Maria Sharapova Playing Top Spin 3

While tennis fans gathered for a spot at the 2008 Sony Ericsson Open in Miami to see the pros play, it was the virtual court action that added a new twist to the festivities. 2K Sports hosted a special event on March 26th in which the hottest tennis sensations, including Maria Sharapova and James Blake, played Top Spin 3, the highly anticipated video game featuring their likenesses. Top Spin 3 is heralded as the industry's most realistic tennis experience and the Sony Ericsson Open provided the ideal backdrop to showcase the game, since it features many of the pros who were competing. The video game challenge featured tennis greats going virtual racket to virtual racket against each other in the first public display of Top Spin 3 on the Wii™ home video game system. Throughout the Top Spin 3 event, spectators experienced every adrenaline-fueled, Wii Remote™ shot as the tennis professionals battled their way to virtual tennis supremacy.

Sharapova withdraws from Miami event

MIAMI - Hours after complaining of fatigue after her first loss of the year, Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova told officials at the WTA and ATP event in Miami that she was withdrawing from the tournament.
The 3.77 million-dollar event is considered a mandatory event by the WTA, meaning the 20-year-old Russian beauty could face punishment from the tour for skipping the event, which begins next week and runs through April 6.
Tournament officials told the Miami Herald of Sharapova’s decision, which came following a semi-final loss to compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova at the WTA and ATP event in Indian Wells, California, that ended an 18-match win streak.
The former world number one also pulled out of an event at Dubai last month with a viral illness following her second tournament title of the year, which came at Doha.

Source: khaleejtimes.com

Maria's Winning Streak Ends

Sharapova's perfect start to the year came to a shuddering halt when she lost 6-3 5-7 6-2 to fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the Pacific Life Open semi-finals on Friday. Australian Open champion Sharapova, who had won her first 18 matches of the season, was outplayed when it counted by the second seed in a fluctuating match lasting two hours, 19 minutes."There were a couple of important points that could have changed the match and she ended up winning them," Sharapova, 20, told reporters. "I think from that she gained confidence and kind of steamrolled after that in the third set."She's a very tough, tough player. She's not No. 2 or 3 in the world for nothing. I give her a lot of respect for her consistency, what she's able to do on the court, how strong she is and how many balls she gets back."World number three Kuznetsova, who lost to Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova in last year's final at Indian Wells Tennis Garden, was delighted to beat Sharapova for the first time since Miami in 2006. She will face top-seeded Ana Ivanovic in Sunday's final, the Serb having beaten compatriot Jelena Jankovic 7-6 6-3 later on Friday.

Maria into Semi Finals

Maria Sharapova beat No. 5 seed Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 on Wednesday to reach the semifinals of the $2.1 million Pacific Life Open. Maria, the fourth-seeded Australian Open champion, will meet No. 2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals. Kuznetsova eliminated No. 10 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-2, 6-4 in her quarterfinal contest. Sharapova, who won this tourney two years ago, is 18-0 this year. Kuznetsova was the 2007 U.S. Open runner-up and had lost to Hantuchova, a two-time champion here, in last year's Indian Wells final.The other quarterfinals will be Thursday, with top-seeded Aussie Open runner-up Ana Ivanovic going against 12th-seeded Vera Zvonareva, and third-seeded Jelena Jankovic facing 24th-seeded California native Lindsay Davenport, a two-time Indian Wells champion and four-time runner-up.Whoever wins the event will collect $332,000.

Maria into Quarters

Maria had a very tough match today at Indian Wells but she fought and she won to set up a quarter-final showdown with defending champion Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. Maria defeated #15 seed Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6-2 5-7 6-4 in 2 hours and 45 minutes.17th straight match wins for Maria now and out of all the wins she has dropped only 3 sets.In the 1st set Maria broke Bondarenko in the 3rd game and again towards the end of the set and took the set 6-2.Maria broke in the 3rd game of the 2nd set but Bondarenko broke back to level the set 3-3. From then on the set was very up and down and Bondarenko took it when she broke Maria's serve for 7-5.Just like the previous 2 sets, Maria broke in the 3rd game of the 3rd set but Bondarenko was able to break back and all games were held on serve until Maria broke Bondarenko to lead 5-4. Maria took the next game and match on her 2nd matchpoint.Maria has played her quarter-final opponent Hantuchova 7 times before and leads the series 6-1. Hantuchova won the 1st meeting way back at the beginning of 2004 and Maria has dominated the match-up since then. Maria has won all of the match-ups on hardcourts.

Source: mariasharapova.com

Maria Through InTwo Sets

Maria is through to the last 16 at Indian Wells after she defeated Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 7-5 6-3 in 1 hour and 56 minutes. Maria has scored her 16th straight win dating back to the Australian Open in January.The 1st set was trickier than expected as Maria took it 7-5 in 1 hour and 14 minutes. Maria broke Daniilidou to lead 3-2 and looked to be taking a straightforward set but Daniilidou broke to level the set 5-5, Maria re-grouped and took the next 2 games to take the set.After a turbulent 1st set, Maria was able to take control of the 2nd set in the 3rd game as she broke Daniilidou and was able to break again to take the match after a long deuce game on her 2nd matchpoint.Maria will play the 15th seed Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine in the 4th round on Tuesday. This will be the 1st match-up between the two.

Maria Sharapova First Round Interview

INDIAN WELLS, CALIFORNIA

THE MODERATOR: Questions, please.

QUESTION

How nervous were you, Maria?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Nervous?

QUESTION Yeah.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Why?

QUESTIONThat's a crazy question. I'm not going to ask you a straight question.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Crazy question. I wasn't nervous at all, no. Just -- no.

QUESTION

Not the tiniest little bit?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Not really, no. You mean because of the wind, or...

QUESTION

No, just because it's your first match here. Tennis match, crowd's there.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:

No, I didn't really feel nervous. I've been playing good enough tennis to not be nervous before my first round. Obviously you never know what kind of tennis you're going to produce in these kind of conditions. But, you know, I think against an opponent that didn't give me much rhythm, I think I handled it pretty well.

QUESTION

You'll be happy to know it's pretty calm out there now.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:I'm sure. It's been great the last week, and then I woke up this morning and it's windy all of a sudden. Shocking.

QUESTION

Thinking about your winning streak at all, this nice little streak you have starting the year? MARIA SHARAPOVA:You know, when I begin a tournament it's like I'm starting from scratch. At the end of the day, numbers are all very relative. You know, I just have to focus on my next match and next round. You know, I don't worry about records too much, no.

QUESTION

There was one point in the match - I don't know if you noticed - but in the second set you hit a ball and you thought it might have been good and you challenged it. I don't know if you could see through the umpire's chair, but both your father and Michael went like this, it was out, and you still challenged it. Did you see them?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:

I looked their way, and I did see -- yeah I don't know if that's like challenge or if it's out. But the umpire, you know, sometimes I usually like to ask the umpire, you know, because if they say it was really close, then, you know, you usually challenge it. But she didn't really give me a very confident answer that it was way long, so that's why I challenged it. It was one of those throw-away challenges that, you know, 50 percent of us use.

QUESTIONHave you thought about the Olympics, about playing in them?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Yeah, absolutely.

QUESTION

Do you plan on playing? Because Andy pulled out of it because he thought it was too close to the US Open for him. What are your thoughts about it? And can you excel at both the Open and the Olympics since it's so close together?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:The Olympics comes around only once every four years, and the US Open is there every single year. I don't know if he's played the Olympics before. But, you know, obviously I never have, and it's been a dream of mine ever since I was a little girl. So it's been one of my priorities for a very long time. You know, I'm privileged to be part of so many athletes. You know, I really don't know what to expect, because usually you play the same events every single year. You go from tournament to tournament. I think this will be just completely new and different, and usually you have sort of an idea of what things are going to be like, but I'm really clueless. I'm just -- one of the things I'm really looking forward to is the opening ceremony and walking with all the athletes and, you know, athletes from my country, yeah, in front of thousands of people.

QUESTION

Who there would you like to meet you haven't had the chance to meet before?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:I'd love -- well, I don't know about meeting, but I'd actually love to watch gymnastics or rhythmic gymnastics, because when I was younger I wanted to be a rhythmic gymnast. I don't know if the weeks are the same. What else do I want to watch?

QUESTION

You're intrigued by the ribbon, or which part of rhythmic gymnastics.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Just the art. In Russia, rhythmic gymnastics and figurer skating is an art form, and I was always intrigued by that. I actually did gymnastics for a couple of years when I was younger, about nine or ten. It was part of my fitness regime. But I don't know. I just love, you know, I love ribbons. I used to be like -- in my garage I used to put rollerblades on and that used to be like my figure skates. I used to make a fake ribbon and I'd be rolling around my garage. I'd have my parents pull the car out and have one of those old radios that I'd turn on, one of those really geeky stations, and I'd just be roller blading and waiving the ribbon. I thought I was in the Olympics.

QUESTION

After winning the Australian and you're a contender for a golden slam with the Olympics, have you ever even let yourself think about that yet?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:I'm far away from that. You know, I've only won one Grand Slam this year and I've got many more tournaments -- three more Grand Slams and the Olympics to go. You know, as I said, I want to use these tournaments as good preparation for the Grand Slams, which are obviously the biggest tournaments of the year, and the Olympics including. But you never know what will happen. It will be great if I can, but realistically it's pretty difficult. QUESTIONAre you a fan of Dancing With the Stars?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:No, I actually don't watch it. I don't watch TV very often. Just, I usually -- the only thing I watch usually is the NBA or Sports Center because I hang out with the guys all the time, my team. They're always in sports. So I watch the NBA and hockey a lot.

QUESTION

Do you have any thoughts about them playing an NBA game at this stadium?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Yeah, I heard about that the other day. I think that's awesome, two great teams. That's in October, I think?

QUESTIONYeah.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Where are we in October? Maybe I can join.

QUESTIONSomeone's been getting a lot of mileage about doing imitations of you. Do you think you're going to do imitations of him some day?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Of Novak? QUESTIONYeah.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Absolutely not. I'd hurt my back doing his imitation, honestly. QUESTIONThat many times?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:Yes. I'm a little fragile when it comes to that.

Maria Sharapova 15th Straight Win This Year

Maria Sharapova won her 15th straight match without a loss this year, overpowering French qualifier Stephanie Cohen-Aloro 6-1, 6-0 on Friday night in the wind-blown second round of the Pacific Life Open.The fourth-seeded Sharapova, the 2006 champion, had little trouble with Cohen-Aloro, breaking her serve five times and losing only 24 points in the 58-minute match."You never know what kind of tennis you're going to produce in these conditions, but against an opponent that didn't give me much pace, I think I handled it pretty well," Sharapova said.The Russian star joined second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and defending champion Daniela Hantuchova in the third round.

Pacific Life Open draw released!

The draw for the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells has been released and Maria is the #4 seed and has a bye in the 1st round and will play either Lilia Osterloh of the United States or a qualifier. Maria has played Osterloh twice before and won both matches without dropping a set.The 1st seed Maria can meet is #25 seed Eleni Daniilidou of Greece in the 3rd round. Maria can meet #15 seed Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine in the 4th round. Last year's champion Daniela Hantuchova is Maria's projected opponent in the quarters and Maria is in #2 seed Svetlana Kusnetsova's half. Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic round off the draw in the top half.Indian Wells is a tier 1 event played on hardcourts and is the 1st event of the American hardcourt double with Miami being played in 2 weeks times. Maria's best result was winning here 2 years ago and she reached the 4th round here last year.

Maria Sharapova at US Premiere

Maria Sharapova swapped her sporty tennis gear for a floaty gilry dress for the US premiere of 10,000 BC last night.The tennis champion looked stunning in this sheer two tone chiffon dress that showed off her toned athletic figure perfectly.The nipped in waist created her a great curve and the floaty A-line skit gave her a cute feminine look which is just what a professional sportswomen needs away from the game.Maria kept accesories to a minimum and wore her hair up- an ideal choice for someone who isn't used to all the girly fuss of the red carpet and would much rather be seating it out on the tennis court.