MARIA Sharapova will take over as world No1 next week after Justine Henin asked to be removed from the rankings following her retirement, the WTA said yesterday.
Henin stunned the sporting world when she announced her retirement with immediate effect on Wednesday, becoming the first woman to quit tennis while ranked number one. The Belgian holds a commanding 1,709-point lead over Australian Open champion
Sharapova in this week's rankings.
Despite retiring, the 25-year-old would have held on to the top spot for several more weeks had she not wanted her name omitted from the list. The WTA, the governing body of women's tennis, said Henin was currently in her 117th non-consecutive week in the top spot.
Meanwhile, Sharapova battled past Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki to move into the Italian Open quarter-finals with a 6-4, 7-6 win yesterday.
American fifth seed Serena Williams tamed lively Italian wildcard Sara Errani 6-4, 6-3 to join Sharapova in the last eight, while title holder Jelena Jankovic strolled past Russia's Maria Kirilenko 6-1, 6-1.
Sharapova found herself in another fight having scraped past Slovak Dominika Cibulkova in three sets on Wednesday.
The Australian Open champion gained an early edge, breaking in the third game. The Dane hit back in the middle of the first set but Sharapova soon regained the advantage and served out with some big forehands.
The Russian then produced a remarkable recovery in the second set, winning five consecutive games to haul herself back from 5-1 down. She failed to hold when serving for the match but edged home in the tiebreak.
Williams twice came back from a break down in the first set before taking Errani's serve in the final game with the help of two big smashes and a net-cord winner. Italy's last hope in the tournament also proved a worthy opponent in the second set, when former world No 1 Williams again recovered to clinch the match.
Serbian fourth seed Jankovic played assured tennis, mixing her strokes well, but Kirilenko made some careless errors and at one stage blasted a ball into the stands in frustration.
"I was very focused from the beginning. I played quite aggressively and I'm very pleased with the performance," the Serb said, adding she was battling an illness. "I've been sick for a week and I've been struggling a little. I have problems breathing. I'm still on antibiotics."
Sharapova will play Patty Schnyder in the quarter-finals after the Swiss ninth seed clinched a fine tussle with eighth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 4-6, 6-4, 7-6.
Bulgarian qualifier Tsvetana Pironkova, who stunned Serbian top seed Ana Ivanovic on Wednesday, also progressed after Belarussian Victoria Azarenka retired with a knee injury in their third round match when the former was 6-2, 1-0 up.
Serena's sister Venus Williams, seeded seven, takes on Russian 10th seed Vera Zvonareva in the late match with the winner facing Jankovic in the last eight.
Roger Federer continued his trouble-free progress at the Hamburg Masters with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Robin Soderling but Nikolay Davydenko and David Ferrer both fell to unseeded players yesterday.
World No 1 Federer, who beat Rafael Nadal to win the title for the fourth time last year, was barely made to sweat by the unseeded Swede Soderling as he reached the quarter-finals at the £3.5 million claycourt tournament.
Fifth seed David Ferrer lost 7-6, 6-2 against his Spanish Davis Cup teammate Fernando Verdasco before the fourth seeded Russian Davydenko fell 7-5, 6-3 to Germany's Nicolas Kiefer in a match that brought the Hamburg crowd to their feet.
In the circumstances, third seeded Serb Novak Djokovic could be well satisfied at coming through a bruising match with the Croatian Ivo Karlovic 7-6, 6-3.
Djokovic, who is fast making up ground on Federer and Nadal, wasted an early break in the first set against the powerful Karlovic and almost paid the price.
The Croat moved a mini-break ahead in the tiebreak but his failure to put away a smash handed it back and Djokovic got the decisive edge with an unplayable return to feet on the next point.
The second set was easier for the Serb, who looks in great shape after winning in Rome last week and can look forward to a quarter-final against Spain's Albert Montanes.
The full article contains 748 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
