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)

Top seed Ana Ivanovic and second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova will meet in the final of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells after both prevailed in the semifinals on Friday.

Ana Ivanovic extended her head–to-head record against fellow Serb Jelena Jankovic to 5-1 beating her 7-6(3) 6-3 in the semis. Well, Ivanovic is on a good way to become as fatal to Jelena Jankovic as Justine Henin.

In the other semifinal, Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Maria Sharapova 6-3 5-7 6-2. Kuznetsova’s triumph ended Maria Sharapova's 18-0 winning streak and handed the Australian Open champion her first loss of the season.

After the loss, Sharapova said she has been traveling too much lately (and we know exactly how much), so she's considering taking a little break from the tennis court. There is even a possibility she'll skip the upcoming Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

A look at the stats shows us that Ivanovic is 4-1 all-time against Kuznetsova, which includes winning all three matches last year. Still, all Ivanovic’s victories over Kuznetsova have come in three sets, including the one in their only prior meeting in a final, at Qatar Telecom German Open, which propelled Ivanovic into the Top 10 for the first time.

If Ivanovic wins the Pacific Life Open title, she’ll remain the world No.2, while Jankovic would go back to her career high at No.3, and Kuznetsova would fall to No.4. If Kuznetsova wins the tournament, she and Jankovic would stay in their current position. (photo: Getty Images)

Jelena Jankovic joined Svetlana Kuznetsova, Maria Sharapova and Ana Ivanovic in the last four at the Pacific Life Open when American Lindsay Davenport retired from their quarterfinal because of a back injury.

The 31-year-old Davenport, two times a champion at Indian Wells, summoned her trainer when trailing third-seeded Jankovic 4-1. After losing the first set 6-2, Davenport decided to retire.

"I've gone down this road before and you never know, maybe it'll loosen up," said Davenport. "My back was injured before I came here (to Indian Wells) but it got better and got better.

"Then I woke up this morning and I just couldn't move. It was pretty obvious to me after two games that it was pretty sore out there and pretty hard to rotate."

This year at Indian Wells we’ll have an all-Russian semifinal featuring Kuznetsova and Sharapova, and an all-Serbian semifinal with Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. Interestingly, all the semifinalists are Top 5 players. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

Top seed Ana Ivanovic defeated Vera Zvonareva 6-1 6-4 to reach the last four of the Pacific Life Open and join Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova there.

Playing her fourth quarterfinal in five tournaments this year, world No.2 Ivanovic broke twelfth-seeded Zvonareva four times and lost only one of her own service games. In the Indian Wells quarterfinal the Serb produced one of her best ever first serve percentages of 73, and powerful groundstrokes enabled her to defeat world No.21 Zvonareva without much difficulty.

If Jelena Jankovic beats Lindsay Davenport in the remaining quarterfinal, we will have an all-Serbian semifinal at Indian Wells. (photo: Getty Images)

Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova maintained her perfect start to the season beating holder Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 6-1 to advance into the Pacific Life Open semifinals where she’ll meet fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Fourth-seeded Sharapova, champion at Indian Wells in 2006, stormed back from 5-2 down in the first set and forced a tie-break which she won 7-2. In the second set, Sharapova broke fifth-seeded Hantuchova in the second and sixth games to secure her 18th successive win of the year.

Kuznetsova was the first one to reach the Indian Wells semifinals beating Agnieszka Radwanska. The other two semifinalists will be known after the following matches: Ana Ivanovic vs. Vera Zvonareva, Jelena Jankovic vs. Lindsay Davenport. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)

Last year's Pacific Life Open runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova became the first player into the semifinals of this year's event when she defeated Agnieszka Radwanska.

World No.3 Kuznetsova, seeded second at the event, avenged her Australian Open loss to Radwanska sweeping past the Polish teenager 6-2 6-4.

Kuznetsova broke her 19-year-old opponent in the first and third games of the opening set. They traded service breaks early in the second set, and Kuznetsova broke in the seventh game before serving out to seal the win in tenth.

In the semifinals Kuznetsova will play either Daniela Hantuchova, a player she lost to in the last year’s Indian Wells final, or Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova. (source: Reuters)

Twice champion and holder Daniela Hantuchova reached the quarterfinals of the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells by beating India’s Sania Mirza 6-1 7-6.

Fifth-seeded Hantuchova took the first set in 39 minutes, breaking Mirza in the second and fourth games. In the second set both players made two breaks so there was a tiebreak which world No.8 Hantuchova won 7-4.

Last year the Slovakian won the Indian Wells title with a victory over Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final. (source: Reuters, photo: Getty Images)