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

Spotlight On ... Petra Martic

Petra Martic is a Croatian tennis player who broke into the top 100 today at # 89. Despite her ranking being outside of the top 100 until now, she has been playing quite frequently on the WTA circuit this year. She reached the second round of Roland Garros as a qualifier (l. to 24th seed Aleksandra Wozniak) and backed that up with a first round victory at the US Open (d. Severine Bremond Baltrame, l. to 9th seed and eventual finalist Caroline Wozniacki). In the middle, she reached the quarter-finals in Budapest as a qualifier (d. 8th seed Lucie Safarova, l. Edina Gallovits) and Portoroz, this time as a wildcard (l. to 5th seed Sara Errani). In 2008, she reached the quarter-finals of Portoroz (l. to Julia Goerges).

Spotlight On ... Jesse Witten

Despite being ranked outside of the top 270, Jesse Witten reached the third round of this year's US Open before losing to 4th seed Novak Djokovic. Before this success, he had yet to win a round in an ATP Tour event but that didn't stop him dispatching 29th seed Igor Andreev and Maximo Gonzalez to book his place in round three.

As you might guess from his ranking, Jesse has been played predominantly on the lower rungs of the circuit. At the start of 2009, he was playing Futures tournaments in the US as his ranking was close to # 400. He won Futures events in Florida and Texas, and retired in the final of a Futures event in Alabama (l. to Sam Groth). Inbetween these events, he attempted to qualify for Indian Wells (l. to Paul Capdeville) and lost in the first round of the Sunrise Challenger (l. to Bjorn Phau). Moving up to the Challenger circuit, he reached the quarters in California (l. to Michael Russell) and Granby (l. to Ryler DeHeart) and returned to the Futures circuit to win an event in California. He qualified for ATP Washington but lost in the first round to Alejandro Falla in his last event prior to the US Open.

Spotlight On ... Petra Kvitova

Petra Kvitova reached the fourth round of Roland Garros in 2009 (like her qualifying compatriot Petra Cetkovska) with wins over top 20 player Agnes Szavay, Samantha Stosur and Akiko Morigami, before losing to Kaia Kanepi.

The nineteen-year-old Czech comes from Fulnek, and was ranked 87 (a career-high) going into the tournament. She had a lot of success on the ITF circuit (five ITF titles in the last couple of years), but she is no stranger to success on the WTA tour too. In February 2009, she got to the second round of WTA Paris, again beating Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain, before bowing out to Elena Dementieva. She qualified for WTA Memphis in the same month and defeated top seed Venus Williams in the first round. This was her first win over a top 20 player – not bad for someone who had only played four matches on the WTA circuit (including that match)! She was ranked 143, and currently holds the record for the lowest ranked player to beat Venus. She got her second win over a top 20 player when she defeated Israel’s Shahar Peer in a Fed Cup match earlier this year. She reached the second round in WTA Strasbourg just before Roland Garros, but it was in Paris that her results really caught the eye.

After Roland Garros, Petra suffered first round exits at WTA Birmingham and Wimbledon. She rebounded in WTA Budapest, where she reached the quarter-finals, but that was followed by second round exits in WTA Los Angeles and WTA Montreal (l. to top seed Ana Ivanovic) and a first round exit at the US Open. On the ITF circuit, she reached the quarter-finals in Sofia, and rounded off her 2008 season with quarter-final showings in WTA Zurich (l. to 2nd seed Ana Ivanovic) and an ITF tournament in Bratislava (l. to 8th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova).

Her 2009 season got off to an impressive start with a title win in Hobart, beating 7th seed Alona Bondarenko along the way. Early exits at the Australian Open (l. to 13th Victoria Azarenka), Paris (l. to Karolina Sprem) and Dubai (l. to Julia Schruff). She regained some form in Indian Wells with a third round appearance (l. to 4th seed Vera Zvonareva), but suffered more early exits in Miami (l. to Sabine Lisicki), Barcelona (l. to 2nd seed Flavia Pennetta), Estoril (l. to Yanina Wickmayer), Madrid (l. to Francesca Schiavone) and Wimbledon (l. to Maria Kirilenko). Moving onto the clay, she notched up a string of second round exits in Bastad (l. to top seed Caroline Wozniacki), Prague (l. to Zarina Diyas) and Portoroz (l. to Camille Pin), and on the hard courts, Toronto (l. to 9th seed Maria Kirilenko). Stepping down to the ITF circuit for some confidence, she lost early in Bronx (l. to Anastasija Sevastova).

These results made her impressive run at the US Open all the more surprising. Petra is currently in the fourth round (matching her run at Roland Garros last year) with wins over 27th seed Alisa Kleybanova and top seed Dinara Safina. She takes on Yanina Wickmayer, another of the Tour's rising stars, for a place in the quarter-finals.

Spotlight On ... Anastasija Sevastova

Anastasija Sevastova is a Latvian tennis player who qualified for the main draw of Wimbledon for her first appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam. At the time, she was ranked at # 126 (just below her career-high ranking of # 121, which she achieved in June 2009).

Prior to this achievement, Anastasija's best results of 2009 have included winning ITF titles in La Palma (Spain) and Johannesburg (South Africa), reaching the second round of WTA Charleston (I. to 6th seed Marion Bartoli after qualifying for the tournament) and almost defeating Daniela Hantuchova in the first round of WTA Ponte Vedra Beach as a qualifier.

Post-Wimbledon, she broke into the top 100 after reaching the final of an ITF event in Prague (l. to 6th seed Sandra Zahlavova) and reached a career high ranking of # 95. She beat Tamarine Tanasugarn in the first round of the US Open, and gave a decent account of herself against 6th seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the following round.