Off Court Photos: Wimbledon Player Party [Part 1]

[Above: Venus Williams]

[Above: Agnieszka Radwanska]

[Above: Sorana Cirstea and Ana Ivanovic]

[Above: Sorana Cirstea and Ana Ivanovic]

[Above: Serena Williams]

[Above: Jelena Jankovic]

[Source: Tennisforum.com]

Off Court Photos: Jelena Jankovic

[Credit: Tennisforum.com]

Off Court Photos: Sorana Cirstea

[Credit: Tennisforum.com]

Spotlight On ... Chanelle Scheepers

Chanelle Scheepers is a South African tennis player who has played on the ITF circuit for most of her career. She is currently ranked at # 131, just below her career-high ranking of # 127 that was achieved in December 2009). Her 2009 season started promisingly with qualification at the Australian Open in January, although she exited in the first round to 18th seed Dominika Cibulkova. The following month, she qualified for Memphis and won a round before losing to 8th seed Pauline Parmentier.

Her qualifying successes came to a halt in March 2009 as she failed to qualify for Monterrey, but she made up for that by winning an ITF title in Mexico. She failed in qualifying for Ponte Vedra Beach, Charleston, Stuttgart and Estoril but won an ITF doubles title in Saint Gaudens (w/Rika Fujiwara). She turned that around by qualifying for Roland Garros (l. to 4th seed Elena Dementieva in the opening round of the main draw), beating top 100 player Alla Kudryatseva in the first round of an ITF event in Nottingham (l. to Elena Baltacha in the second round), and qualifying for Birmingham (d. Yaroslava Shvedova in the opening round of the main draw).

In 2010, the South African really came to prominence at Roland Garros. So far, she has reached the fourth round with wins over Akgul Amanmuradova and Gisela Dulko and will face off against Elena Dementieva (who she lost to in the first round in 2009 after qualifying). Her progress through to the fourth round has been all the more impressive when you consider that she was almost down and out in her third qualifying match against Zuzana Ondraskova before regrouping to level the match and go onto win it. It's her best Grand Slam result and marks the first time that a South African woman has reached the fourth round since Amanda Coetzer back in 1997.

Chanelle is coached by Tony Huber, who is married to doubles specialist, Liezel Huber.

Read Chanelle's "Getting to Know" interview on the WTA Tour website here.

Spotlight On ... Sally Peers

Australia's Sally Peers has been enjoying doubles success at the Australian Open alongside fellow young gun, Laura Robson. The duo were awarded a wildcard into the Women's Doubles competition and have successfully defeated a string of higher-ranked doubles players (including the 12th seeds) on their way to the quarter-finals.

Ordinarily, Sally spends most of her time on the ITF circuit. She was awarded a qualifying wildcard for WTA Brisbane, where she beat #174 Andrea Hlavackova in the first qualifying round before being knocked out by #89 Alla Kudryatseva. The previous week she received a qualifying wildcard for WTA Hobart, but was beaten in the first qualifying round by #83 Elena Baltacha. She hit a career-high ranking of #308 in January 2010, and is currently ranked just below that.

In doubles, she was ranked #22 going into the Australian Open, which is one place below the career-high doubles ranking that she achieved in December 2009. Throughout the 2009 season, she was partnered by several fellow Australians, including Alison Bai and Isabella Holland (with whom she reached several finals on the ITF circuit). Teaming up with compatriot Jessica Moore in WTA Brisbane, they were beaten by the Russian partnership of Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Galina Voskoboeva in their opening match, and there was little indication that an impressive run in a Grand Slam doubles competition was on the cards.

Spotlight On ... Thiemo de Bakker

Thiemo de Bakker became the first Dutch player to finish a year inside the top 100 since Raemon Sluiter ended the 2004 season at #84. The 21-year-old is currently ranked #96, after winning four Challenger titles over the course of 2009 in Tampere (d. Peter Luczak), Vigo (d. Thierry Ascione), San Sebastian (d. Filip Krajinovic) and Brasov (d. Pere Riba). The latter three Challenger titles were won in consecutive events, with the winning streak being broken in Alphen (l. to Michael Russell). He also reached the final of a Challenger event in Caltanisetta (l. to compatriot Jesse Huta-Galung), along with a semi-final in in Seoul (l. to Lucas Lacko) and a quarter-final in Kolding (l. to Ivan Dodig).

As a player on the Dutch Davis Cup team, Thiemo has played ties against Argentina (l. to Juan Monaco and Juan Ignacio Chela) and France (d. Gael Monfils, l. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga).

Spotlight On ... Sabine Lisicki

Sabine Lisicki shot to prominence at the 2008 Australian Open after reaching the third round as a qualifier and beating 16th seed Dinara Safina before losing to rising star Caroline Wozniacki. Her win over Safina was the first top 20 scalp of her career. She also qualified for WTA Indian Wells but lost in the opening round to fellow qualifier Greta Arn. She brushed aside that disappointment in fine style by reaching the fourth round of WTA Miami. She beat 5th seed Anna Chakvetadze for her first top 10 scalp. This result saw her rise to the outskirts of the top 100. She broke into the top 100 courtesy of a second round appearance in WTA Berlin. Here, she defeated Shahar Peer as a wildcard before losing to Sybille Bammer. The win over Peer was her third top 20 scalp. She reached the second round of Roland Garros, losing to 12th seed Agnes Szavay. Since then, her results have been less impressive, with early losses at WTA Birmingham, WTA s'Hertogenbosch (qualifying) Wimbledon and WTA Los Angeles and Montreal.

Sabine got things back on track with a quarter-final in WTA Cincinnati (l. to 3rd seed Maria Kirilenko) and a second round losses at the US Open (l. to 27th seed Alona Bondarenko) and WTA Seoul (l. to Samantha Stosur). In October, she reached the final of WTA Tashkent, beating top seed Shuai Peng before losing to 3rd seed Sorana Cirstea. She reached a career-high ranking of #49 in the same month.

Sabine's ranking slipped at the start of the 2009 season after she failed to defend the points gained in Melbourne the previous year, but she has still been racking up the wins. She reached the semi-finals in Memphis, beating 3rd seeded Lucie Safarova (l. to 2nd seed Victoria Azarenka). She stunned 2nd seed Venus Williams in the third round of Charleston and went on to reach the final (l. to Caroline Wozniacki) after also beating 6th seed Marion Bartoli in the semi-finals. This was followed by a second round in Stuttgart (l. to 3rd seed Jelena Jankovic) and a quarter-final in Estoril (l. to 8th seeded compatriot, Anna-Lena Groenefeld).

Sabine reached the quarter-finals of Wimbledon (l. to top seed Dinara Safina, after wins over 5th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova and 9th seed Caroline Wozniacki). Second rounds in Stanford (l. to 4th seed Jelena Jankovic), the US Open (l. to qualifier Anastasia Rodionova), Tokyo (l. to 7th seed Jelena Jankovic) followed this, but Luxembourg proved to be a return to form as she battled her way into the final (l. to Timea Bacsinszky).

She is coached by her father, Dr Richard Lisicki, who is a tennis coach. He introduced her to tennis at the age of seven.

Read Sabine's Luxembourg blog on the WTA Tour website here