WTA’s World No.1 ranking was contested by six different players at the start of the Australian Open, including Azarenka and her singles final opponent, Russia’s Maria Sharapova. By defeating Sharapova, Azarenka won her first Grand Slam title while clinching the top ranking for the first time in her career. Azarenka is just the third player to make the No.1 debut directly off the back of her first Grand Slam singles title, after Martina Navratilova at Wimbledon in 1978 and Ana Ivanovic at Roland Garros in 2008.

The 22-year-old is the 21st woman to hold the No.1 singles ranking and the first Belarusian to do so. Countrywoman Natasha Zvereva held the No.1 doubles ranking for 124 weeks between 1991 and 1999, and rose as high as No.5 in singles. Azarenka surpasses current No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, who has held the top ranking for 67 of the last 68 weeks since first capturing it on October 11, 2010.

“I couldn’t be happier. I’ve been loving coming to Australia since I was a junior and I’ve had an amazing month and this is a dream come true,” said Azarenka.

“Congratulations to Victoria on reaching the pinnacle of her career and becoming WTA’s newest World No.1. It has been great to watch Vika grow as a player over the last few years and I am thrilled that she has achieved this milestone at such a young age,” said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the WTA.

Azarenka enjoyed a breakthrough year in 2011, compiling a 55-17 win-loss record. She won titles at the Sony Ericsson Open (Miami), Andalucia Tennis Experience (Marbella) and BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open, and finished runner-up at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships (Istanbul) and Mutua Madrid Open (Madrid) when she lost both finals to Petra Kvitova. She also achieved her career-first Grand Slam semifinal appearance at Wimbledon and won two doubles titles. Her ranking improved from No.10 at the start of the year, to No.3 by the season’s end, which at the time was the highest ranking achieved by a Belarusian.

Azarenka began 2012 in fine form, defeating three Top 10 players in succession en route to her 9th career singles title at the Apia International Sydney. She remains undefeated so far this year with a 12-0 record and her Australian Open victory today makes her the 41st player in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam singles title.

WEEKS AT WORLD NO.1

“Vera is a proven champion and we are elated that she has become an ambassador for the Fila brand,” said Gene Yoon, Chairman of Fila. “The Fila brand has been worn by champions in tennis for almost 40 years, and Vera’s style and grace are synonymous with Fila’s core design philosophy of visualizing the beauty in sport.”

Zvonareva, 27, has been ranked in the Top 10 on the WTA Tour for the past four years. In 2010, she achieved a career high world ranking of number 2, and was a two-time Grand Slam singles finalist in 2010 at both Wimbledon and the US Open. Vera has won 12 Singles titles and 5 Doubles titles including the 2006 US Open. She was a member of the Russian Fed Cup Team in 2003 – 2004, 2008 and 2011 and was a member of the 2008 Russian Olympic team.

“I have admired the Fila brand since I was a young girl and I am thrilled to join the elite group of athletes that have worn Fila throughout the years,” said Zvonareva. “The Fila brand aligns so well with my personal style, and I look forward to wearing Fila’s tennis line in Australia.”

Visit www.fila.com to see the full collection of Fila tennis apparel and footwear.

Fila has a long and distinguished history in the world of tennis that continues with endorsements and sponsorships that include agreements with ATP Tour and WTA Tour athletes. Fila is a sponsor of the Sony Ericsson Open, the BNP Paribas Open and the Campbell’s Hall of Fame Tennis Championships. Fila is also the footwear licensee of The Championships at Wimbledon.

In 2011, Fila celebrated its centennial anniversary, a milestone for this historic brand established a century ago by the Fila brothers of Biella, Italy. Fila is now a leading manufacturer of sport and leisure footwear and apparel distributed worldwide. The internationally respected company, having gained world-class recognition in tennis apparel, has developed brand recognition by marketing high design and style content products that are endorsed by professional athletes from around the world.

There are signs, however, that this former student of the Nick Bollettieri Academy is about to start breaking through at the senior level, and showing the likes of Watson and Robson that she can also be a top WTA player, or at least make a career out of the sport.

Moore started her junior career with moderate success at the age of 13, winning a couple of lower grade junior events. Then in 2008, she began to enjoy more success with her British team mates at the junior Fed Cup competition. After playing a mixture of ITF and junior events in 2009 and 2010, it was at the Roehampton junior event where Moore showed glimpses of what she could do, especially on grass courts. The youngster managed to reach the final and defeat a host of top junior players, including former world No. 1 Daria Gavrilova, and junior Grand Slam Champion Karolina Pliskova–a sign that she could compete with the best. She followed up this success with her best showing in the junior Grand Slam at Wimbledon, where she reached the quarterfinals, losing out to her friend Robson. Moore was no longer a junior and needed a breakthrough on the ITF and WTA circuits.

The ITF circuit is a great breeding ground for young players, giving them an opportunity to gain plenty of match experience. Moore won her first $10k event in Frinton, gaining a notable final victory over now top 100 ranked Mona Barthel of Germany. Moore reached her first $25k semi-final in the same year in Felixstowe, but failed to capitalize fully on this success. She spent the next two years failing to break the WTA’s top 350 rankings, though she did have a notable win in 2009 against former WTA star Eleni Danillidou of Greece.

Moore has had a consistent 2011, and in the last few weeks of the season, she has shown she is finally ready to take control of her career and start her rise up the rankings. Moore reached the quarterfinals in Clermont (a $25k event), and reached her first semifinal in a $25k event since 2008, when she defeated the likes of Marta Domachowska in Glasgow. Recently, Moore reached the $10k final in Sunderland, and backed that up in Loughborough where she won the title. Moore’s ranking has improved to just outside the worlds top 300, and the 19-year-old should be able to break into the worlds top 200 in 2012, as she gains experience at a new playing level and continues to mature. She could gain a wildcard entry into the Wimbledon draw if she can break the top 250 WTA rankings by June next year, a target that is fully achievable.

Tara Moore may have had her problems in the past with a lack of professionalism, but the teenager can still turn her fledgling career around and become a consistent player on the WTA Tour. Robson and Watson maybe grabbing the limelight at the moment, and rightly so, but 2012 will be a critical year for Moore, and one the British fans hope she grabs with every opportunity.

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Chris Goldsmith is a contributing writer for On The Baseline, and writes about professional tennis on Twitter. @TheTennisTalker

Even though this was definitely a breakthrough season for Kvitova, her potential has been on display for a while. In 2009, she won the Moorilla Hobart International, defeating countrywoman Iveta Benesova in the final. When she took Dinara Safina out of the third round of the U.S. Open, the Czech’s raw talent was impressive. She swung and swung at the ball, perhaps not always with enough thought, but certainly with enough aggression and power. Later in 2009, Kvitova reached the final in Linz, a tournament she went on to win this year.

In 2010, Kvitova, who had never won a match on grass, reached the semifinal of Wimbledon, but then revealed her uncertainty about playing “the Serena,” a broken-English reference to playing Serena Williams in her upcoming match. Williams defeated her in straight sets, and went on to win the tournament, but by this time, Petra Kvitova was getting noticed by both fans and sports media alike. She would go on to get the WTA’s Newcomer of the Year award, and finish the season as No. 34 in the world.

There were problems, to be sure. For a while, Kvitova became very thin, and didn’t appear as fit as she probably needed to be. And the “hit first, think later” strategy continued, making the 20-year-old Czech stand out as much for her erratic performances as for her talent. Those of us who had been watching her since her Fed Cup debut in 2007, waited patiently for her to mature into a fierce competitor.

By 2011, our expectations were rewarded, and then some. Coached by David Kotyza, the 6′ tall, left-handed Kvitova showed up looking fit, showing off a new gift for utilizing strategy. She won the championship in Brisbane, but then lost to Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open. Her ranking rose to No. 18, however, and she won her second title of the year at the Paris indoor event, where she defeated Kim Clijsters in the final.

Kvitova went on to win her first premier event in Madrid. With a good record on hard courts, indoors, and on clay, the new Czech star was now approaching what many thought to be her prime surface—grass. Like her childhood idol, Martina Navratilova, Kvitova is at home with the speed of grass courts. She lost the Eastbourne final to Marion Bartoli, but by the time she arrived at Wimbledon, she was an unstoppable force. Kvitova hit 222 winners on her way to claiming the Venus Rosewater dish. She also beat the 2004 Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova in the final, and struck her only ace of the match on match point.

Kvitova would then fade for a while. She went out in the first round of the U.S. Open, and performed poorly in the semifinals in Tokyo, dramatically emphasizing her reputation as a streaky, erratic player. But then she won the championship in Linz, and followed that by winning the WTA Championships in Istanbul. Kvitova went 3-0 in the round robin portion of play, then defeated U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur in the semifinals, and Victoria Azarenka in the final.

The new world No. 2 continues to struggle with anxiety during matches, and she has a tendency to “go off” now and then. But, unlike some of her peers, Kvitova comes back—in the next game, the next match, or even in the next tournament. Known for her tricky left-handed serve and her huge groundstrokes on both sides, Kvitova has added a lot of touch to her game, and now—like her idol, Navratilova—she’s frequently rushing the net.

As 2011′s hottest player becomes more skilled and more comfortable in her new role, Kvitova will also become more feared by her opponents. The woman who told the BBC “I’m nothing special” is well on her way to becoming something very special indeed.

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Diane Elayne Dees publishes Women Who Serve, a blog about women’s professional tennis. Diane is a life-long fan of women’s tennis; her interest in the sport began when she first saw Evonne Goolagong play. Diane attends the Family Circle Cup in Charleston every year, and has a fondness for clay court tennis, which she developed while following the career of the great Chris Evert.

Born in 1987 in Serbia (Bosnia), the German’s career has developed in a way that is unlike any other player’s career. Her efforts paid off this year with a world No. 10 year-end ranking, and much promise for 2012. Talking a little about her upbringing, Petkovic explained last July in Carlsbad, “My father wanted me to go to school, learn something, play it safe in life. I made a deal with him: Give me two years. If I’m not in the world Top 50 after two years, I will go back to school. At the end of the two years, I was ranked number 49.” The German, who is coached by Petar Popovic and her dad, Zoran, never looked back.

At 5’11″ and 152 lbs, the right-handed Petkovic and her Wilson racquet are a lethal force on the other side of any tennis net. Because she opens up her life on social media like no other female player, freely offering her email address to reporters, and accepting interviews during workout sessions, the world can experience the hard working athlete and creator of the “Petko Dance”, on a regular basis. And she loves Twitter. On November 9, she tweeted (jokingly) about her upcoming wedding after she saw a spoof on Italian TV. Shameless flirting is her theme, and bubbly statements can be expected from the young German, who speaks four languages and takes online courses in Political Science.

After attending 13 years of school in Germany before fully committing to tennis, Petkovic turned pro in 2006. Her career would have bloomed much earlier had she not suffered a cruciate ligament rupture in her right knee at the 2008 Australian Open, which sidelined her for eight months, and caused her ranking to drop out of the top 100 to a low of No. 465. The following year, she started a series of impressive wins over world class players like Kuznetsova, Hantuchova, Kvitova, Ivanovic, Petrova, Bartoli, Pennetta, Sharapova, Wozniacki, Jankovic, Shuai, Kirilenko, and Venus Williams.

One fellow player, WTA world No. 8 ranked Agnieszka Radwanska has turned out to be a bit of an “Angstgegner” (nemesis) for Petkovic. The 22-year-old from Poland has beaten Petkovic in all five matches they played on the Tour so far. Three of those wins came in 2011, the last one at the China Open in Bejing (7-5, 0-6, 6-4).

A powerful, penetrating backhand, and a forceful, hard hitting forehand helped Petkovic earn a 50-17 winning statistic in 2011. One of the most impressive shows of power from Petkovic came at the Mercury Insurance open, with a 6-2, 6-1 win over up-and-coming American Sloane Stephens. In the post-match interview, she was all bubbly and excited and proclaimed, “We’ve got to show these young players who’s the boss on the court and that you fight for every point! I was on fire, even when it was 6-2, 5-0.” Getting into the Mercury Insurance Open semifinal this year catapulted Petkovic into the top 10.

Although Andrea Petkovic announced not too long ago that she is a little bored with the Petko Dance and plans to retire it, I have the feeling we have only seen the tip of the iceberg as far as Andrea’s quirkiness, hip lifestyle, and WTA rankings are concerned. Provided her knee allows her to play for the entire 2012 season (her knee was re-injured in Linz this year), she may not only break the “Curse of the Radwanska”, but also crack the top 5 –the first German to do so after Steffi Graf.

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Rich Neher is the owner and Principal Consultant of R&R Tennis Media Group, promoting tennis events, organizations, programs and professionals through social media outlets, speaking engagements, and community building.

Many of the ladies that once populated the middle third of the rankings, now find themselves at the top of the so-called ladder, winning Slams off people that cannot decide whether to fully retire or not. The communications department of a certain head office must be in over-drive in their attempt to stir excitement within the tennis-spectating public.

The champions now are a few and far between, but the most comforting thing is that we do have a plethora of talent. Come on down, Carla Suarez Navarro.

Some might say that the key ingredients to a superb tennis player are excellent footwork and the ability to anticipate your opponent’s next move. This Spanish pocket rocket stands at only 5’4″ tall, and her footwork is very impressive. Carla is predominantly an offensive baseliner, yet possesses relatively good defensive skills, which include the ability to play a topspin lob from the back of the court, as well as a slice backhand when she is trapped metres behind the baseline.

By far, the most imposing shot in tennis is the single-handed backhand, and Carla strikes a solid one. Her build and game are quite similar to that of Justine Henin, however she does lack some variety overall. The Spaniard is still young, so this will undoubtedly come with experience.

The women’s game was once centered on finesse and touch, but slowly moved towards the hard-hitting ground strokes off both sides, with the emergence (and re-emergence) of Capriati, the Williams sisters, and Sharapova, et al. We may be veering back towards the old-school style, which would suit Suarez Navarro nicely.

Carla plays her best tennis on clay and hard court, which is quite a contrast given the difference in feel and speed. She has yet to win a WTA title, but has six (6) ITF wins under her belt. With some good victories over top players such as Jankovic, Mauresmo, and Venus Williams in the past, she is not far off the heels of a Major.

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Tania Tchea has often been described as a Human Almanac of Tennis, due to her strong knowledge of the game at a national and international level. Tania has previously worked for the Australian Open and Tennis Australia.