She's No. 1

No, Maria Sharapova isn't currently No. 1 in the world tennis rankings. But she is No. 1 in Forbes' rankings of the world's top-earning female athletes. That counts for something, right?

Ashley Harkleroad Playboy Pics

This is one of the photos from Ashley Harkleroad's pictorial in the Aug. 2008 issue of Playboy. In fact, it's the only one we can post here, because in the remaining dozen or so shots, Ashley is in some state of nude (topless, bottomless, or a combination thereof). If you want to see more (literally), pick up the August Playboy or sign up at Playboy.com.

Ashley Harkleroad's Playboy Cover

As previously reported here and everyone else in the sports blogosphere, Ashley Harkleroad graces the pages of the August issue of Playboy. Here's the cover shot:

Jelena Dokic

We haven't seen much of Jelena Dokic in a while. She reached a career high singles ranking of No. 4 back in 2002, but began slipping shortly thereafter (due to various reasons, including family strife). Dokic now lives in and plays for Australia, and has begun something of a comeback. She won two ITF singles titles this year, and had returned to play on the WTA.

Anastasia Rodionova

Anastasia Rodionova gets her hair done in the "Players Beauty Lounge" at the 2008 Australian Open. Who knew there was such a thing as a "players beauty lounge"?

Rodionova is a native of Russia now living in Australia. She won the 2000 Russian Championships 18s in singles and doubles, and reached the mixed doubles finals at Wimbledon in 2003 (partnered with Andy Ram).

Rodionova has two WTA doubles titles in her career to date, six ITF singles titles, and 11 ITF doubles titles. As of July 7, 2008, her WTA singles rank was 72, and her WTA doubles rank was 47.

Venus Wins Wimbledon

She's Venus, and yeah, baby, she's got it: Venus Williams won Wimbledon 2008. It's her fifth Wimbledon singles championship, and she beat sister Serena 7-5, 6-4, to get it. Venus also won Wimbledon in 2000, 2001, 2005 and 2007.

Liga Dekmeijere

Liga Dekmeijere's shirt says "All men are dangerous." But we think Liga is pretty dangerous herself. The Latvian beauty has a WTA doubles ranking of 87, and won her first WTA doubles title earlier this year at Vina del Mar, Chile. She reached another WTA doubles final a few weeks ago at S'Hertogenbosch.

Liga began playing tennis at age six and is coached by her father. Perhaps that's who taught her the two-handed backhand. She has a sister who captains Latvian women's national hockey team.

In addition to Liga's recent highlights on the WTA doubles circuit, she has won around 16 career doubles title in ITF tournaments.

Nicole Vaidisova

Nicole Vaidisova bit the dust - or the grass, rather - at Wimbledon today, too. Vaidisova lost to Chinese surprise Jie Zheng 2-6, 7-5, 1-6, in the quarterfinals.

Nicole was the 18th seed, and her WTA ranking is currently 22nd.

Agnieszka Radwanska

Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals, but there she ran into an on-form Serena Williams. And that was the end of Agnieszka's run.

Radwanska is No. 11 in the WTA rankings and has three tournament titles since the start of 2007. One of those was a win over Elena Dementieva in the finals at the Instanbul Cup.