Kaia Kanepi (pronunciation: KY-ah KAH-nep-i; IPA: [ˈkɑiɑ ˈkɑnepi]; born 10 June 1985 in Haapsalu) is an Estonian professional tennis player. Her career-high ranking is world no. 16 reached on 14 February 2011.

Kanepi won her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour title in Palermo in 2010, becoming the first Estonian female player to win a WTA title. She has also reached three Grand Slam quarterfinals, becoming the first Estonian to achieve this and was the first Estonian to be ranked in the top 20. She then won her second title at the Brisbane International in January 2012.

Her father, Jaak (a real estate broker) and mother Anne (a homemaker) played tennis. They also have daughters Kadri, who won a tennis scholarship to study in the U.S., and Karin, a dedicated horse rider. Kaia, who always watched her parents and sisters play, discovered her love for tennis at an early age. She started playing at the age of 8. Her family has always supported her desire to play professional tennis. She reached world no. 1 on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior rankings before turning professional in 2000. She has won eight ITF singles titles and is now the top-ranked Estonian female tennis player.

Kanepi is a small borough (alevik) in Kanepi Parish, Põlva County in southeastern Estonia.

The name Kanep means "cannabis" in Estonian.

Street in Kanepi

Kanepi church

War of Independence memorial in Kanepi

Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (Russian: Мария Юрьевна Шарапова [mɐˈrʲijə ˈjurʲjɪvnə ʂɐˈrapəvə] ( listen), US: /ʃɑrəˈpoʊvə/, UK: /ʃærəˈpoʊvə/; born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player and former world no. 1. A United States resident since 1994, Sharapova has won 26 WTA singles titles, including three Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open. She has also won the year-end WTA Tour Championships in 2004. The Women's Tennis Association has ranked Sharapova world no. 1 in singles on four separate occasions. She became the world no. 1 for the first time on August 22, 2005, and last regained the ranking for the fourth time on May 19, 2008. As of May 28, 2012, Sharapova is ranked world no. 2. She has been in six Grand Slam finals with the final record 3–3.

Sharapova made her professional breakthrough in 2004 at age 17, when she defeated two-time defending champion and top seed Serena Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final for her first Grand Slam singles title. She entered the top 10 of the WTA Rankings with the win. Despite not winning a major in 2005, Sharapova briefly held the no. 1 ranking, and reached three Grand Slam semifinals, losing to the eventual champion each time. She won her second major at the 2006 US Open defeating then-world no. 1 Amélie Mauresmo in the semifinals and world no. 2 Justine Henin in the final.

Laura Robson (born 21 January 1994) is a British tennis player. She debuted on the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior tour in 2007, and a year later won the Wimbledon Junior Girls' Championship at the age of 14. As a junior, she also twice reached the final of the Australian Open, in 2009 and 2010. She won her first professional tournament in November 2008. As of 28 May 2012, Robson had a rank on the WTA singles tour of 126 and doubles tour of 1073.

Robson was born on 21 January 1994 in Melbourne, Australia, the third child of Australian parents Andrew, an oil executive with Royal Dutch Shell, and Kathy Robson, a sports coach and former professional basketball player. Robson and her family moved from Melbourne to Singapore when she was eighteen months old, and then to the UK when she was six. According to her parents, she began playing tennis "as soon as she could hold a tennis racquet", and after being encouraged by them, she entered a junior tennis academy at age 7. She signed with management company Octagon when she was 10, with Adidas at age 11, and also signed a racquet deal with Wilson Sporting Goods. After working with several coaches, including the head of the Lawn Tennis Association, Carl Maes, she chose coach Martijn Bok in 2007. Bok said later that although Robson "had trouble staying emotionally under control", he "saw right away...a lot of potential in Laura." Robson also began training at the National Tennis Centre, under the guidance of Bok, Maes, and the head of women's tennis at the centre, Nigel Sears, while taking school lessons at home.

Peng Shuai (born January 8, 1986, in Xiangtan) is a Chinese professional female tennis player. She won a gold medal at the 2010 Asian Games, defeating Akgul Amanmuradova in the final.

Peng is known for her stamina and plays with two hands on both sides and hits very flat. She has defeated many top 10 and top 5 players, including Anastasia Myskina, Elena Dementieva, Dinara Safina, Kim Clijsters, Martina Hingis, Amélie Mauresmo, Francesca Schiavone, Jelena Janković, Maria Sharapova, Agnieszka Radwańska, Li Na, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova and Vera Zvonareva.

She has yet to win a WTA singles title, making four finals and many semifinals. As of May 2012, she is ranked inside the top 30 and is the 2nd ranked Chinese women's player, behind Li Na (out of 3 in the top 100).

Peng began playing at age eight when an uncle (a famous tennis coach in China and the only other family member who plays tennis) introduced her to the game. She favors hard courts and forehand (though her backhand is the better side). Her father Peng Jijun is a police officer and her mother is Zhang Bing. At age 13, Peng Shuai was submitted to a hospital for heart surgery, a situation which she explains in the "Impossible is Nothing" campaign from Adidas.