The seeds continued to power their way through the draw at Indian Wells with world no.1 Victoria Azarenka leading the way into the third round with a comfortable win against Slovak heart throb Daniela Hantuchova. Rising German star Angelique Kerber was just as confident, while Samantha Stosur and Caroline Wozniacki looked to be finding some of their long lost mojo by advancing as well. There were also routine wins for Serbian diva Ana Ivanovic and Russian Nadia Petrova as the BNP Paribas Open picked up pace.

The first match of the day saw 7th seed and 2011 U.S Open champion Samantha Stosur square off against American youngster Madison Keys. Stosur comfortably got the better off her wildcard opponent in straight sets by winning 75 % of first serve points and breaking Keys once in each set to record a 6-3, 6-4 win in an hour and twenty four minutes.

The Australian Fed Cup team will look at more than the disappointing score line to determine the success of this weekend's 4-0 first round loss to the defending champions in the Czech Republic. With the team 2-0 down going into day two Sam Stosur put up a valiant effort against Petra Kvitova but was unable to continue the momentum that saw her take the first set 6-2.

"I don't think I did much wrong today," Stosur said after the 2-6 7-6(3) 6-4 loss. "Petra played a very good match. In the second set I thought we were both playing very high quality and when it comes down to that, it was just a point here and a point there. It's probably one of the better matches I've played in a few months. I'm not too far away and it's just a matter of 'keep on going' and really using a match like today to drive myself and try and turn all this around."

Australian No.1 Sam Stosur battled hard to find her game on Ken Rosewall Arena Monday night, but eventually came up short against China’s Zheng Jie in a tough three set battle 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-4.

“I feel a lot better after this loss than last week's loss because I felt like I did some better things,” said Stosur, who suffered her second first-round exit in as many weeks. “Overall I think everything was a lot better.  She came up with some very good points when things could have kind of gone away from her in that third.”

Australian world No.9 Samantha Stosur will begin her Apia International Sydney campaign against world No.26 Zheng Jie of China in the first round of the Apia International Sydney.

The official draw, conducted today at Sydney Olympic Park Tennis Centre, produced a number of outstanding matches in the women’s draw.

Marcos Baghdatis has put in a measured first-round performance to hold off Gold Coast wildcard Ben Mitchell on Pat Rafter Arena on New Year’s Eve. The unseeded Cypriot defeated the 20-year-old Australian 6-4, 6-4 to advance to a second-round clash with sixth-seeded German Florian Mayer.

Australia’s Sam Stosur experienced a straight-sets first-round defeat to Swede Sofia Arvidsson at the Brisbane International on New Year’s Eve. In a blow to her Australian Open preparations, Stosur exited 7-6(4) 7-5 to Swede Sofia Arvidsson to be the second top-10 star upset on Pat Rafter Arena on Monday.

Samantha Stosur was awarded the Newcombe Medal for a third consecutive year at the gala Newcombe Medal, Australian Tennis Awards at Crown Palladium in Melbourne tonight. The Queenslander, 28, received the accolade for being Australia's most outstanding player in 2012. Australian tennis legend John Newcombe presented Stosur, the current world No. 9, with the medal.

Stosur is the first Australian woman since Wendy Turnbull to finish in the world top 10 three years running.

The WTA Championships in Istanbul got a whole lot more exciting on Thursday with Serena Williams continuing her perfect run in the tournament by beating world no.1 Victoria Azarenka. That threw open the door for Chinese superstar Li Na to sneak into the semi-finals, and the former French Open champion kept her hopes alive by picking up a clinical 6-4, 6-3 win over rising German star Angelique Kerber to set up a crucial winner takes all clash with Azarenka on Friday. Meanwhile over in the White Group, Italian Sara Errani won a lopsided three set encounter with super-sub Samantha Stosur, 6-3, 2-6, 6-0.

The Williams - Azarenka match was the contest everyone was looking forward to this week when the Groups were drawn, and as expected, Serena kept her terrific run of form going to extend her mid-season record to an exceptional 46-2. The match failed to reall ignite as a contest with Serena producing a much improved serving display with the exception of a brief blip early in the second set.