Sharapova started the year at the Australian Open, where she
defeated fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the second
Grand Slam semifinal of her career.
Sharapova held match points in the third set of her
semifinal match, before losing to eventual champion Serena
Williams.
In February, Sharapova won back-to-back tournaments, the
Toray Pan Pacific Open and the Qatar Total Open, allowing
her to reach the top 3 in the world rankings for the first
time. In the semifinals of the Tier I Pacific Life Open,
Sharapova was defeated by Lindsay Davenport, the first time
she had failed to win a game in a match.
The following fortnight, she defeated former world no. 1
players Justine Henin and Venus Williams to reach the final
at the Tier I NASDAQ-100 Open, where she lost to Kim
Clijsters.
Sharapova made the semifinals of a clay-court tournament for
the first time at the Italian Open, where she lost to Patty
Schnyder. Sharapova would have become world no. 1 for the
first time had she won the tournament.
Sharapova then reached the quarterfinals of the French Open
for the second consecutive year, before losing to eventual
champion Henin.
On grass, Sharapova won her third title of the year when she
successfully defended her title at the DFS Classic,
defeating Jelena Jankovic in the final. As the defending
champion at Wimbledon, Sharapova reached the semifinals
without dropping a set and losing a service game just once,
extending her winning streak on grass to 24 matches.
However, she was then beaten by eventual champion Venus
Williams.
A back injury sustained by world no. 1 Davenport at
Wimbledon prevented her from playing tournaments during the
summer hard-court season, which meant she could not earn new
ranking points to replace those that were expiring from the
previous year. Sharapova, although also injured for much of
this time, had far fewer points to defend, and so she became
the first Russian woman to hold the world no. 1 ranking on
August 22, 2005.
Her reign lasted only one week, however, as Davenport
reclaimed the top ranking after winning the Pilot Pen Tennis
tournament.
As the top seed at the US Open, Sharapova lost in the
semifinals to Kim Clijsters, meaning she had lost to the
eventual champion in every Grand Slam of the season.
However, she once again leapfrogged Davenport to take the
world no. 1 ranking on September 12, 2005.
She retained it for six weeks, but after playing few
tournaments while injured, she again relinquished the
ranking to Davenport. To conclude the year, Sharapova failed
to defend her title at the year-end Sony Ericsson
Championships in Los Angeles, defeating Davenport in one of
her round-robin matches, but ultimately losing in the
semifinals to eventual champion Amélie Mauresmo.
Sony Ericsson Kickoff Party, Miami - Maria Sharapova Photoshoot
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Biography
Maria Sharapova born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player. As of February 25, 2013 she is ranked world no. 3.
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