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Sharapova takes top spot in WTA

Maria Sharapova answers questions during a promotional event on Monday to unveil her tennis outfit for the US Open. Sharapova replaced Lindsay Davenport as the No. 1-ranked female tennis player. PHOTO: REUTERS

Maria Sharapova became the world's No. 1-ranked female tennis player on Monday for the first time.

Also the first Russian to ascend to the top, Sharapova became the 15th No. 1 in the 20-year history of the WTA Tour rankings.

The 18-year-old replaced Lindsay Davenport, who had been No. 1 since October, and 82 weeks overall.

"I know there is a lot of responsibility that comes along with being No. 1," Sharapova said. "And I want to represent women's tennis with the same class and style as the other great players, like Steffi Graf, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Monica Seles, Lindsay and the others."

Sharapova has not played since Aug. 11 at Los Angeles, where she won her third-round match to reach the quarterfinals, but had to withdraw with a strained chest muscle. The same injury forced her to pull out of last week's Rogers Cup in Toronto, and she was not playing on the tour this week.

Sharapova won at Wimbledon last year and has nine other titles, including three this year in Tokyo, Doha and Birmingham. Her season record is 43-7.

Meghann Shaughnessy of the US returns a shot to Nathalie Dechy of France during the Pilot Pen tennis tournament on Monday at the Connecticut Tennis Center at Yale in New Haven, Connecticut. PHOTO: AFP

Davenport, 38-7 for the year, strained her lower back during the Wimbledon final, and the injury limited her comeback later in July to the first set of her opening match at Stanford, California.

Unable to defend her titles at Cincinnati, Stanford, San Diego and Los Angeles, Davenport's computer ranking points finally fell below Sharapova's on Monday. Sharapova has 4,452 points, and Davenport 4,300.

But Davenport can end Sharapova's reign as No. 1 this week if she reaches the final in New Haven, Connecticut, where she has taken a wild card into the Pilot Pen tournament for some matches before the US Open next week.

"I know there is a lot of responsibility that comes along with being No. 1. And I want to represent women's tennis with the same class and style as the other great players."

Maria Sharapova

Sharapova is one of four Russians in the top 10. France's Amelie Mauresmo, a semifinalist in Toronto, remained No. 3 and Belgium's Kim Clijsters jumped four spots to No. 4 after winning the Rogers Cup.

Svetlana Kuznetsova is No. 5, followed by Elena Dementieva, Justine Henin-Hardenne, Serena Williams, Nadia Petrova and Venus Williams.

Pilot Pen Tournament

Meghann Shaughnessy beat Nathalie Dechy for the first time in their 10 meetings, upsetting last year's finalist and this year's ninth-seeded player in the Pilot Pen tournament on Monday night.

The unseeded Shaughnessy advanced to the second round with a 7-6 (3), 2-6, 6-4 victory in the event missing most top players, who are preparing for the US Open.

"She's been the biggest nightmare for me," Shaughnessy said. "I've lost to her more than any other player on the tour by far."

But they hadn't played each other in two years, and Shaughnessy "served really well today and mixed her game pretty well," Dechy said.

The third set was tied 3-3 after each player broke the other's serve twice. Dechy took the next game, but Shaughnessy tied it by holding her serve without allowing a point.

Dechy then went up 15-0 but lost the game when she hit a forehand into the net, allowing Shaughnessy to serve for the match. She did that decisively with an ace that made it 40-15 and a hard serve that Dechy returned into the net.

"My serve is probably the strongest part of my game," Shaughnessy said. "I was liking my chances after I got that last break."

In last year's tournament, Dechy lost the final to Elena Bovina, while Shaughnessy was part of the championship doubles team with Nadia Petrova.

In another upset on Monday in the US$600,000 women's competition, unseeded Anna Chakvetadze beat 10th-seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

"I don't have confidence so I'm not playing my best," said Jankovic, ranked 18th in the world. "I have a new coach now and he's changing little things in my game. So all the shots feel so insecure at the moment."

Jankovic had reached the third round of each of her four previous tournaments before taking on Roman Savochkin as coach. Since then, she's worked to improve her serve and fitness, but lost both her first-round matches.

Before working with Savochkin, she didn't have a formal coach on the tour. Now she's not sure if she'll stick with him.

"I don't know," she said. "I will see because now I'm not playing so good."

Jankovic led the third set 2-1, then lost the remaining five games. She dropped the fourth game without getting a point, and the long fifth game reached deuce seven times before Chakvetadze broke her serve.

Jankovic then managed just three points in the last three games and was hurt by three double faults on her last 13 service points.

For the first time in the Pilot Pen's eight years, it also is holding an ATP event for men with total prize money of US$585,000. Three of the world's top 20 ranked players are entered, led by No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko.

There also was an upset on the men's side when 18-year-old Scoville Jenkins of Atlanta, ranked 372nd in the world, won his first ATP match in three tries. He beat Jarkko Nieminen, ranked 55th, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4.

"I was pretty nervous in the first set," said Jenkins, whose first ATP match was against Andy Roddick in last year's US Open. "I was excited [to win] but I know that this is only the first round."

His next opponent is fourth-seeded Tommy Robredo.

On the women's side, the top two seeded players are Lindsay Davenport, who slipped to second in the world rankings on Monday behind Maria Sharapova, and Amelie Mauresmo, ranked third.
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