Maria Sharapova isn’t considering the number one rank challenge at Istanbul – Tennis News
World number two, Maria Sharapova, enjoyed a little spell of holding the top ranked spot in the world after her conquest at the Roland Garros French Open in Paris. She was absolutely thrilled to recapture the best possible rank in the world but her dismal run in the following Grand Slam tournament, Wimbledon Championships, forced her to surrender the number one spot to someone more deserving, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Despite such an agonizing year that featured four losses and just one triumph for Sharapova against Azarenka, the 25-year-old Russian is all pumped up to prove her worth again at the year-end finale in Istanbul. She is willing to play her natural game and doesn’t want to surround herself by the hype of grabbing the number one spot at the moment.
Talking about the possible number one spot in the range at Istanbul, Sharapova said, “I think it also has to do with how some of the other players do - I don't like to think about what I can't control in my destiny, what's not in my hands.”
However, she confessed that reclaiming the number one spot will add the pleasure to the upcoming holidays. She stated, “It would be a great achievement, no doubt, but the more matches I win here the better chance I have of accomplishing it, so that's my biggest priority this week.”
Last year, the Russian blonde lost two of her round rubber matches and withdrew from the contest due to an ankle injury. Stating about that, Sharapova added, “Unfortunately last year I was a bit injured and wasn't able to play 100 percent, so it's nice coming in this year knowing I'm ready. The energy from the crowd last year was spectacular. I'm really looking forward to experiencing that again.”
She has been handed a relatively easier round rubber contest with both the dangerous athletes drawn in the other group. Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova and Sara Errani are the competitors of Sharapova in the White Group whereas Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams are tied together in the Red Group that also features Angelique Kerber and Li Na.
Sharapova should qualify for the semi-final of the contest at least considering the difficulty level of her competitors.
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