Sharapova sends Venus out in revenge win

Maria Sharapova rallied to avenge a Wimbledon defeat with a three-set victory over Venus Williams, but she had to wait another day to see if she'll get a similar chance against Serena Williams.
Top-seeded Sharapova beat Venus Williams 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 to reach the fourth round of the 6.9 million-dollar WTA and ATP Masters Series tournament here.

Sharapova, who lost to Venus Williams in their last meeting - in the 2005 Wimbledon semi-finals - emerged with the victory in a hard-fought match yesterday in which the windy conditions contributed to the 50 unforced errors and 12 double faults by Williams and 35 unforced errors and 13 double faults by Sharapova.After going up 2-0 in the opening set Sharapova surrendered the next six games. She responded in kind in the second set to force the decider, which ended when Williams fired long.

Sharapova was next due to face either Australian Open champion Serena Williams or Czech Lucie Safarova.

But the scheduled night match between 13th-seeded Serena and Safarova was postponed until today when rain that has plagued the tournament struck again, leaving Sharapova to wait and see if she'll get a chance to avenge her Australian open finals rout.

Sharapova was joined in the fourth round by second-seeded Belgian Justine Henin, No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova and No. 4 Kim Clijsters of belgium, while fifth-seeded Swiss Martina Hingis exited in the third round for the second straight year.

Williams sisters and Sharapova might meet early at Sony Open
Maria Sharapova will be the topseed after all as the organizers of the Sony Ericsson Open decided to use the rankings before Indian Wells. Yet last year they used the ones after the Pacific Life Open.

Maria Sharapova and The Williams sisters are all packed into the same explosive eighth of the draw announced Monday.
That means three of the biggest names in women's tennis are on a collision course by the fourth round.

The young Russian who is going to turn 20 on April 19th has a first round bye and then will either meet Chan, Yung-Jan from Taipei or Llagostera Vives, Nuria from Spain for a berth in the 3rd round. She has never played Chan before, but leads the H2H against Llagostera Vives 2-0.

Sharapova struggles to 2nd-round victory

Top-ranked Maria Sharapova opened her title defense in the Pacific Life Open with a 7-6 (5), 6-4 victory over Michaella Krajicek on Friday night in a second-round match at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Sharapova, who had a first-round bye, had not played a match since straining her left hamstring in Tokyo in early February. The effects of the layoff were obvious in her 1-hour, 44-minute struggle against Krajicek, the 18-year-old sister of former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek.

Sharapova had 10 double-faults and 50 unforced errors and lost service four times. She finally secured the win on her fourth match point when Krajicek's backhand from the baseline hit the top of the net and fell on her side of the court.

Sharapova, the 15th player to be No. 1 on the WTA Tour, improved to 9-2 on the year and will face Nathalie Dechy of France in the third round.

Deal or No Deal

Ever thought of walking onto a television stage set and walking away with a cool million? With this game you are only one briefcase away from doing just that. Hosted by Howie Mandel and with 26 beautiful models the show which premiered on December 19, 2005 will now begin showing on Wednesdays this season.

The harrowing ride begins for contestants when they choose a briefcase and then have to select six to be opened. Each of the 26 briefcases hold amounts from $.01 to $1,000,000. The hope of the contestant is that they have the one case that holds the million dollars. As the contestant begins to open cases, they pray that those which are opened are on the left side of the board so that when the banker comes back with a buyout bid amount it will be high. Once the larger amounts start to be removed from the board the banker plays the odds and works out the percentage chance that the contestant holds a case with a high dollar value in it.

Once the first six cases have been opened the banker plugs some numbers into his computer and decides on a buyout bid, calling Howie to inform him. While the contestant waits and wrings their hands or stomps their feet, Howie draws the moment out. Once he gives them the offer he opens a clear box on the table in front of the them where a big red button awaits their decision and asks the contestant: "Deal or No Deal?"

It would be unusual for someone to make a deal this early in the game so on to the next round. The contestant closes the box and says "No Deal" and now must open 5 more cases. This continues on until the contestant is opening one case at a time and waiting for the bankers buyout bid with every case opened. Some contestants do become very practical and figure that the offer is more than they would make in several years working so they finally hit the button and say "Deal".

In Episode 24 more than one deal was struck. Due to the contestants profession both Howie and The Banker put on clown noses. During the show and all the excitement that went with it, the contestant took a moment to ask his girlfriend to marry him. Howie then posed the question "Deal or No Deal" to her to which she replied, "Deal". At the end of the hour the contestant finally took a deal for $301,000. Good thing since his chosen case, number 11, only held $25. This is just one of the many everyday average people who have walked away from the show with a great deal.

Deal or No Deal has made an instant impact on the country and keeps us glued to the TV to see whether the right case was chosen or the contestant can make a better deal. NBC seems to have a hit with this suspenseful show, and it constantly rates in the top ten shows each week.

Sharapova Named UN Goodwill Ambassador

The United Nations development aid agency has appointed tennis star Maria Sharapova as a goodwill ambassador. From U.N. headquarters, VOA's Peter Heinlein reports Ms. Sharapova made a cash donation to help with Chernobyl recovery projects.

Maria Sharapova has come a long way in her 19 years. Now she wants to go back to her roots.

The world's top-ranked women's tennis player signed a letter Wednesday committing herself to promoting United Nations aid programs as a celebrity goodwill ambassador.

The teenage tennis sensation has lived in the United States for most of her life. But she was born in Soviet Siberia in 1987, and remains a Russian citizen. Her parents had moved to Siberia to escape the fallout from the Chernobyl nuclear accident a year earlier, near their home in what is now Belarus. Her grandmother still lives in the Belarus town of Gomel, just across the Ukrainian border from Chernobyl.

She said one of her reasons for wanting to become a goodwill ambassador is her concern for the forgotten victims of Chernobyl.

"I was born in Siberia and I moved from Siberia when I was two years old because of Chernobyl, because both of my parents thought for my safety and the radiation that it was not right for me to live there," she said. "So that's why it means so much to me to be part of project because I was part of it as well."

Sharapova handed a check for $100,000 to U.N. Development Program official Ad Melkert. She says the money will be used to help residents in and around Chernobyl.

"This money is going to go toward computer centers in the affected areas of Chernobyl," she said. "They're going to go to sports centers, family hospitals. Places like that."

The UNDP's Melkert said Sharapova's presence will help to shine a spotlight on efforts to help the world poorest.

"We struggle with the knowledge that one billion people don't even have access to a glass of drinkable water, and two billion people do not have access to electricity, and therefore we must work with the private sector, with foundations, with individuals," she said.

Like any teenager, Sharapova giggled when she was introduced to a packed news conference as the U.N.'s newest celebrity goodwill ambassador. Her first reaction was an expression of wonder at her surroundings.

"This is my first time here to this headquarters, and I just got to see all the different settings you see on TV, so it's pretty cool to sit in a chair and feel official for a little bit," she said.

As a UNDP goodwill ambassador, Sharapova joins several other celebrity envoys. Others include Norway's Crown Prince Haakon Magnus, Japanese actress Misako Konno, along with three soccer stars, Ronaldo of Brazil, Zinedine Zidane of France, and Didier Drogba of Ivory Coast.

For her services, the world's highest paid female athlete will earn a salary of $1 a year.