Beautiful Russian Lady Tennis Star Prepared to Defend Title

Russian tennis player Maria Sharapova is on route to defending her title at the Pacific Life Open and her number one ranking despite suffering a hamstring injury more than 4 weeks ago. She was forced to sit out in the second set of her Pan Pacific Open semifinal match against Serbian Ana Ivanovic last month because of the injury.

After an initial slow recovery, she says the injury got better and she was able to fully train for 10-12 days prior to this competition. She initially experienced some problems with a tight hamstring against Serena Williams in the Australian Open but is certain that the serious damage occured in Tokyo when she landed awkwardly after a serve.

Sharapova has a bye into the second round and defeated Michaella Krajicek 7-6 (5), 6-4 to move on to the next round. She continued her successful defense of her title by beating Nathalie Dechy of France 7-5, 6-2.

Maria’s next match is the fourth round against fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva. If she wins that match she will face a difficult test against up and coming Serbian, Jelena Jankovic.

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