Maria Sharapova
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Ivanović. On grass, Sharapova was runner-up to Jelena Janković at the DFS Classic. Following that, she experienced her earliest Wimbledon loss since 2003 by losing in the fourth round to eventual champion Venus Williams. Sharapova clinched the US Open Series by defending her title at the Acura Classic, her only championship of the year, and reaching the semi-finals in Los Angeles. In her US Open title defense, Sharapova lost her third round match to 30th seed Agnieszka Radwańska, her earliest exit at a Grand Slam singles tournament since the 2004 US Open where she lost in the same round. Following the US Open loss, Sharapova did not play again until the Kremlin Cup in October, where she lost her opening match to Victoria Azarenka. Shortly after this, she fell out of the top five on the world rankings for the first time since 2004. She qualified for the eight-woman year-ending Sony Ericsson Championships only because Venus Williams withdrew from the tournament. Despite having not previously won a match in two months, Sharapova topped her round-robin group at the tournament after winning all three of her matches, defeating Svetlana Kuznetsova and Ana Ivanović. She then defeated Anna Chakvetadze in the semifinals. In the final, she lost to World No. 1 Henin in a match that lasted 3 hours and 24 minutes. Sharapova was seeded fifth at the Australian Open, but was not considered a favorite. Nevertheless, she defeated former World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the second round, and then World No. 1 Henin in the quarterfinals, ending the latter's 32-match winning streak. She
proceeded to the finals, where she defeated Ana Ivanović to win her third Grand Slam title, having not dropped a set all tournament. After the Australian Open, Sharapova extended her winning streak to 18 matches. This run encompassed two wins in singles rubbers when making her debut for Russia in the Fed Cup against Israel and victory at the Tier I Qatar Total Open. Her winning streak was ended in the semifinals of the Pacific Life Open by Kuznetsova. In April, Sharapova won the Bausch & Lomb Championships, having survived her longest ever match, at 3 hours and 26 minutes long, in the third round against Anabel Medina Garrigues. The following week, at the Family Circle Cup, she lost in the quarterfinals to Serena Williams, her fourth consecutive loss to the American. In May, Sharapova regained the World No. 1 ranking because of Henin's sudden retirement from professional tennis and request to the WTA that her own ranking be removed immediately. As the top-seeded player at the French Open Sharapova was within two points of being knocked out by Evgeniya Rodina in the first round, before eventually winning. As a result of losing to Dinara Safina in the fourth round, she was forced to relinquish her No. 1 ranking. Her dip in form continued at Wimbledon, where she lost in the second round to World No. 154 Alla Kudryavtseva. This was her earliest loss ever at Wimbledon, and at any Grand Slam in almost five years. Sharapova withdrew from the Rogers Cup tournament in August due to a shoulder injury. A MRI scan then revealed that she had been suffering from a rotator cuff tear since April, forcing her out