Maria’s Madrid hopes run high

The Russian aims for the best as the top girls limp into the season-endern

MADRID: Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin-Hardenne aim to depose Amelie Mauresmo as world number one at the WTA Championships but reaching the end of the season in one piece is also high on their wish lists. 

Mauresmo, nursing an injured shoulder, was forced to pull out of her last tournament in Zurich and hasn’t played since. French Open champion Henin-Hardenne hasn’t been seen with a racquet in her hand since the US Open.

All of which led Sharapova, the world number two and US Open winner, to back calls for wide-ranging changes to the calendar in the hope of preserving players’ limbs as well as the integrity of the sport. 

“I feel strongly that the tennis season needs to be made shorter, with more breaks for players to rest in order to be in peak condition when we do play,” said Sharapova, who fell to the curse herself in Moscow last month when a hip injury forced her to withdraw.

A WTA Tour report has shown that top 10 player withdrawals from the high-profile tournaments has increased by 72 percent in the last five years. Despite the gloom, French star Mauresmo, with the Australian Open and Wimbledon titles under her belt, believes her enforced rest since Zurich could work to her advantage.

“I’m feeling better. I picked up my racket again last Monday and started serving and everything was OK,” she said. “I haven’t played since Zurich so obviously I would like to have had more matches but I’ll take it as it comes. I might be fresher than the other girls and that might give me an edge at some point.”

The eight-woman field, who begin the tournament on Tuesday, is made up of Mauresmo, 2004 champion Sharapova, Henin-Hardenne as well as 2002 and 2003 winner Kim Clijsters, Martina Hingis, Elena Dementieva, Nadia Petrova and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Mauresmo is the defending champion having beaten compatriot Mary Pierce in Los Angeles.

“Winning in Los Angeles was very important to me. I finally proved to myself that I could win the big ones,” Mauresmo said. “I just suddenly had a click and said to myself I had to do this.” Five-time Grand Slam winner Hingis, who first played the event in 1996, has qualified for the end-of-season tournament for the eighth time in her career but first since leaving the Tour in 2002 due to foot and ankle injuries.

“I’m really excited to have qualified for the championships in my first year back on Tour,” said Hingis, the champion in 1998 and 2000. “It was one of the key targets I set for myself this year.” After having the best season of her career in 2005, Clijsters has had to contend with another injury to her left wrist sustained in Montreal two months ago, which kept her off the Tour until the tournament in Hasselt last week.

“It’s really satisfying to qualify for championships, despite not being fully fit this season,” said Clijsters whose injury history has already prompted her to announce her retirement from the sport at the end of next year.