Maria Sharapova Makes it to the Semi Final at AU Open

She has done it!..well you didn’t doubt it did you?

Sharapova has reached the semi-finals of the Australian Open for the third straight year after defeating Anna Chakvetadze, another 19-year-old Russian, 7-6 (5), 7-5.

“Sometimes I feel I don’t know if she knows what she’s doing,” Sharapova said. “She definitely has a lot of variety. If she wants to step in, she has a lot of power behind her strokes. But over all, at the end of the day, it’s just about who took the chances a little more.”

That has been Sharapova’s trademark throughout her career, and it does indeed take preternatural self-confidence to keep taking huge cuts at returns when the results have generally been unsatisfactory.

“She is stronger,” said Chakvetadze, a fast-rising blond Muscovite who, at 19, is the same age as Sharapova. “She’s a great fighter. I think she deserves this win.”

But even Sharapova conceded that she will probably have to raise her level if she is to break through to her first Australian Open final. She has come close the last two years, losing to Serena Williams in the 2005 semifinals despite holding three match points and then losing to Justine Henin-Hardenne last year in the same round in a three-set match.

Sharapova, assured of gaining the No. 1 ranking next month, had trouble on her serve, double-faulting on break point three times. But she had the only point on serve in the tiebreaker, where the last eight points finished on unforced errors.

The US Open champion was broken when serving for the match at 5-3 and wasted a match point with a backhand error in the next game. Sharapova got two more match points in the 12th game and finished it off in 2 hours, 14 minutes when Chakvetadze netted a forehand.

“It was very difficult, I didn’t feel like we had a lot of easy rallies,” Sharapova said. “I felt I had to work on every point.” Sharapova was very inconsistent, smacking clean winners to take one game, then committing glaring mistakes to lose the next. She finished with 32 winners but six double faults and 41 unforced errors and won only three more points than her opponent.

Sharapova, who looks toward her father, Yuri, after almost every point, got a warning for getting coaching from him as she served at 0-30 with the score tied at 2-2 in the second set. She then ran off four straight points to take the game.

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Two Titles In A Row for Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova’s impressive form has continued as she beat Nadia Petrova in straight sets 7-5 6-2 to win the General Ladies Linz. The was the 2nd straight tournament success for Sharapova following on from her win last week in the Zurich Open.

Sharapova added to her victories at the
U.S. Open, Indian Wells, San Diego and Zurich. By reaching the final the 19-year-old will overtake Justine Henin-Hardenne as the world number two when the rankings are announced on Monday.

Top-seeded Sharapova is also in contention, along with the Belgian and Amelie Mauresmo of France, of finishing the season at number one, a position she last held on October 23, 2005.
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Canon PowerShot SD630 -Sharapova’s Fav?

I’m not much of a camera guy, but from most of Sharapova’s Canon advertisement shots i’ve seen, i’ve noticed that she seems to prefer the Canon PowerShot SD630

Thant doesn’t mean that’s the only Canon she likes though..for goodness sake Canon could have given her all their digital camera models!

Anywayz the PowerShot SD630 is quite a nifty camera, it’s a 6-megapixel cameras feature a 3x optical zoom and High ISO Auto and ISO 800 settings.

Here’s some of the major Features:

* 6.0 Megapixel resolution
* 3x optical zoom 35–105mm (35mm equivalent) with UA lens
* DIGIC II, iSAPS and 9-point AiAF for fast, sharp results
* 16 shooting modes
* My Colors in-camera photo effects
* 30fps VGA movie clips with sound
* High ISO Auto and ISO 800 for flash-free indoor shooting
* Widescreen (16:9) still image recording

If your intrested in purchasing this camera please click here to get a comprehensive review from the pros!.