girls rock !!

Carrying on from our Miley Cyrus post, about impressive youngsters bringing talent and freshness to music, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark is just one of the teens doing the same on the tennis court.

Now 18-years-old, and a former junior Wimbledon champion, Wozniacki is the daughter of Polish parents. Her mother played on the Polish national volleyball team, while her father played football professionally in Germany.

The family moved to Denmark when he was sold to a Danish club. Caroline’s older brother Patrick is a professional football player in Denmark.

As well as excelling on the tennis court, Caroline Wozniacki (photo 1 and 2) has plenty of hobbies and talents. ”I like handball, soccer, swimming, playing the piano and all kinds of different things.” Like many Europeans, Caroline is multi-lingual and speaks fluent Danish, Polish and English, plus a good understanding of Russian.

With an athletic and controlled style, Caroline is also an attractive competitor, with a smile that lights up the court.

It has been a topsy-turvy week at Indian Wells with many of the top tennis players struggling to find form. One of our favourites, Dinara Safina, has progressed courtesy of her thundering ground strokes and steely determination. The tennis has not always been fluid but one sign of a good champion is to grind out a win on a bad day.

Alongside Safina in advancing to the final rounds is Ana Ivanovic (photo 1) who has suffered with nerves and minor injuries over the past 12 months. When playing well, Ana is able to play the full court game to great effect. Both Safina and Ivanovic will have tough matches in the quarter-finals.

If she reaches the final, Dinara Safina (photo 2) will replace Serena Williams at the top of the world rankings. Safina does not have to win to achieve No.1 as the scoring system will allow her to accumulate enough points for the top spot.

Top seed Safina of Russia will play eighth seed Victoria Azarenka of Belarus next, while Ivanovic will meet ninth seed Caroline Wozniacki, one of the hot young  players of the moment.

Safina said she would need to play well to get the better of Azarenka: “We played three times last year and I won three times (but) she’s playing her best tennis.”

Following a return to form that has left other top 10 players cast aside, Serena Williams powered on to win the Australian Open singles title for 2009. This success came just a few hours after winning the doubles title with her sister Venus.

Other records are also being broken by the Williams sisters, not least career earnings. Serena is now the leading woman for career earnings, in any sport. As you can see from the chart, Venus is not far behind.

The magnificent results in Melbourne also mean Serena returns to the No. 1 position in the official WTA tour rankings. The style of play by both the Williams sisters reminds us more of Pete Sampras than any other woman player.

There have been many great women in tennis, with fantastic skill and talent, but Serena has such single-minded power and focus that few can oppose her when she is 100% on her game.

Hail Serena !!

In usual fashion, the British media has over-hyped the talents of its sports stars. So no surprise that adult players in the Australian Open were beaten far earlier in the tournament than all the commentators and journalists were saying. Fortunately, there is hope on the horizon - and it’s the girls.

First is last year’s Wimbledon junior champion, Laura Robson. Now, some of us would say she is more of an Australian player than British, as her early years and tennis training started in Melbourne. Nonetheless, the 15-year-old has powered through to the third round in the Girls Singles. Her tennis and attitude are great, and we wish her well. The only trouble on the horizon is the British press, who have started hyping “their” new star.

Also doing well and keeping pace in the rounds with Laura is Heather Watson, another so-called Brit except she is from Guernsey in the Channel Islands but never mind.

Following two 6-2, 6-1 matches in the early rounds, Heather is through to the fourth round after a tough 7-6, 4-6, 6-4 match against Miyabi Inoue.

Go girls - the British public need you !!

Our photo shows Heather (right) with Tara Moore.

Two gutsy modern amazons are through to the fifth round of the Australian Open tennis slugfest. With determination and powerful play, plus a few scares, 22 year old Dinara Safina of Russia won a 3-set battle against promising 19 year old Alize Cornet of France.

No. 3 seed Dinara Safina struggled in her second set against Cornet, just 19 for two days, and also looked in trouble in the third when down 2-5. Yet, as we know from Wimbledon last year, Safina can fight back from extreme situations. Safina is not a careful player, and goes for strong shots no matter what the score. In the end she won 6-2 2-6 7-5 courtesy of that nail-biting 59-minute final set.

Photo (left) shows the athleticism of Safina.

The other promising star from France, Marion Bartoli, has been nipping around a top 10 place for a couple of years and, win or lose, she always impresses with her determination. At 5 ft 7, Marion is a ’shorty’ in the modern game and yet she powered through No. 1 seed Jelena Jankovic with a straight sets win 6-1 6-4. That was the end of Serbian hopes this year. Bartoli has been a semi-finalist at the US Open and a popular runner-up at the 2007 Wimbledon final. Her next match, against No. 7 seed Zvonareva could also be a thrilling encounter.

Photo (right) shows the determination of Bartoli.

The Top 10 seeds have all played their opening matches and the future looks bright for plenty of glamour on court - and off. The only upset was when growing star Kateryna Bondarenko put out No. 9 Radwanska. As it happens, we don’t mind, as Kateryna (age 22) and sister Alona (age 24) are both modern Amazons, both display magnificent shoulders, and both have tattoos!! Oh, and are the reigning doubles champions.

In fact, it is theoretically possible for the Bondarenko sisters to play the Williams sisters at some point. But the Ukrainian pair are closer than most, as their tattoos are in honour of each other.

Tattooed underneath the blue wings between Kateryna’s shoulder blades is the letter A. She explained, “It is to show respect for my sister.” Alona has entwined hearts on her back and the letter K.

“It was a joint birthday present,” said Kateryna in a recent interview. “Mine is on August 8th and Alona’s in on August 13th. Did it hurt? A little but I’m glad we did it.”

Footnote: the sisters did not get through the early rounds in the doubles, but played well in the singles.

Sport and Marketing - almost inseparable these days. For the modern female tennis players, so often tall and extremely fit, they can be as at home on a catwalk or a red carpet - as well as the tennis court, of course. Maybe we are a culture obsessed with celebrity, but the next two weeks has the chance to fulfil many interests.

First, the tennis. The magnificent modern Amazons from Russia and eastern Europe have transformed the style of tennis, with astonishing athleticism combined with power strokes which equal many men on the tour. Not to mention their fashion style (Elena Dementieva, right).

Second, the legs. Steffi Graf has the most beautiful legs, so sculpted and toned, and no-one has equaled the sight of Steffi hunkering down at the French Open in her heyday. And let’s not forget, that was not many years ago, so it’s great to see the modern stars are just as appealing.

Third, the shoulders. The fantastic tone of female tennis players today is often seen in some of the most wonderful shoulders, with Maria Sharapova (left) and Jelena Jankovic near the top of the list. Maria is missing the Aussie Open due to - gasp - shoulder surgery.

And fourth, the fashion. You will see many photos over the next two weeks from catwalks and celebrity events, featuring these modern sports stars. Fantastic!!

Oh, and there will be some great photos of the stars on the court as well.

In a year of enormous turmoil in the physical world it is wonderful to see the virtual world of the web has steadfastly held to its primary concerns. The Top Web Searches for 2008 are revealing - and so probably are some of the results.

Even though there is a new celebrity in the Top Women searches on Lycos - Sarah Palin - it is perhaps no surprise to see the other 4:

1. Paris Hilton
2. Sarah Palin
3. Britney Spears
4. Pamela Anderson
5. Holly Madison

Celebrity newsflashes also dominated the Top News Stories, with Heath Ledger, Clay Aiken, Paul Newman and Jennifer Hudson of more interest than earthquakes and wars.

Meanwhile, the public chose Top Sports Stars who combined attractiveness along with accomplishment - again, no great surprise:

1. Anna Kournikova
2. Danica Patrick
3. Maria Sharapova
4. Michael Phelps
5. Serena Williams

We applaud the public who keep Anna’s flame alight - she is still such a darling of webfolk.

Although the Williams sisters have a very dominant place in family achievements, siblings Dinara and Marat have a chance to add a couple more notches to their tennis triumphs in the 2009 Hopman Cup. Playing doubles together alongside their singles matches, they have started well towards a win in their group, and could progress to the championship final.

Dinara had a wonderful 2008, rising to No 2 in the official WTA world rankings, while Marat (a former world No 1) staged a significant comeback in his singles career. Dinara was the first player to beat three different reigning world No 1’s during a season (Henin, Sharapova, Jankovic), and added a silver medal at the Olympics to her trophy cabinet.

Safina see life as a journey, training as a task, and winning as a step-by-step process. Even at the start of the 2008 US Open she was asked if she could be number 1 - Dinara sensibly explained, probably for the hundredth time, that she only ever thinks about the next match - and usually does not even look at the draw. One superb answer really sang:

Q: Through all the success this summer, what has been your happiest day? Has it been a match or has it been going shopping?

Dinara: Happiest day? Every day is a happy day. Why it has to be [one day]? Doesn’t matter. When you wake up it’s already happy!

Five teenagers have finished the 2008 tennis season ranked in the Top 20 of the WTA world rankings. The under-20s also have an impressive record as junior champions.

Caroline Wozniacki from Denmark and Alizé Cornet from France are the youngest, both 18 years old. Caroline was the Wimbledon junior girls champion in 2006 and Alizé the Roland Garros junior girls champion in 2007. Wozniacki has beaten four Top 10 players in 2008 and risen in the rankings from No. 26 to No. 10. Cornet has beaten two and risen from 55 to 16.

Victoria Azarenka from Belarus is 19 years old and her 2008 rise was from No. 30 to No.15. Victoria was both the Australian junior girls champion and US Open junior girls champion in 2005.

Dominika Cibulkova from Slovakia, also 19, rose from No. 51 to No. 19 and outplayed many in 2008, with three wins over Top 5 players: Elena Dementieva, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic

Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland, also 19, has a younger sister Urszula (17 years old), also a tennis player and the 2007 Wimbledon junior girls champion. Agnieszka won the same title two years earlier, plus the Roland Garros junior girls champion in 2006. Agnieszka also played Fed Cup in 2006, winning one singles match and one doubles match with her sister. Her 2008 rise saw Agnieszka rise from No. 26 to No. 10 in the WTA Tour world rankings.

The photo shows the Radwanska sisters in Melbourne, Australia, in 2008 (Agnieszka on left).

The future of tennis looks bright with so many young Amazons on the horizon!