VTennis News - Maria Sharapova NewsMaria Sharapova plans ahead for the Australian Open - Dec-07 With the 2008 tennis season fast approaching Maria Sharapova plans to improve and enhance her tennis game in Singapore and Hong Kong before readying herself for the up and coming Australian Open.The Asian strategy was an attempt to go one better at next month's Australian Open Sharapova explained. Maria current rank of fifth plays an exhibition tennis match today in Singapore against fellow Russian player Anna Chakvetadze before heading to Hong Kong for the star-studded “JB Group Classic”. This tournament includes six of the world's top eleven female tennis players. Chakvetadze will also play here to as well as the world number eight Venus Williams and fourth ranked Ana Ivanovic. Sharapova explained her thoughts of the up and coming matches "... I am going to take every single match seriously because it is like I said, my only preparation for the Australian Open," "It will definitely not be an easy match because this will be my first match coming back after an off season," said Maria. "It's always a match that you anticipate because it's kind of like a challenging one because you don't know what to expect yourself," The Australian Open is the first grand slam of new 2008 tennis season and starts January 14. Maria Sharapova commented that "Well I heard it's going to be a faster surface and I also heard that it's not going to be as sticky which is going to be beneficial for all players especially in extreme heat. The court gets very sticky and a lot of injuries can occur.” VTennis.co.uk looks forward to keeping you up to date with all the best news and images for the top tennis players at the Australian Open. |