Dinara Safina of Russia officially took over the top ranking on the WTA Tour on Monday. Dinara’s achievement makes her and older sibling Marat Safin the only brother-sister duo to have been No. 1 in professional tennis. To honor her success. I am posting some of her childhood photos. Those pictures remind us how hard it is to get where she is now. It takes years and years of hard work, dedication, discipline, and belief in yourself. Congratulations!.

Help! I am confused as what is the correct way of pronouncing the names of two WTA tour players: Sabine Lisicki and Caroline Wozniacki. As you may already have read, Sabine Lisicki of Germany beat Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark 6-2, 6-4 to win the Family Circle Cup and her first tour title on Sunday. Congratulations to Sabine! However, there is one thing that I keeps annoying me: what is the right way of pronouncing their last names. Both of them are of Polish origin, obviously, and all the Russian media pronounce their last names the way they would be pronounced in Polish. That is as LISITSKI. I remember a commentator at the tournament in Luxembourg pronouncing Wozniacki’s names as WOZNIATSKI. The WTA site officially lists the pronunciation of Sabine’s name as “za-BEE-nuh LEE-zi-kee.”  Now, Russians usually tend to butcher foreign names, however, since the Polish language is very close to Russian, they deffinetely know how to read the Polish last names. But I read somewhere that Sabine herself prefers her name pronounced as Lisicki. I know, transliteration can be confusing. Hopefully, if these young players continue playing well, one standardized solution will be reached:-)

Huffington Post is running a poll with a photo slideshow on who is hotter–Andy Roddick or his model fiancee Brooklyn Decker.  Andy is marrying his swimsuit model fiancee Brooklyn Decker this weekend. Roddick met Decker, 21, after he saw her photo and had his agent call hers. Check out Brooklyn at 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue.

Roger Federer has just announced on his website that he married his longtime girlfriend Mirka Vavrinec in a small ceremony in Basel, Switzerland.

“Dear Fans

Earlier today, in my hometown of Basel, surrounded by a small group of close friends and family, Mirka and I got married. It was a beautiful spring day and an incredibly joyous occasion.

Mr. and Mrs. Roger Federer wish all of you a Happy Easter weekend.

Love,
Roger”

After many months of rumors and speculations, Roger also has announced recently that he and Mirka are expecting their first child this summer. He also spoke openly on his views of becoming a father. Federer is scheduled to take part in the Monte Carlo Masters next week after he was given a wild card.

I guess there will be no honeymoon for the newlyweds. Oh well, they have already traveled the world and vacationed in all kinds of exotic places:-) I wish them joy and happiness!

To celebrate Maria Sharapova’s  partnership  with Cole Haan, a very exclusive party was held at Chateau Marmont in Hollywood. Guests included heartthrob Josh Hartnett, up and coming heartthrob Kellan Lutz as well as Jason Lewis, Kerry Washington, Lily Collins and Eve. Maria left the event with her rumored boyfriend Charlie Ebersol.

Injured Serena Williams has been upset by 95th-ranked Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic in a clay-court tournament in Spain.  Zakopalova won 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 Wednesday in the first round of the Andalucia Tennis Experience. I wonder how much was the appearance fee that Serena flew to Spain to lose in the first round? 

Serena’s loss helps Russian Dinara Safina to claim the WTA top ranking

Ana Ivanovic is featured on the Vanity Fair website. She was interviewed by Jessica Flint in New York last month after the BNP Paribas Showdown exhibition for the Billy Jean Cup.

Victoria Azarenka, the 19-year-old from Belarus, defeated world number one Serena Williams 6-3 6-1 to win the Sony Ericsson Open. In  post-match interview Azarenka explained why so many Eastern European women have done so well in tennis of late: “I would say it’s I think it’s just the mentality. Like the Russians, a lot of us, we didn’t have many things when we were growing up. It’s just the hunger for playing and just wanting to do better and get as many opportunities as you can to be better in your life.”

The New York Times had an article about U.S. tennis losing ground in developing players. Here is an interesting statistics from that article.  “Of the top 100 ranked players on the WTA Tour as of March 23, only four were American, and two were in the top 10, the Williams sisters, Serena (No. 1) and Venus (No. 6). (The other two were No. 37 Bethanie Mattek-Sands and No. 85 Jill Craybas.) By contrast, 14 Russian women were ranked among the top 100, including 10 in the top 50 and five among the top 10.”

Anna Kournikova and Enrique Iglesias managed to show the world that their relationship was going strong when the kiss cam found them on the stands during the Sony Ericsson semi-final match between Serena Williams and Venus Williams.

During a recent press conference, in response to a question  if Anna is the love of her life, Iglesias said “If you ask me right now, I’d say she’s the woman in my life, but I don’t know if eternal love exists. The reality is that lots of people who get married get divorced but I’ll be able to answer that question when I’m 90, then I’ll be able to say if I was with her the rest of my life,” 

(See more photos here.)