Hottest Tennis beauties

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The Australian Open, first Tennis Grand Slam event of the year, may be over, but we are keeping things hot on Center Court. Here's a look at some Tennis beauties who have aced their way into millions of hearts.

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Maria Sharapova, Russia: Sharapova is a former World No.1 Russian professional tennis player and three time Grand Slam singles champion.

When Sharapova was six, she along with her father moved from their life of poverty in Russia to the United States, to enroll her in the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. After rising rapidly through the junior and professional ranks in the years that followed, Sharapova won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon in 2004 at the age of 17. In the two years that followed, Sharapova won eight titles on the WTA Tour and had two brief stints as the World No. 1. However, she lost all five Grand Slam semifinals she played during this period. She ultimately won her second Grand Slam title at the 2006 US Open.

Sharapova's public profile extends beyond tennis. She has been featured in a number of modeling assignments, including a feature in Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Sharapova was the most searched-for athlete on Yahoo! in both 2005 and 2008.

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Ana Ivanovic, Serbia: The former World No.1 won the 2008 French Open and was the runner-up in singles at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open.

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Caroline Wozniacki, Denmark: She is the current World No. 1. She has won 6 WTA Tour events and was the runner up at the 2009 US Open.

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Maria Kirilenko, Russia: Kirilenko won her first WTA Tour title in 2005, defeating Anna-Lena Grönefeld in the China Open. Kirilenko reached #18, her career-high singles ranking, on the WTA tour in July 2008. She won the junior event at the 2002 Canadian Open, as well as the 2002 US Open junior tournament. She has reached one Grand Slam quarterfinal at the 2010 Australian Open.

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Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia: She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first Tier I tournament and ended the year in the top ten. Hantuchova is currently coached by Larri Passos. Her WTA Tour mentor in the "Partners for Success" program was Martina Navrátilová, who was her doubles partner for a brief period in early 2005.

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Sania Mirza, India: Mirza was brought up in Hyderabad in a religious Muslim family. She began playing tennis at the age of six, turning professional in 2003. She is the highest ranked female tennis player ever from India, with a career high ranking of 27 in singles and 14 in doubles. She holds the distinction of being the first Indian woman to be seeded in a Grand Slam tennis tournament. Earlier in 2005, she had become the first Indian woman to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament at the 2005 U.S. Open, defeating Mashona Washington, Maria Elena Camerin and Marion Bartoli. In 2004, she finished runner-up at the Asian Tennis Championship. In winning, with Mahesh Bhupathi, the Mixed Doubles event at the 2009 Australian Open, she became the first Indian woman to win any grand slam event. In 2006, Mirza was awarded a Padma Shri, India's fourth highest honor for her achievements as a Tennis player. However on February 4, 2008, Mirza said that she would stop appearing in tennis tournaments held in India, starting with the 2008 Bangalore Open the following month, citing the series of controversies about her tennis outfits and upon advice by her manager.

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Jelena Jankovic, Serbia: The former World No. 1 was nine-and-a-half year old when she was introduced to tennis by her elder brother and fitness coach Marko. In October 2003, Jankovic entered the top 100 at No. 90 for the first time after winning her first ITF title in Dubai. She was ranked World No. 1 for seventeen consecutive weeks until she was overtaken by Serena Williams on February 2, 2009. She was the year-end World No. 1 in 2008, the first player in the history of the WTA tour to do this without winning a Grand Slam title. As of May 2, 2011, she is ranked World No. 8.

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Serena Williams, United States: Serena has been ranked World Number 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) on five separate occasions. She regained this ranking for the fifth time in her career on the 2 November 2009. In total, she has won 25 Grand Slam titles: 12 in singles, eleven in women's doubles and two in mixed doubles. In addition, she has won two Olympic gold medals in women's doubles. She also has won more Grand Slam titles than any other active female player and has won more career prize money than any other female athlete in history. Rank 10 as of May 2, 2011.

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Dominika Cibulková, Slovakia: Cibulková is a former World Junior No. 3, achieving that ranking in May 2005. Her career-high ranking of World No. 12 was achieved on July 6, 2009. As of May 2, 2011, she is ranked World No. 28.

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Elena Dementieva, Russia: Dementieva has won two Olympic medals in singles, including the gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. She has also reached the finals of two Grand Slam events. Her career high ranking was World No. 3 which she achieved on April 6, 2009. She has now retired.

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Tatiana Golovin, France: She is best known for winning the 2004 French Open mixed doubles event with her countryman Richard Gasquet, and also for reaching the singles quarterfinal at the 2006 US Open, losing to the eventual champion Maria Sharapova. The 22-year-old's highest singles ranking to date is 12. She was born in Moscow but she moved to Paris with her parents, and earned French citizenship. She also spent six years at Nick Bollettieri's tennis camp in Bradenton, Florida, and she speaks fluent French, English and Russian. She is currently coached by former World No. 1 Mats Wilander, having previously been coached by Brad Gilbert and Dean Goldfine. She lives in Hampstead, north London with her boyfriend, Arsenal footballer, Samir Nasri.

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Ashley Harkleroad, United States: Born in Rossville, Georgia, Harkleroad reached a career-high ranking of No. 39 on June 9, 2003. As of May 2009 she isn't currently playing as she recently had a child. Her career prize money to date is $1,009,244. Harkleroad was the first WTA Tennis Player to pose naked for the men's magazine Playboy.

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Sabine Lisicki, Germany: She achieved her career high rank of #22 on 3 August 2009. She lives in Berlin and Bradenton, Florida. Lisicki is the daughter of first-generation Polish immigrants and speaks Polish fluently.

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Elena Vesnina, Russia: Her career high rank was #22, achieved on October 12, 2009. She is coached by former ATP tour player Andrei Chesnokov. Currently ranked 46 as on May 2, 2011.

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Nicole Vaidisova, Czech Republic: Vaidišová has been playing tennis since she was six years old. She is a student of Nick Bollettieri and trains at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Her serve is considered her biggest weapon. On 9 August 2006, at the age of 17 years, three months, and two weeks, she became the 12th-youngest player in WTA Tour history to be ranked in the top 10. She achieved a career-high ranking of World No. 7 on 14 May 2007. Nicole speaks English, Czech, Slovak, Russian, French and Hungarian. She also understands Ruthenian, German and Spanish. As of March 2009, she was coached by her stepfather, Ales Kodat, who replaced David Felgate.

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Venus Williams, United States: She has been ranked World No. 1 by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) on three separate occasions. As of May 2, 2011, she is ranked World No. 16. She has won three Olympic gold medals, one in women's singles and two in women's doubles.

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Anna Kournikova, Russia: Her celebrity status made her one of the best known tennis players worldwide. At the peak of her fame, fans looking for images of Kournikova made her name one of the most common search strings on the Internet search engine Google. Although also successful in singles, reaching No. 8 in the world in 2000, Kournikova's specialty has been doubles, where she has at times been the World No. 1 player. With Martina Hingis as her partner, she won Grand Slam titles in Australia in 1999 and 2002. Kournikova's professional tennis career has been curtailed for the past several years, and possibly ended, by serious back and spinal problems. She currently resides in Miami Beach, Florida, and plays in occasional exhibitions and in doubles for the St. Louis Aces of World Team Tennis.

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Martina Hingis, Switzerland: Hingis spent a total of 209 weeks as World No.1 before going into professional retirement. She won five Grand Slam singles titles (three Australian Opens, one Wimbledon, and one US Open). She also won nine Grand Slam women's doubles titles, winning a calendar year doubles Grand Slam in 1998, and one Grand Slam mixed doubles title. Hingis set a series of "youngest-ever" records before ligament injuries in both ankles forced her to withdraw temporarily from professional tennis in 2002 at the age of 22. After several surgeries and long recuperations, Hingis returned to the WTA tour in 2006. She then climbed to world number 6 and won three singles titles. On 1 November 2007, Hingis announced her retirement from tennis while admitting she had tested positive for cocaine during Wimbledon in 2007. She denied using the drug. On 4 January 2008, she was banned from tennis for two years after both cocaine tests (samples A and B) turned positive.

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Gisela Dulko, Argentina: Dulko reached her career-high singles ranking of #26 in November, 2005, but then climbed back to #30 in the world in September, 2009. She is currently ranked World No. 55, as of May 2, 2011. As a professional, she has won seven doubles championships. In singles, Dulko has had a less successful career, although she has been consistently ranked in the Top 50 over the last few years.

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Anna Chakvetadze, Russia: On September 10, 2007, she reached her career-high professional singles ranking of World No. 5. She has won seven WTA Singles Titles. As of May 2, 2011, she is ranked World No. 54. She began playing tennis at the age of eight after being introduced to the sport by her mother, Natalia. She travels for tournaments with her father. She speaks both Russian and English.

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Agnes Szavay, Hungary: She is Hungary's second highest ranked tennis player. She was the WTA Newcomer of the Year in 2007. She achieved her career high ranking of World No. 13 on April 14, 2008. As of May 2, 2011, she is ranked World No. 45.

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Chan Yung-jan, Republic of China: She has won 13 ITF singles titles; and 7 WTA and 11 ITF doubles titles. Her career highlights include semifinals in the Japan Open in 2006 and finals in the PTT Bangkok Open in 2007. In the Australian Open 2007, she lost to her first-round opponent Alicia Molik 2-6 6-7(3). Nevertheless, she reached the final in the women's doubles with another Taiwanese player, Chuang Chia-jung, where they lost in three sets to Cara Black and Liezel Huber. She lost in the first round of the 2007 French Open to Elena Likhovtseva, but made her top 50 debut afterwards, at #50.

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Sorana Cirstea, Romania: Her career high rank was World No. 23, achieved on 17 August 2009, after she reached the quarterfinals of 2009 French Open and Los Angeles Open.

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Jelena Dokic, Australia: During the height of her career, she played for Serbia and Montenegro (Federal Republic of Yugoslavia prior to February 2003) and reached a career-high ranking of World No. 4 on 19 August 2002. After several family-related difficulties (mostly involving her father), she slowly slipped down the rankings in 2006. She is now returning to tennis, and after winning three ITF tournaments in 2008 she rose to World No. 187 going into the 2009 Australian Open. Dokic's ranking is World No. 62 as of May 2, 2011.

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Flavia Pennetta, Italy: She became Italy's first top 10 female player on 17 August 2009. As of February 1, 2010, Pennetta is ranked World No. 12. She is also ranked World No. 21 in doubles. Pennetta has won eight career WTA singles titles, including back-to-back titles in Bogotá and Acapulco in 2005. She and her Italian teammates Mara Santangelo, Francesca Schiavone, and Roberta Vinci beat the Belgium team 3-2 in the 2006 Fed Cup final. Justine Henin had to retire in the fifth and final match due to an injury in her right knee, which let Italy win their first Fed Cup trophy. She was also a member of their winning team in 2009, when they beat the United States in the final.

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Karolina Šprem, Croatia: She has won eight titles (seven singles, one doubles) all at the ITF level. She has not won any titles on the WTA Tour. Career highlight is a quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon in 2004 where she defeated two-time champion, four-time finalist and then-world No. 8 Venus Williams in the second round before losing to Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinal. The umpire of her match against Venus Williams awarded her an extra point in the second set tie break. He was relieved of his duties after the end of the match. In her first two WTA-tournaments she reached the finals, however in late 2004 her form declined. She began training with Borna Bikic, who at that time was brother of the boyfriend of Jelena Dokic. In late 2007 Šprem announced a permanent split from Bikic, and returned to her old coach. Still, she had to cope with a serious elbow injury. In April 2008 she successfully returned to the pro-tour winning in Amelia Island over Ai Sugiyama and top 10 player Daniela Hantuchová, before falling to Lindsay Davenport in the third round. In 2009, Karolina came back in the top 100, with a main draw entry in the Australian Open, Winning Qualifier rounds at Paris and the Sony Ericsson open.

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Iveta Benešová, Czech Republic: She began playing tennis at age of 7 and turned professional in 1998 in Prague. She has won one WTA Tour event, Tier III in Acapulco in 2004. Her current WTA ranking is No. 43 (as of February 1, 2010).

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Bethanie Mattek, United States: She lives in Miami, Florida but trains in Phoenix, Arizona. Mattek has won five singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Circuit, and her best results on the WTA Tour to date are reaching the semifinals of the tournaments in Cincinnati, Ohio in 2005 and Birmingham, United Kingdom in 2008 and the finals of the Bell Challenge in 2008. In doubles, she has won four WTA Tour titles. Mattek also plays for the New York Sportimes for World Team Tennis. Her current WTA ranking is No. 140 (as of February 1, 2010).

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Vojislava Lukic, Serbia: Born and raised in Subotica (now Serbia, former SFR Yugoslavia), she achieved her highest career ranking as No. 203 in singles on August 20, 2007, and No. 223 in doubles on October 8, 2008. As of April 6, 2009, Lukic is ranked No. 1093 in singles and No. 594 in doubles. Lukic won three three ITF singles titles in 2006, all in Romania - in Pitesti, Medias and Bucharest. She also played for Serbia Fed Cup team in 2007, alongside Jelena Jankovic, Ana Jovanovic and Ana Timotic.

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Gabriela Sabatini, Argentina: She was one of the leading players on the women's circuit in the late-1980s and early-1990s. She won the women's singles title at the US Open in 1990, the women's doubles title at Wimbledon in 1988, two WTA Tour Championships in 1988 and 1994, and a silver medal at the 1988 Olympic Games. Sabatini retired from the professional tour in 1996, having won 27 singles titles and 14 doubles titles. She reached her highest ranking of World No. 3 in 1989. Her last professional singles match was on October 14, 1996, when she lost to Jennifer Capriati 6-3, 6-4. Sabatini was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame on July 15, 2006.

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Marta Domachowska, Poland: She began playing at age 7. She reached the semi finals of Australian Open Junior Championships in 2003. Her racquet brand is Wilson. She speaks four languages: Polish, English, Spanish and Russian. Other than tennis, she enjoys sports such as football and swimming. She is engaged to Polish butterfly and freestyle swimmer Pawel Korzeniowski. Her current WTA ranking is No. 135 (as of February 1, 2010).

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Tamira Paszek, Austria: She was introduced to tennis by her mother, Francoise Paszek, at age four-and-a-half. Her mother is Chilean born, and her father is Ariff Mohamed, who is Tanzanian-born, Kenya-raised and lived in Canada. Both her paternal grandparents are from India. She is currently being coached by Angel Giminez having previously been coached by Larri Passos (former coach of former ATP No.1 Gustavo Kuerten). Her current WTA ranking is No. 135 (as of February 1, 2010).

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Klara Zakopalova, Czech Republic: In her career, Zakopalová has reached eight singles finals and won two, both in 2005: on grass in Rosmalen (Netherlands) and in September in Portorož (Slovenia) on hard court. Zakopalova's biggest win came at the 2009 Andalucia Tennis Experience in Marbella, Spain. She defeated World. No. 1 and ten time grand slam champion Serena Williams, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1. Her current WTA ranking is No. 90 (as of February 1, 2010).

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Alona Bondarenko, Ukraine: She has a younger sister Kateryna Bondarenko who also plays on the Tour. She formerly paired with her older sister Valeria in doubles. She is currently ranked 26 in singles and 39 in doubles by the WTA. Her career high singles ranking was Number 19, achieved on 14 April 2008. She won the 2008 Australian Open women's doubles tournament with sister Kateryna, beating Victoria Azarenka and Shahar Pe'er in the finals.

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Olga Poutchkova, Russia/Belarus: As a junior she played for Belarus, and is sometimes listed as Belarusian as a professional. In 2006 she made her WTA Tour main draw debut in Hobart, Australia as a qualifier; however she lost in the first round to Mara Santangelo. Poutchkova reached her first WTA Tour final in Kolkata, India, in September 2006, losing to Martina Hingis (6-0, 6-4), but beating seventh seed Nicole Pratt en route.

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Vasilisa Bardina, Russia: She has won 3 ITF Women's Circuit singles titles and 3 ITF doubles titles, but not any WTA titles in singles or doubles. Vasilisa made the final of Moorilla Hobart International in 2007, before losing to Anna Chakvetadze. She was forced off the tour after Wimbledon in 2007 due to injury, she had suffered a stress fracture in her right shin. She tried to come back at the Australian Open in 2008, but it was too soon after her injury and she had only been practicing for two weeks before the event. She lost in straight sets to Sandra Kloesel in qualifying. Since then Bardina has made a few tentative appearances, predominately at ITF events in North America with limited success.

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Alize Cornet, France: She is the current French number four (Behind Marion Bartoli, Virginie Razzano and Aravane Rezai). She has a career-high ranking of #11, achieved on 16 February 2009; as of 31st January 2010, she is ranked World No. 51. Cornet also has an extensive juniors record, winning the 2007 Girl's Singles at Roland Garros. She has won 1 WTA title.

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Simona Halep, Romania: She is well known for her aggressive style of play. She started 2008 with a final in Nottinghill, lost to Arantxa Rus, then defeated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open Junior Championships, before losing in the semifinal to Jessica Moore. In November 2009 Simona won the $25,000 tournamant in Maribor. She was as of January 2010 ranked 186th in the world.

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Romana Tabakova, Slovakia: Tabakova was born on May 7, 1991 in Bratislava, Slovak Republic. She plays right-handed and her favourite surface is clay. Her current WTA ranking is No.856 (as of February 1, 2010).

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Petra Cetkovska, Czech Republic: She is of ethnic Macedonian origin. She reached her career high singles ranking No.49 on June 16, 2008. In 2007, she made breakthrough in her WTA ranking, and notched 3 ITF titles. Also, she won her first WTA doubles title with compatriot Andrea Hlavácková in ECM Prague Open. She made her grand slam main draw debut in 2007 US Open, going through to second round by defeating Jill Craybas from USA. She eventually lost to 14th seed Elena Dementieva in second round match. At the 2008 French Open, she upset the 23rd seed Alona Bondarenko 6-3, 6-0 in the first round en route to a fourth round showing, her best Grand Slam showing to date. However, she was soundly beaten by then World No. 2 and eventual champion Ana Ivanovic in a 6-0, 6-0 whitewash. Cetkovská lost in the opening round of the 2009 Australian Open to Marina Erakovic 4-6, 7-5.

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Magdalena Rybarikova, Slovakia: On June 22, 2009, she achieved her career-high WTA singles ranking of 40th. Rybarikova is coached by Mojmir Mihal and her fitness coaches are Kristian Cupak and Michal Dubovec. Like many tennis players she started young at the age of 8. She was born in Piestany to father Anton, a business manager, and mother Maria. She has two older siblings, Filip and Nada, and a dog named Sindy. She moved to Bratislava at age 15 to train at the national tennis center there. Her favorite surfaces are grass and hard. She likes pizza, chicken, iced tea, and the movie "Pretty Woman". Her favorite tournaments are Wimbledon and the US Open. She admires Martina Hingis as a tennis player. She has stated that if she wasn't a tennis player, she would like to study archaeology, as she likes the Indiana Jones movies. She carries with her a toy bear as a lucky charm.

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Victoria Azarenka, Belarus: Azarenka has won two mixed doubles Grand Slam titles - 2007 US Open with Max Mirnyi and 2008 French Open with Bob Bryan. She has also won three singles titles, all in 2009. Her current WTA ranking is No.6 (as of February 1, 2010).

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Stefanie Voegele, Switzerland: Her highest WTA singles ranking is No. 69, which she reached on February 1, 2010. Her career high in doubles is No. 131, which she reached on March 2, 2009.

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Samantha Stosur, Australia: She is a former world No. 1 on WTA Tour in doubles, together with Lisa Raymond from the United States. As of February 1, 2010, Stosur is ranked No. 11 in singles and No. 7 in doubles by the WTA.

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Yanina Wickmayer, Belgium: She is currently ranked world number 15. She is best known for her signature "woopie" scream every time she hits the ball, and her semi-final appearance at the 2009 US Open, where she lost to eventual runner-up, Caroline Wozniacki.

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Ioana Raluca Olaru, Romania: On July 27, 2009, she reached her highest WTA singles ranking of 53. After ending 2008 at 126, her recent victory in the $100,000 Marseilles ITF tournament places her in provisional rank of 73 going into The Championships, Wimbledon. Over her career, Olaru has won 9 ITF singles and 6 ITF doubles titles, but no WTA titles. She lost to Ágnes Szávay in the final of the Junior's Singles 2005 French Open tournament, and lost in the doubles final to Szávay and Victoria Azarenka with Amina Rakhim. At the 2007 French Open, she upset the 30th seed, Julia Vakulenko in straight sets, but eventually lost to the 7th seed Ana Ivanovic in the third round.

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Julia Goerges, Germany: She qualified for the main draw at the 2007 US Open and lost 6-0, 6-3 to number one Justine Henin in the first round. Görges reached a career high singles ranking of World Number 67 on 1 February 2010, and as of that date has reached World Number 303 for doubles, on 18 February, 2008. She has not won a WTA title, but has won 4 ITF singles titles, and 3 ITF doubles titles.

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Timea Bacsinszky, Switzerland: She resides in Belmont-sur-Lausanne, Switzerland. She joined the WTA Tour and was ranked World No. 48 on October 13, 2008. Her mother, Suzanne, is a dentist from Hungary; father, Igor, is a tennis coach from Romania. She has one brother, Daniel (music teacher) and two sisters, Sophie (musician and student) and Melinda (mother of two girls). Timea began playing tennis at age 3 when mother introduced her to the sport. She speaks French, Hungarian, English, German and Italian.

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Andrea Petkovic, Germany: She is living in Griesheim near Darmstadt, Germany. Petkovic reached her career-high singles ranking of World Number 49 on January 11, 2010. Petkovic's highest doubles ranking was World Number 68 on September 28, 2009. She has won 1 WTA title, but she has won 8 ITF singles titles and 3 ITF doubles titles. Petkovic became the German national champion in 2007 and 2009.

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Anastasia Pivovarova, Russia: Pivovarova was born in Moscow, Russia and is a right-handed player. She reached a career high of 148 in April 2009. During a successful junior career Pivovarova was ranked as high as number 2.

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Lesley Kerkhove, Netherlands: The Dutch player known for her big groundstrokes and big serves is currently ranked 814 by the WTA.

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Camille Pin, France: Camille's 2006 season was rather successful, for a player ranked lower than the top 100 in the women's tour. After a second-round loss to Serena Williams in the Australian Open, she made 3 ITF tour event finals, taking one of the titles at Lexington. She also made some reasonable showings at official WTA Tour events, especially qualifying for the Tier I event at Indian Wells and making the second round. However her 2006 grand slam second round showing at the Australian Open would prove to be her best Grand Slam result of the year, falling in the first round of every other major to tough opponents. Pin made headlines at the 2007 Australian Open, after playing top seed Maria Sharapova in the first round and coming within two points of winning the match. After recovering from a 0-5 deficit in the final set, Pin eventually lost with a final score of 3-6, 6-4, 7-9. Pin dated male professional tennis player Arnaud Clément of France. She is currently ranked 162 by the WTA.

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Tatjana Malek, Germany: She achieved her highest singles ranking of World No. 64 on September 14, 2009. Her highest doubles ranking as of June 12, 2007 was World No. 142 (achieving that ranking on May 21, 2007). Malek has won two International Tennis Federation (ITF) singles titles and one ITF doubles title but no WTA tour singles or doubles titles. She has two brothers and likes hard courts. Malek's first match in the Germany Fed Cup team was in 2006 against Sun Tiantian of China.

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Yaroslava Shvedova, Kazakhstan: She has achieved a career high ranking of No. 48 as of February 1, 2010. She has won 1 WTA singles title, 3 ITF Women's Circuit singles titles and 2 doubles titles. She was taught tennis at the age of six by her father who is currently her coach.

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Tatiana Perebiynis, Ukraine: She is an only child. She reached the Wimbledon junior girls' singles final in 2000, and won the Wimbledon juniors doubles final that year.

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Olga Barabanschikova, Belarus: Her highest WTA singles ranking is 49th, which she reached on March 2, 1998. Her career high in doubles was at 81 set at October 19, 1998. Barabanschikova was also a spokesperson in the final of the Eurovision Song Contest 2008, announcing the televotes of Belarus.

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Anastasia Myskina, Russia: In 2004 she won the French Open, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to win a Grand Slam event. Subsequent to this victory she rose to number 3 on the WTA ranking, becoming the first Russian female tennis player to reach the top three in the history of the rankings. In September 2004 she reached a career high of No.2, but she has not played professional tennis since 2007, and has stated she does not know whether she will return or not. Injury has prevented her from advancing for the past several years.

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Michaella Krajicek, Netherlands: Michaëlla Krajicek was born on 9 January 1989 in Delft. She is the younger half-sister of former professional tennis player and Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek, and she is therefore nicknamed Kleine Kraai (Little Kraai). She currently resides in Almere. In 2010 Krajicek participated in qualifying for the Australian Open, falling in the third round to Anglique Kerber in three sets. She also competed in the doubles with Dominika Cibulkova, but lost in the first round.

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Viktoriya Kutuzova, On November 28, 2005, Kutuzova reached her highest singles ranking, World No. 76. Kutuzova remains most notable for her results as a 14 year old. In her debut WTA maindraw event, the Tier II event in Los Angeles 2003, Kutuzova beat top 50 player, Lina Krasnoroutskaya, in the 1st round, and top 30 player, Alexandra Stevenson in her next match, before losing in the 3rd round to the then world number 12, Ai Sugiyama. Other career highlights in WTA main draw events include, a 4th round appearance at the Tier I event in Indian Wells 2005, eventually losing to then number 1, Lindsay Davenport. Kutuzova has also made the 2nd round at three of the four grand slam events on the WTA tour.Viktoriya has suffered some shoulder problems throughout her young career which have stalled her progression on the main WTA tour.

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Karolina Pliskova, Czech Republic: Her highest WTA singles ranking is 220, which she reached on November 30, 2009. Her career high in doubles is 570, which she reached on December 14, 2009. Her twin sister Kristyna is also a tennis player. In 2010, she won the girls' singles event at the 2010 Australian Open, beating Laura Robson 6-1, 7-6 (7-5) in the final.

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Dinara Safina, Russia: Currently Safina is ranked world number 2. She has been the runner-up in three Grand Slam singles tournaments and won the women's doubles title at the 2007 US Open with Nathalie Dechy. She also won the Olympic silver medal in women's singles at the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing. Her most recent achievement is runner-up in the 2009 French Open. She is the younger sister of former World No. 1 men's player Marat Safin. She and her brother are the first brother-sister tandem in tennis history to both achieve #1 rankings.

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Laura Robson, United Kingdom: She debuted on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior tour in 2007, and a year later won the Wimbledon Junior Girls' Championship at the age of 14. As a junior, she also twice reached the final of the Australian Open, in 2009 and 2010. She won her first professional tournament in November 2008, and as of 1 February 2010, Robson has a rank on the WTA singles tour of 313 and doubles tour of 108. Robson is currently the British number 2 for Juniors, behind Heather Watson.

Wimbledon 2011 Photos

Badminton wants to glam up just like tennis already has. And there is no doubt tennis, apart from the actual sport that it is, has a lot on offer for the non-sportingly inclined as well. A look (Agency photos)