Maria Sharapova

MARIA Sharapova put aside worries over an aching shoulder on Thursday to spark a Russian charge into the quarter-finals of the San Diego Classic.

Russians claimed five of the eight spots in Friday’s quarter-finals of the concluding edition of this event, which will fall victim to a WTA calendar shakeup for 2008.

The No.1 and defending champion swept the first nine games in a 6-0, 6-3 win over No.13 seed, Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin.

“It was not as easy as it looked,” said the two-time grand slam winner. “About half of those first games went to deuce. I gave back two breaks in the second set and was lucky to get the win in straight sets.”

Sharapova is dealing with a long-running shoulder problem which will not get worse and will slowly heal, doctors tell her.

Unseeded Maria Kirilenko followed the winning example, defeating ailing No.2 seed Jelena Jankovic 6-2, 3-6, 7-5.

Jankovic, who qualified along with Justine Henin into the year- end WTA Championships field this week, said she was suffering from a cold during the 2hr 44min defeat.

The world No.3 Serb had a dozen break point chances against Kirilenko, with the Russian saving nine of them.

“Maria really played well, it was one of her best matches,” said Jankovic. “I was struggling the whole time. I didn’t do the right things and she took her opportunities.

“It’s difficult when you’re not feeling so well. I tried, but it was just not good enough.

“This was my first match after my holiday. I still need to get back to work on my physical training and be ready for more matches.”

The pair of Russian winners were joined in the last eight by compatriots Anna Chakvetadze, Nadia Petrova and Elena Dementieva.

No.3 seed Chakvetadze won her 11th straight match, beating Ai Sugiyama 6-4, 6-4 while No.4 seed Petrova eliminated Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik 6-3, 7-6 (12/10).

Dementieva, the No.9 seed, dealt No.5 seed and Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli a 6-4, 7-5 loss.
Bartoli said she is not overly concerned over her post-Wimbledon swoon which has left her 1-2 after two weeks on hard court almost a month after her surprise run at the All England club, where she lost to Venus Williams.

“My level was pretty good, but it was a hard match and I didn’t play the right tactics. I had chances to close out the second set and get back into it, but I didn’t take them.”

Dementieva next plays Kirilenko, while Chakvetadze will face Wimbledon champion Williams. The No.10 seed advanced with ease, dismissing No.6 seed, Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova 6-0, 6-3.

India’s Sania Mirza handed Russia its only setback of the day, beating No.8 seed Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-2 and next faces Sharapova.

Agence France-Presse

WIMBLEDON, England — Venus Williams squeezed past the rain and third-round opponent Akiko Morigami to set up a fourth-round showdown Tuesday with fellow former champion Maria Sharapova.

“I just always feel like it should go my way,” said three-time champion Williams, who sprayed 14 double faults and trailed Japan’s Morigami 5-3 in the third set but ran off the final four games to complete Saturday’s rain-delayed contest 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. “I guess experience helps.”

Williams again summoned her deep reserves, finishing off the 71st-ranked Morigami as rain began falling for the sixth time in seven days.

Second-ranked Sharapova is next up, and Williams might have to dig deeper.

Williams’ mother and coach, Oracene Price, said Venus will need to avoid the spotty play and step it up if she wants to advance.

“Hopefully, she’ll learn something from this match and calm down,” Price said. “You may have a more-focused Venus when she plays Maria.”

Sharapova leads the rivalry 3-1, including their most recent clash on hardcourts in March at Miami. Williams won their only meeting on grass when she beat Sharapova in the semifinals on her way to her third All England Club title in 2005.

Sharapova, 20, one of two players to complete a third-round match Saturday, said she wasn’t prepared for the sustained, physical tennis the 27-year-old American threw at her two years ago.

“I felt like at that stage in my career I wasn’t really ready,” she said.

Both players’ seasons have been shortened by injury.

Williams, ranked No. 31 but seeded 23rd, missed the Australian Open in January because of a bad wrist and has played eight events this year. A sore shoulder kept Sharapova off tour for almost two months this spring.

Serving problems this year have at times plagued both players, which could be the key to their second meeting on the game’s biggest stage.

“She is not going to be given the same free pass from Sharapova that she did today when Morigami served for it,” ESPN analyst Cliff Drysdale said. Still, it’s a toss-up, he said.

“It’s a 50-50 call,” he said.

Usa Today

World number two Maria Sharapova was upset to have to forego her long-awaited debut in Fed Cup because of shoulder and hamstring injuries but Russia still have a strong team to face Spain in Moscow.

World number five Svetlana Kuznetsova and number nine Nadia Petrova have both had impressive seasons, with Petrova winning in Paris and Kuznetsova reaching finals at Doha and Indian Wells.

Spain, led this time by world number 29 Anabel Medina Garrigues, have a proud Fed Cup history with five titles and five second-place finishes but have not reached a final since 2002.

Russia won the trophy in 2004 and 2005 but will be keen to erase the memory of their first-round defeat by Belgium last year.

“Russia will be strong favourites but we are going there with humility and enthusiasm,” Spanish captain Miguel Margets told the Spanish Tennis Federation web site (www.rfet.es).

“Despite the late withdrawal of Maria Sharapova, Russia have got a great number of quality players and they are a top-class power in world tennis, a team to be feared, so we are going to have to fight really hard if we are going to win the tie.”

France, the only team never to have been relegated from the top tier of the world group, are without Fed Cup stalwart and world number three Amelie Mauresmo, who is recovering from appendicitis, for their date with Japan in Limoges.

World number 18 Tatiana Golovin is in fine form, however, after winning her first WTA Tour title in Amelia Island two weeks ago.

Japan, returning to the elite group for the first time since 2004, will be led by the experienced Ai Sugiyama, helped by Akiko Morigami who boasts a 16-2 win-loss record in the competition.

By Steve Virgen

Maybe the Newport Beach Breakers and staff will sing, “She’s so pretty,” when Maria Sharapova walks through the Newport Beach Country Club this summer.

Regardless if they mimic a Nike commercial or not, they’ll assuredly be smiling as Sharapova will join the Breakers for one date: July 16. That’s when the world’s No. 2-ranked player will be with the Breakers when they go up against the Kansas City Explorers, it was announced Wednesday.

Sharapova, who won Wimbledon in 2004, played for the Breakers 2003-05.

“We are proud to welcome Maria Sharapova back with the Breakers and we are happy to provide our Southern California tennis fans with the opportunity to support one of the preeminent players in women’s tennis,” Jeff Purser, the Breakers’ executive director, said in a press release.

Sharapova, who turns 20 on April 19, highlights the list of prominent players who will be playing at the Breakers’ new tennis stadium at Newport Beach Country Club this summer. Pete Sampras, the all-time leader in men’s Grand Slam titles returns to the Breakers. On July 10, he’ll be at the NBCC, as will other World TeamTennis players including, Anna Kournikova (July 6), Venus Williams (July 22) and that guy who says, “Wow!” at the end of the Sharapova-Nike commercial: John McEnroe (July 25).

Sharapova has done plenty to make people say, “Wow!” since her breakthrough in 2004. She won the 2006 U.S. Open and has won 15 singles tiles. She became the top-ranked female in the world in 2005 and has more than $9 million in career earnings. She won five titles in 2006.

She’ll try to help the Breakers win the WTT championship, as she did in 2004. Last year, Newport Beach was the runner-up.

Recently, Sharapova lost to Serena Williams, 1-6, 1-6, in the Sony Ericsson Open. Sharapova defeated Williams to win the ‘04 Wimbledon. Sharapova was the lowest seed and second-youngest ladies Wimbledon champion in the Open Era and the third-youngest of all time.

Russian world number two Maria Sharapova has pulled out of next week’s WTA event the Family Circle Cup and the forthcoming Fed Cup clash in Moscow with Spain, it was announced on March 2.

Sharapova is slated to miss between five to six weeks of action because of a repeat of a right shoulder injury and a left hamstring injury.

“I’m looking forward to getting back on the court as soon as possible,” added Sharapova.

Sharapova was clearly not at her best last week when she was demolished 6-1, 6-1 by Serena Williams, who had also beaten her in the Australian Open final, in the last 16 of the Miami ATP and WTA Masters Series event.

TOP seed Maria Sharapova will begin her Sony Ericsson Open campaign against 93rd-ranked Chan Yung-Jan of Chinese Taipei who beat Nuria Llagostera Vives of Spain 6-2, 6-3 in the first round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Thursday.

Sharapova, last year’s runner-up at Crandon Park to fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, lost in the fourth round of the Pacific Life Open last week.

Chan’s 84-minute win came on a day when showers delayed play for more than four hours.

In other first-round matches, Dutch teenager Michaella Krajicek, beaten last week by Sharapova, advanced to face Czech eighth seed Nicole Vaidisova with a win over Georgian Anna Tatishvili 6-3, 7-6.

Three-time champion Venus Williams recovered from losing the first four games to beat Ukraine’s Yuliana Fedak 7-5, 6-2.

Venus, playing for the first time since winning in Memphis last month, produced 31 unforced errors in the first set before overwhelming her 88th-ranked opponent.

“‘At 4-0 I was thinking hold, break, hold, it’s even,” Williams told reporters. “I felt really confident. I didn’t feel like it was a set for me to lose. It was definitely a set I could win, just keep some balls in.”

The American improved to 34-5 at the tournament which she won in 1998, 1999 and 2001.

Frenchwoman Emilie Loit put out last week’s surprise package Sybille Bammer of Austria 2-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Austrian Bammer, the only mother in the world’s top 50, beat former world No. 1 Serena Williams in Hobart this year and lost in the Pacific Life semifinals to Kuznetsova.

On the men’s side, American Vince Spadea defeated compatriot Robby Ginepri 6-1, 6-3 and Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean eliminated former French Open runner-up Martin Verkerk of the Netherlands 6-3, 6-4. Qualifier Guillermo Canas, who last week ended world No. 1 Roger Federer’s 41-match winning streak, beat experienced Briton Tim Henman 3-6, 6-2, 6-1.

Associated Press

Defending champion Maria Sharapova of Russia was knocked out of the Pacific Life Open on Tuesday, a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 loss to Russian compatriot Vera Zvonareva that will cost her the No. 1 ranking.

Sharapova was beaten in the fourth round and needed to reach the Indian Wells semifinals to remain No. 1. She will be supplanted by Belgium’s Justine Henin when the rankings are released Monday. Henin, who is not at this tournament, won two recent events in the Middle East.

Andy Roddick, the lone American left in the tournament, advanced to the quarter-finals with a 7-6 (3), 6-3 victory over Richard Gasquet of France. Roddick’s game was particularly sharp in the second set, with his serves, groundstrokes and volleys all clicking.

Roddick finished the match with a 214-km/h serve down the centre stripe for his 15th ace.

The 19-year-old Sharapova was playing her first event since withdrawing from her semifinal at Tokyo last month with a strained left hamstring.

She struggled in the match against the 22-year-old Zvonareva, ranked No. 20 who won for third time in seven matches against Sharapova.

Sharapova had 13 double-faults and 47 unforced errors. She was up 5-3 in the second set and serving for the match when Zvonareva suddenly took control, winning eight consecutive games and 10 of the final 11.

Frequently looking off-balance while serving, Sharapova bounced her second serve into the net on one of her two double-faults in losing the sixth game of the third set.

The men’s side of the tournament lost its No. 1 player Sunday when Argentina’s Guillermo Canas upset Roger Federer 7-5, 6-2 to end the Swiss star’s 41-match winning streak.

Sharapova said she got a bit deflated when she couldn’t close out the match against Zvonareva and, “She just started swinging and wasn’t making a lot of errors.”

Asked about the problems with her serves, Sharapova said, “Yeah, there were a lot of wrong things going on today. That was just one of them, especially in the third set. But it was more of a snowball effect than anything else.”

Zvonareva said: “I was concentrating on every point, trying to get the rhythm, trying to get my game together and I was just fighting for every point. I think that’s why I was able to turn it around.”

Slovakia’s Daniela Hantuchova beat Switzerland’s Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3 in a rematch of their 2002 Indian Wells final, won by Hantuchova in straight sets. Second-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced with a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Japan’s Ai Sugiyama.

No. 17 Li Na of China defeated No. 9 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia 6-3, 7-6 (1) to move into the quarter-finals. Her country’s highest-ranked player ever and a tour event winner in 2004, Li next faces Zvonareva.

Tatiana Golovin of France advanced when No. 7 Russian Nadia Petrova retired because of heat exhaustion after losing the first set 6-2 and dropping the first game of the second.

Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who lost to Federer in the Indian Wells quarter-finals last year after the Swiss star beat him in the fourth round in 2005, reached the quarter-finals again this time, defeating Argentina’s David Nalbandian 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

No. 2 Rafael Nadal of Spain rolled to a 6-1, 6-1 victory over compatriot Juan Carlos Ferrero in another fourth-round match.

Maria Sharapova is continuing her campaign to prolong her title at Indian Wells with a win over French Natalie Dechy. Sharapova sent Dechy packing defeating the French in straight sets 7-5, 6-2.

Sharapova’s game wasn’t however without flaws. On the contrary: Her game was full of flaws committing 47 errors against 24 winners.

A hamstring injury forced the Siberian US Open champ of 2006 out for a month. Due to the injury she had to cancel the Dubai tournament as well.

Sharapova plays fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva in the next round who defeated Victoria Azarenka in straight sets 6-3, 6-3. Sharapova defeated Michealla Krajicek in her first match.

Former champion Martina Hingis cruised but top seed Maria Sharapova had to work a little harder to secure opening victories in the women’s event at the Pacific Life Open on Friday.
Hingis booked her place in the third round with a 6-1, 6-3 trouncing of Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki while a rusty Sharapova rattled up 11 double-faults before beating Dutch player Michaella Krajicek 7-6, 6-4.
Tournament winner in 1998 and twice a runner-up at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Hingis broke her opponent three times in the opening set before clinching victory in less than an hour.
“I tried to do some (different) things out there, come in more,” third seed Hingis told reporters as she remained on course for a possible semi-final clash with world number one Sharapova.
“I won a lot of points at the net and that is satisfying. Hopefully I can bring that in against the top players as well.
“It’s getting easier. When I needed it today, I came in and made some faster points.”
The world number six, who claimed her 43rd WTA Tour singles title at last month’s Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, is determined to retain her top-10 ranking by the end of the year.
“If I can earn my spot up there and put some pressure on the higher-ranked players, then that’s the only way I can succeed,” the 26-year-old said.
“And if I can occasionally win some more tournaments, I’ll be even happier.”
Sharapova, competing for the first time since being forced to retire with a hamstring injury midway through her Pan Pacific Open semi-final against Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic in Tokyo last month, looked particularly rusty in the first set. (Reuters)

GulfNews

Top seed and World No. 1 Maria Sharapova hopes to continue her ‘progression’ at this year’s Pacific Life Open as she chases back-to-back titles. The Russian’s five previous appearances at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden have shown consistent improvement, with a first-round loss in 2003 the only anomoly. Her five consecutive appearances since 2002 have resulted in the following finishes: second round (2002), first round (2003), round of 16 (2004), semifinals (2005) and champion (2006).

Asked to assess how she had developed since her first outing as a 14-year-old in 2002, Sharapova said: “I’m a much more experienced player than I was back then. It’s been a steady progression and hopefully I’ll maintain that. I lost in the second round, I lost in the semis the year before last and then I won last year.”

Former champion and two-time finalist Martina Hingis, who also reached the semifinals here last year during her comeback season, said that she feels very comfortable in Indian Wells, but this year she’ll feel a little extra pressure trying to defend the points she picked up in 2006. “Every time you come back to a tournament where you have done well you feel like you belong to the place. You connect with Indian Wells and the people. I enjoy being here. I have great memories. I made the semifinals last year and I’m now starting to defend my points… I want to do as well as I did last year, to stay in the top 10 and win some more events.”

As first-round women’s action began Wednesday, emerging American Shenay Perry enjoyed a convincing 6-3, 6-2 win over Russian qualifier Galina Voskoboeva, dropping just four points on her first serve and saving all six break points she faced.

Fellow American Jill Craybas dominated the second serve of Italian opponent Maria Elena Camerin to advance to the second round with a 6-1, 7-5 victory. Craybas will now attempt to reach the third round for just the second time in seven outings in Indian Wells.

Former teenage Wimbledon semifinalist Mirjana Lucic claimed a significant 6-4, 7-6(5) victory over American qualifier Lindsey Nelson. It was her first main draw match win since the 2002 French Open