Yesterday we had unofficial information that Maria Sharapova won’t return from her injury at Indian Wells, but the latest news at TennisReporters.net is that she will play the BNP Paribas Open, but only the doubles competition.

Sharapova, who hasn’t played doubles since mid-2005, will team up with Elena Vesnina for the first time, but is expected to return to singles at the following event in Miami at the end of month.

The 21-year-old’s surgically repaired right shoulder still gets fatigued after three consecutive days of two out of three set matches and her doctors aren’t convinced that it’s a good idea to push it in singles during the next two weeks.

Sharapova has won three doubles titles in her career: 2004 Birmingham with Maria Kirilenko, and 2003 titles in Tokyo and Luxembourg with Tamarine Tanasugarn. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

Maria Sharapova’s skipping of tournaments is continuing. According to the Siberian Siren blog and their insider information, Sharapova will miss the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells. Not a big surprise, I have to say.

Seeing Sharapova practicing at the Nick Bollettieri’s Tennis Academy gave us hope that she would make her long-anticipated return at Indian Wells. However, the Russian is apparently not ready for high-level competition yet and is waiting to be absolutely fit.

Sharapova has slipped to No. 23 in the rankings, not having  competed since July 2008 because of a shoulder injury. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

You probably already know that Serena and Venus Williams don’t want to play at Indian Wells ever again, because they detest the tournament claiming they were booed and suffered racial abuse there in 2001.

The big problem has emerged this year, however: the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells is now a premier event and any player who declines to play one of the four premier events without a legitimate medical excuse – which the top 10 players are required to play – would be suspended for the next two premier events. So everyone was wondering how the problem with the Williams sisters would be resolved.

World No.1 Serena Williams and world No.5 Venus Williams will not play tennis at the event, but will perform promotional activities for the tournament, as new stipulations were put into place that any player declining to play an event for personal reasons would be allowed to do so under the conditions mentioned.

Therefore, the Williams sisters will avoid suspension by performing some activities, which will be determined by the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in due course. (source: Tennis Head, photos via Tennis Channel)

Everybody knows Maria Sharapova and Novak Djokovic are good friends, but during the last week’s Pacific Life Open we learned they are soccer bodies too.

Djokovic and Sharapova met on the tennis complex, as their matches were scheduled one after the other, and they took a few minutes to play footsies. Fun!

Sharapova was one of Djokovic's greatest supporters at the 2007 US Open final, after which they were seen singing together in a club, they shared the court at the recent Desert Smash Charity Celebrity Tennis event, and were both spotted at the LA Lakers game this past Sunday.

All these things have lead to speculations that they are in love, but I believe Djokovic's claims they are just good friends. Not that they wouldn’t make a great couple, though. (via Down the Line)

In the battle of the two top seeds, Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic solidly defeated Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4 6-3 in the Pacific Life Open final for her sixth career title and the first one of the season.

In the first set there were no breaks until the ninth game when top-seeded Ivanovic made a crucial break and then quickly served out for the set without losing a point. The second set was a bit more undecided. The players exchanged breaks early in the set, but again Ivanovic made a break that proved to be fatal for Kuznetsova – Ivanovic broke for a 4-3 lead, and then cruised to victory losing only one point.

Kuznetsova simply can’t win a final any more. The Russian has lost eight of her last nine finals, and that lone title came with an injury retirement win at New Haven last August.

Despite winning the Pacific Life Open, Ivanovic will remain the second-ranked player in the world, but Kuznetsova will fall from No.3 to No.4.

Ivanovic has now extanded her head-to-head record against Kuznetsova to 5-1 and has at the same time scored her first straight-set victory over the Russian.

Runner-up Kuznetsova has earned $163,000 at Indian Wells, while champion Ivanovic takes home $332,000. (image via Yahoo)