Ana Ivanovic

With the recent revolving door of World No. 1 players, the lack of consistent rivalries that have driven the sport in the past and the injury toll that has taken sidelined several former Grand Slam champions, women's tennis has been increasingly overshadowed by the mens' game in recent months.

Below is a collection of some of the best quotes from Week 1 of The Championships, straight from the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour stars.

"I wouldn't even mention my name and his in the same sentence."
Serena Williams on parallels between she and Venus and Michael Jackson, in that they all started their careers young, the day after Jackson's passing.

Former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic has been told to rest after sustaining a slight tear in her left thigh during her fourth-round match at Wimbledon.

The 13th-seeded Serb left the court in tears following one game in the second set after dropping the first set 6-1 to defending champion Venus Williams.

"The 21-year-old has a micro-tear in her left thigh muscle and must rest for the next one to two weeks," a statement on her website said.

Horrible way to go.

ANA IVANOVIC: Yeah, definitely. Uhm, that's the most disappointing thing because I felt like I wasn't given a fair chance, you know, to fight.

But, yeah, it was really disappointing, especially that, you know, all of a sudden I felt pain after that serve. And, yeah, I'm really disappointing.

Q. Did you have the problem in the first set?

It is not easy to extract the positives from a 53-minute thrashing and an injury-enforced retirement, but Ana Ivanovic was doing her very best. Poor Ivanovic had managed to win just two games against Venus Williams when at 6-1, 0-1, she had to limp back to the locker room. Her Wimbledon was over. And she was in floods of tears.

Venus Williams was full of sympathy for Ana Ivanovic, after the latter was forced to retire from their fourth round match with a groin injury with the score at 6-1, 0-1.

Speaking after the match, the defending champion said: “You know me. I only pay attention to what’s going on my side of the net – but today I felt really sad for her.

Ana Ivanovic may have had worse days at the office than this, but not many. The 12th seed was all but blasted off No.1 Court in the first set by the tournament favourite and defending champion Venus Williams in their fourth round match.

And at the start of the second, Ivanovic received prolonged treatment to a thigh injury. She tried valiantly to continue but, sobbing with pain and disappointment, was forced to admit that she could not.

The women's game may be in a state of upheaval but it is reassuring that some things show no sign of changing. Only twice in the past 11 years – in 2004 and 2006 – has Venus Williams failed to make at least the quarter-finals at Wimbledon, and she has not even dropped a set since the third round in 2007, a run of 29 sets.

Ana Ivanovic has got her head up just at the moment, and she’s feeling increasingly confident, despite making heavy going of her first match against Lucie Hradecka of the Czech Republic. She reckons she has got a fair chance in her fourth round match against defending champion and third seed, Venus Williams.

For the last 12 months Ana Ivanovic has been the great under-achiever of women's tennis. When she won the French Open last June the Serb appeared best placed to fill the void left by the retirement of Justine Henin, but after a year in which she has changed coaches, struggled with injury and suffered a series of embarrassing early losses in Grand Slam tournaments, she is down to No 12 in the world rankings.