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Maria Sharapova Wins In Grasscourt Debut
By Ken Miller, Lawn Tennis Analyst, Posted: Wednesday, June 10, 2009 11:49pm PST USA
Maria Sharapova Wins In Grasscourt Debut, Lawn Tennis Magazine Birmingham--(lawntennis.org) At the Aegon Classic at Birmingham, England, Maria Sharapova of Russia defeated Stephanie Dubois of Canada 6-4, 6-2 in the first round Monday in her first match of the grasscourt season.

Wednesday in round two, Sharapova led Alexa Glatch of the USA 6-3, 5-4 before the match was suspended due to bad weather. Earlier in the day, rain had interrupted

Maria Sharapova of Russia | Image: Getty
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The Russian topped the WTA Tour rankings in August of 2005 after taking her first grand slam title at Wimbledon a year earlier at age 17.

then delayed play.

Should Sharapova advance past Glatch, she would then face either the 7th seeded Francesca Schiavone of Italy or Marlya Koryttseva of the Ukraine in the third round.

In the weekend's semifinal round, Sharapova could meet the 4th seeded Na Li of China. At last month's French Open, Sharapova defeated Li 6-4, 0-6, 6-4 to win her fourth three set Paris match in a row.

However in the following round of play at the French Open, the Russian suffered a physical letdown to lose in the quarterfinals to the 20th seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slokenia 6-0, 6-2.

After skipping several months of WTA Tour competition after shoulder surgery last year, Sharapova returned to singles competition in mid-May ranked 126 and reached the Warsaw quarterfinals.

Then after entering the French Open with a WTA Tour singles ranking of 102, Sharapova's ranking rose to her current ranking of 73.

The Russian topped the WTA Tour rankings in August of 2005 after taking her first grand slam title at Wimbledon a year earlier at age 17.

The 22 year old also won the US Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008.

In 1994 at age seven, Sharapova moved from Europe to Florida with her father to train at the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. In 2005 People magazine named the Russian one of the 50 most beautiful celebrities in the world.

Forbes magazine has listed Sharapova as the highest paid female athlete in the world with yearly earnings of more than 23 million dollars.

Last year at Wimbledon, Sharapova turned in a surprising second round straight sets loss while suffering from the lingering shoulder injury which preceded surgery.

Wimbledon begins June 22nd in London.

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