2008 Maria Sharapova tennis season

2008 Maria Sharapova tennis season
	Maria Sharapova won her first clay court title at Amelia Island
Full name	Maria Sharapova
Country	Russia
Singles
Season record	32–4
Calendar titles	3
Year-end ranking	No. 9
Ranking change from previous year	4
Grand Slam & significant results
Australian Open	W
French Open	4R
Wimbledon	2R
US Open	DNP
Olympic Games	DNP
Injuries
Injuries	Shoulder surgery (October 2008)
	Last updated on: 3 February 2013.

Results and statistics from Maria Sharapova's 2008 tennis season.

Yearly summary[edit]

Australian Open series[edit]

Sharapova began her season at the Australian Open, as the 5th seed. She won the tournament without dropping a set (or playing a tie-break set), as she gained redemption following the previous year's heavy defeat in the final to Serena Williams. En route, she defeated Lindsay Davenport in the second round, served three bagels (one each to Elena Vesnina, Elena Dementieva and World No. 1 Justine Henin, whom she defeated very impressively in the quarter-finals)^[2] and defeated Jelena Janković (who had defeated the defending champion Williams in the quarter-finals) in the semi-finals, before facing Serbian Ana Ivanovic in the final. In a match dubbed as the "Glam Slam final",^[3] Sharapova upset the highly fancied Serb in straight sets to claim her first Australian Open title, and third Major title.^[4]

Middle East series[edit]

After playing two Fed Cup rubbers for Russia to kick off February, Sharapova then competed at the Qatar Ladies Open. She defeated Galina Voskoboeva, Tamarine Tanasugarn, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwańska (who had benefited from the withdrawal of top seed Ana Ivanovic in the third round)^[5]^[6] before facing (and defeating in three sets) Vera Zvonareva in the final.^[7]

Sharapova then withdrew from Dubai due to a viral infection.^[8]

Indian Wells & Miami[edit]

Sharapova reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells for the third time in four years, but was defeated there by compatriot and eventual runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova, bringing an end to her 18-match winning streak to start the season.^[9] Following Indian Wells, Sharapova withdrew from Miami, citing a recurring shoulder injury.^[10]

Clay court season[edit]

American clay court season[edit]

After withdrawing from Miami, Sharapova won her first career clay court title in Amelia Island, defeating Dominika Cibulková in the final.^[11] At Charleston, she lost to eventual champion Serena Williams in the quarter-finals.^[12]

European clay court season[edit]

After deciding to skip the 2008 Qatar Telecom German Open, Sharapova next played at the Internazionali BNL d'Italia, reaching the semi-finals before being forced to withdraw from her match against eventual champion Jelena Janković due to a calf injury.^[13]

Following Justine Henin's surprise retirement during the same week as the Rome event,^[14] Sharapova was elevated to World No. 1 in the rankings. Subsequently, she was named as the top seed at the French Open, which she needed to win to complete a Career Grand Slam (and thus protect her top ranking). After surviving a close final set against compatriot Evgeniya Rodina in the first round,^[15] and another three-setter against Bethanie Mattek in the second, Sharapova fell in the fourth round in three sets to eventual finalist Dinara Safina, having held several match points in the second set.^[16] As a result, she lost her World No. 1 ranking, after just three weeks, to Ana Ivanovic, who went on to win the tournament.^[17]

Wimbledon[edit]

Sharapova's 2008 Wimbledon campaign turned out to be short-lived, as she was defeated in the second round by Alla Kudryavtseva, in the process suffering her earliest ever defeat at Wimbledon, and her earliest defeat at a Major tournament since the 2003 US Open.^[18]

US Open series and shoulder injury[edit]

Sharapova next played at the 2008 Rogers Cup, however she had to withdraw following her second round win against Marta Domachowska due to a recurring shoulder injury, which ended up being serious enough to necessitate surgery.^[19] As a result, Sharapova was forced to withdraw from her remaining tournaments for the year, including the Olympic tennis tournament in Beijing, the US Open (thus missing her first Major tournament since her debut in 2003) and the year-end championships.^[20] Her withdrawals from those events eventually led to her finishing the year ranked World No. 9, her lowest year-end singles ranking since 2003.

All matches[edit]

This table chronicles all the matches of Sharapova in 2008, including walkovers (W/O) which the WTA does not count as wins. They are marked ND for non-decision or no decision.

**Key**
W	F	SF	QF	#R	RR	Q#	P#	DNQ	A	Z#	PO	G	S	B	NMS	NTI	P	NH

(W) winner; (F) finalist; (SF) semifinalist; (QF) quarterfinalist; (#R) rounds 4, 3, 2, 1; (RR) round-robin stage; (Q#) qualification round; (P#) preliminary round; (DNQ) did not qualify; (A) absent; (Z#) Davis/Fed Cup Zonal Group (with number indication) or (PO) play-off; (G) gold, (S) silver or (B) bronze Olympic/Paralympic medal; (NMS) not a Masters tournament; (NTI) not a Tier I tournament; (P) postponed; (NH) not held; (SR) strike rate (events won / competed); (W–L) win–loss record.

To avoid confusion and double counting, these charts are updated at the conclusion of a tournament or when the player's participation has ended.

Singles matches[edit]

Tournament	#	Round	Opponent	Result	Score
Australian Open Melbourne, Australia Grand Slam Hard, outdoor 14–27 January 2008
	1	1R	Jelena Kostanić Tošić	Win	6–4, 6–3
	2	2R	Lindsay Davenport	Win	6–1, 6–3
	3	3R	Elena Vesnina	Win	6–3, 6–0
	4	4R	Elena Dementieva	Win	6–2, 6–0
	5	QF	Justine Henin	Win	6–4, 6–0
	6	SF	Jelena Janković	Win	6–3, 6–1
	7	W	Ana Ivanovic	Win (1)	7–5, 6–3
Fed Cup WG 1st Round Ramat HaSharon, Israel Hard, indoor 2–3 February 2008	8	1R R2	Tzipora Obziler	Win	6–0, 6–4
	9	1R R3	Shahar Pe'er	Win	6–1, 6–1
Qatar Ladies Open Doha, Qatar Tier I Hard, outdoor 18–24 February 2008
		1R	Bye
	10	2R	Galina Voskoboeva	Win	6–4, 4–6, 6–1
	11	3R	Tamarine Tanasugarn	Win	6–2, 6–2
	12	QF	Caroline Wozniacki	Win	6–0, 6–1
	13	SF	Agnieszka Radwańska	Win	6–4, 6–3
	14	W	Vera Zvonareva	Win (2)	6–1, 2–6, 6–0
Pacific Life Open Indian Wells, United States of America Tier I Hard, outdoor 9 March–23 April 2008
		1R	Bye
	15	2R	Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro	Win	6–1, 6–0
	16	3R	Eleni Daniilidou	Win	7–5, 6–3
	17	4R	Alona Bondarenko	Win	6–2, 5–7, 6–4
	18	QF	Daniela Hantuchová	Win	7–6^(7–2), 6–1
	19	SF	Svetlana Kuznetsova	Loss	3–6, 7–5, 2–6
Bausch and Lomb Championships Amelia Island, United States of America Tier II Clay, outdoor 7–13 April 2008
		1R	Bye
	20	2R	Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová	Win	6–1, 6–3
	21	3R	Anabel Medina Garrigues	Win	7–6^(7–3), 5–7, 7–6^(7–1)
	22	QF	Alona Bondarenko	Win	6–7^(9–11), 6–3, 6–2
		SF	Lindsay Davenport	Walkover	N/A
	23	W	Dominika Cibulková	Win (3)	7–6^(9–7), 6–3
Family Circle Cup Charleston, United States of America Tier I Clay, outdoor 14–20 April 2008
		1R	Bye
	24	2R	Bethanie Mattek	Win	6–0, 6–0
	25	3R	Tatiana Perebiynis	Win	7–5, 6–2
	26	QF	Serena Williams	Loss	5–7, 6–4, 1–6
Internazionali BNL d'Italia Rome, Italy Tier I Clay, outdoor 12–18 May 2008
		1R	Bye
	27	2R	Dominika Cibulková	Win	6–2, 3–6, 6–4
	28	3R	Caroline Wozniacki	Win	6–4, 7–6^(7–3)
	29	QF	Patty Schnyder	Win	6–7^(3–7), 7–5, 6–2
		SF	Jelena Janković	Withdrew	N/A
French Open Paris, France Grand Slam Clay, outdoor 25 May–8 June 2008
	30	1R	Evgeniya Rodina	Win	6–1, 3–6, 8–6
	31	2R	Bethanie Mattek	Win	6–2, 3–6, 6–2
	32	3R	Karin Knapp	Win	7–6^(7–4), 6–0
	33	4R	Dinara Safina	Loss	7–6^(8–6), 6–7^(5–7), 2–6
The Championships, Wimbledon London, Great Britain Grand Slam Grass, outdoor 23 June–6 July 2008
	34	1R	Stéphanie Foretz	Win	6–1, 6–4
	35	2R	Alla Kudryavtseva	Loss	2–6, 4–6
Rogers Cup Montreal, Canada Tier I Hard, outdoor 26 July–3 August 2008
		1R	Bye
	36	2R	Marta Domachowska	Win	7–5, 5–7, 6–2
		3R	Ai Sugiyama	Withdrew	N/A

Tournament schedule[edit]

Singles Schedule[edit]

Date	Championship	Location	Category	Surface	Prev. result	New result	Outcome
14 January 2008– 27 January 2008	Australian Open	Melbourne (AUS)	Grand Slam tournament	Hard	F	W	Won in the final against Ana Ivanovic
18 February 2008– 24 February 2008	Qatar Ladies Open	Doha (QAT)	Tier I	Hard		W	Won in the final against Vera Zvonareva
9 March 2008– 23 March 2008	Pacific Life Open	Indian Wells (USA)	Tier I	Hard	4R	SF	Lost in the semi-finals against Svetlana Kuznetsova
7 April 2008– 13 April 2008	Bausch and Lomb Championships	Amelia Island (USA)	Tier II	Clay	DNP	W	Won in the final against Dominika Cibulková
14 April 2008– 20 April 2008	Family Circle Cup	Charleston (USA)	Tier I	Clay	DNP	QF	Lost in the quarter-finals against Serena Williams
12 May 2008– 18 May 2008	Internazionali BNL d'Italia	Rome (ITA)	Tier I	Clay		SF	Withdrew before semi-final (against Jelena Janković)
26 May 2008– 8 June 2008	French Open	Paris (FRA)	Grand Slam	Clay	SF	4R	Lost in the fourth round against Dinara Safina
23 June 2008 6 July 2008	The Championships, Wimbledon	London (GBR)	Grand Slam	Grass	4R	2R	Lost in the second round against Alla Kudryavtseva
26 July 2008– 3 August 2008	Rogers Cup	Montreal (CAN)	Tier I	Hard	DNP	3R	Withdrew before third round match (against Ai Sugiyama)

Yearly Records[edit]

Head-to-head matchups[edit]

Ordered by percentage, number of victories to number of losses, then in alphabetical order

Finals[edit]

Singles: 3 (3–0)[edit]

Category
Grand Slam (1–0)
WTA Tier I (1–0)
WTA Tier II (1–0)

Titles by surface
Hard (2–0)
Clay (1–0)

Titles by conditions
Outdoors (3–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	17.	January 26, 2008	Melbourne, Australia (1)	Hard	Ana Ivanovic	7–5, 6–3
Winner	18.	February 24, 2008	Doha, Qatar (2)	Hard	Vera Zvonareva	6–1, 2–6, 6–0
Winner	19.	April 13, 2008	Amelia Island, USA (1)	Clay	Dominika Cibulková	7–6^(9–7), 6–3

References[edit]

External links[edit]

[1] THE LOW DOWN: Shrieka reveals surgery on shoulder, questionable for Aussie Open defense - Maria Sharapova - Zimbio

[2] "Brilliant Sharapova hammers Henin". BBC Sport. 22 January 2008.

[3] Sharapova to put Ivanovic to test in glam slam final | Sport | The Guardian

[4] Sharapova's comeback continues with Australian Open title - The New York Times

[5] Sharapova to play Zvonareva in Qatar - smh.com.au

[6] Ivanovic strains ankle ligaments, out of Qatar Open – Tennis – ESPN. Sports.espn.go.com (21 February 2008). Retrieved on 10 March 2013.

[7] "Maria Sharapova wins Qatar Open | Tennis - News | NDTVSports.com". Archived from the original on 2016-03-03. Retrieved 2013-04-30.

[8] Sharapova withdraws from Dubai Championships - Tennis - ESPN

[9] BBC Sport | Tennis | Sharapova run ended by Kuznetsova

[10] BBC Sport | Tennis | Injured Sharapova to miss Miami

[11] Sharapova beats Cibulkova at Amelia Island, wins 1st clay-court title - USATODAY.com

[12] Once again, Serena defeats Sharapova - Los Angeles Times

[13] Maria Sharapova withdraws, Jelena Jankovic to meet Alize Cornet in Rome final | Internazionali BNL d'Italia

[14] Justine Henin announces retirement from tennis | Sport | guardian.co.uk

[15] Sharapova nearly blows first match - Tennis - Sport - theage.com.au

[16] Sharapova banished as Federer advances - Tennis - Sport - theage.com.au

[17] Sharapova to lose No.1 rank - Tennis - Sport - theage.com.au

[18] BBC Sport | Fun and Games | Quotes of week

[19] Tennis: Sharapova wins then withdraws from Rogers Cup | The Honolulu Advertiser | Hawaii's Newspaper

[20] Sharapova withdraws from U.S. Open | Toronto Star

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