wins 1st WTA title in Birmingham

Young Slovak player Magdalena Rybarikova captured in Birmingham her first WTA title. After upsetting 1st seed Jie Zheng in the Last-16 round, Rybarikova defeated another Chinese, 4th seed Na Li, in the final. The biggest attraction of the tournament was Russian Maria Sharapova, who showed that her comeback is on the good way as she won 4 matches to reach the semifinals, where she lost to Li. Sania Mirza completed the semis.

Birmingham (GBR), International, $220,000
Final: Magdalena Rybarikova (SVK) def Na Li (CHN) 6/0 7/6

Player of the week: Svetlana Kuznetsova

Despite being one of the best players on clay nowadays, Svetlana Kuznetsova captured her first title on clay two months ago in Stuttgart. She had previously lost up to 6 finals on clay. The most important one on 2006, when she was defeated by Justine Henin in the final of French Open. But last week, in the same scenario, Roland Garros, she showed that she has learnt from the past and took the most important title on clay.


Along with Dinara Safina, she was one of the top contenders for the title according to the results on the clay season. They were finalists in Stuttgart (victory for Kuznetsova) and Rome (victory for Safina) and Safina was also champion in Madrid. Kuznetsova advanced to the Last-16 round with ease, dropping no more than 4 games on each match. But there things got more complicated, and she needed three sets to defeat 12th seed Agnieszka Radwanska in the Last-16 round, 2nd seed Serena Williams in the quarters in a specially though match, and surprising Samantha Stosur in the semis. The expected final against Safina was set up, although Kuznetsova didn't seem so strong. But a Grand Slam final is different, and the one who better deals with the pressure is the one who wins. And that was Kuznetsova, who was extremely focused and relaxed while Safina was anxious willing to finally win a Grand Slam title.


There was no big celebration by Kuznetsova in respect to Safina, who was completely desperate. This is one example of why Sveta is one of the most appreciated players on WTA Tour. With two Grand Slam titles already, Svetlana's next goal has to be the #1 in the rankings. If she is able to handle the pressure as she did in last week's final, she will surely be a contender.

WTA ranking as of 8-Jun-2009

French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova climbs from #7 to #5, while runner-up Dinara Safina keeps her lead as #1 and last year champion Ana Ivanovic drops out of Top-10 falling to #13. Semifinalists Dominika Cibulkova and Samantha Stosur move from #19 to #14 and from #32 to #18 respectively. Na Li gains 5 places and returns to Top-20, while Virginie Razzano moves from #36 to #25 and quarter-finalist Sorana Cirstea climbs 14 spots to break into the Top-30 for the first time, reaching a career-high ranking at #27. Good climbs also for Elena Vesnina (from #49 to #39) and Aravane Rezai (from #57 to #46). Yaroslava Shvedova gains 26 spots up to #72 and Maria Sharapova returns to Top-100 climbing 29 places up to #73, although this week greatest gainer in Top-100 is 16 years old Michelle Larcher de Brito, who gains 42 places to break into Top-100 for the first time peaking at #90.

Cur	Prv	Name	Country	Rank pts.	Tours.
1	(1)	Dinara Safina	RUS	9801	19
2	(2)	Serena Williams	USA	8158	17
3	(3)	Venus Williams	USA	7217	16
4	(4)	Elena Dementieva	RUS	6591	21
5	(7)	Svetlana Kuznetsova	RUS	6191	19
6	(5)	Jelena Jankovic	SRB	6100	21
7	(6)	Vera Zvonareva	RUS	5360	24
8	(9)	Victoria Azarenka	BLR	4746	18
9	(10)	Caroline Wozniacki	DEN	4350	28
10	(11)	Nadia Petrova	RUS	3760	25

Week #23 preview: Birmingham

Birmingham (GBR), International, $220,000
Grass season leading to Wimbledon starts with this International tournament in Birmingham. After her comeback in Warsaw and her quarter-finalist place in Roland Garros, Maria Sharapova will be the biggest attraction and main favourite for the title. Chinese Jie Zheng and Na Li, Estonian Kaia Kanepi and Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak are the top seeds, although grass tournaments are always full of upsets. Veterans such as Tamarine Tanasugarn, Severine Bremond or Roberta Vinci usually perform well on grass, so they should be taken into account, as well as British players.

Week #21-22: Kuznetsova wins in Roland Garros, gets 2nd Grand Slam title

Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova finally got the glory in Paris after losing in 2006 final to Justine Henin, and captured her 2nd Grand Slam title (first one was US Open in 2004). The all-Russian final featured the best players in the clay season: WTA #1 Dinara Safina, champion in Rome and Madrid, and Kuznetsova, champion in Sttutgart and the only one who had defeated Safina on clay this year. This was the third Grand Slam final for Safina (lost to Ivanovic in French Open 2008 and to Serena Williams in Australian Open 2009) and she was desperately looking for a Grand Slam title to be considered a real #1. But once again she wasn't able to handle the pressure and, after a perfect tournament sweeping almost all of her opponents, she didn't find the way to overcome a more focused and relaxed Kuznetsova.

The tournament was full of upsets as Kuznetsova, Safina and Serena Williams were the only top-8 seeds to reach the quarterfinals. On the other hand there were nice surprises, as first Grand Slam semifinals for young Slovak Dominika Cibulkova and Australian Samantha Stosur. After 9 months out of the Tour due to her shoulder injury, unseeded Maria Sharapova got an unexpected quarter-finalist place, while Victoria Azarenka confirmed her good progression defeating Ana Ivanovic on her way to the quarters and taking a set from Safina. And also remarkable quarter-finalist place for young Romanian Sorana Cirstea upsetting Alize Cornet, Caroline Wozniacki and Jelena Jankovic on her way.

In the doubles draw Spanish Vivi Ruano and Anabel Medina successfully defended their title and clearly defeated Victoria Azarenka and Elena Vesnina in the final. This is the 10th Grand Slam title in doubles for Ruano, 6 of them in Roland Garros.

Roland Garros (FRA), Grand Slam, €7,226,040
Singles final: Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) def Dinara Safina (RUS) 6/4 6/2
Doubles final: V.Ruano(ESP)/A.Medina(ESP) def V.Azarenka(BLR)/E.Vesnina(RUS) 6/1 6/1
Mixed doubles final: L.Huber(USA)/B.Bryan(USA) def V.King(USA)/R.Melo(BRA) 5/7 7/6 10/7

Hot stuff: Roland Garros fashion

Roland Garros is not only a big tennis tournament, but also a catwalk where the most important sport clothing brands show off their new summer collections.

This year, Nike had a massive presence with many different lines that got most of the attention. Nike's most known model Maria Sharapova was coming back after a long injury break and although her dress was not as brilliant as other times, it was original and didn't look bad at all. Serena Williams also showed a new design for her and, although the colours were not the best, the dressed really suited her body. My favourite dress was the one Victoria Azarenka and Daniela Hantuchova wore, although Azarenka failed with the headband. Another players picked classical t-shirt & skirt combination with good results too. But in my opinion the best dressed player this year was upcoming Russian Vitalia Diatchenko. Although I wonder that she is not being sponsored by Nike, she wore some Nike dresses, including the dress that Sharapova should have worn for the Australian Open, and they really looked good on her as she has an amazing body. Nike should note it and sponsor her as she would be a great model for their designs.

In a second step I would place French brand Lacoste, that always shows their new designs in the French Open. They have a bunch of cute girls like Cibulkova, Dulko, Cornet, Bremond, Johansson... to show off their designs and this year they have signed Jelena Dokic as well. They showed a very simple but nice white-navy blue t-shirt & skirt combination that looked good on all of them, with Gisela Dulko as the best looking. Alize Cornet chose a white dress which looked nice too.

Again big dissapointment from Adidas side. Nothing new, the same boring blue creased t-shirt for players like Ivanovic, Cirstea and Wozniacki, that doesn't fit them at all. The only touch of ellegance came as always from Maria Kirilenko.

A new brand that is getting some attention is Chinese brand Anta, especially after signing former WTA #1 Jelena Jankovic and Chinese star Jie Zheng. Their designs are not spectacular but not bad at all.

Concerning other brands, Fila as always presented very poor designs, although they didn't look bad this time with models like Agnes Szavay and Anna Chakvetadze. Reebok didn't get this time a lot of attention as most of its sponsored players suffered early defeats. And it is worth to mention another colorful design from Venus Williams and her brand Eleven.