Justin Cohen, one of my tennis friends that I met thanks to my blog, attended the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati and took a close picture of Maria Sharapova's hand adorned with a beautiful engagement ring reportedly worth $250.000. The picture was taken after she won the Cincinnati title with a hard-fought victory over Jelena Jankovic in the final.

We learned about Sharapova's engagement to LA Lakers basketball player Sasha Vujacic last October and our first spotting of the huge ring was when the pair took the streets of LA. Any input on when the wedding will take place? During Wimbledon a commentator here was mentioning she would marry in an Orthodox church in Los Angeles in July, but apparently it was just a rumor.

One more photo of the ring after the jump. Read more »

Victory in the title match of the Western & Southern Open was so close to the 2009 Cincinnati champion Jelena Jankovic, but last year’s runner-up Maria Sharapova is never defeated until she loses the match point and her well-known willpower gave her the edge in the crucial second-set tiebreak when the Russian won five successive points.

The match featured 20 double faults and 16 service breaks (8 on both sides), most prominently in the third set in which both players failed to hold their serve in the first six games. Sharapova was the first to stop that trend for a 4-3 lead. An extra break later gave her the set and the match 4-6 7-6(3) 6-3. Read more »

In the title match of the Western & Southern Open, Maria Sharapova will face the 2009 Cincinnti champion Jelena Jankovic, which will be their first meeting in two years and their fourth meeting in a WTA final.

Sharapova started slow in the semifinal against Vera Zvonareva and lost the first set 6-2. But after dominating the beginning, Zvonareva's concentration dropped, some double faults creeped in and Sharapova's energy level raised. Sharapova won 2-6 6-3 6-3.

As for Jankovic and her semifinal against Andrea Petkovic, after surviving the first set and winning it in a tiebreak, the Serb dominated the second set to advance with a 7-6(4) 6-1 victory.

Sharapova leads Jankovic 5-1 in career meetings, including 2-1 in finals. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

In the semifinals of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati Vera Zvonareva will play Maria Sharapova and Andrea Petkovic will face Jelena Jankovic.

To reach the final four, world No.2 Vera Zvonareva toughed it out against Daniela Hantuchova. Their second set lasted one hour and 13 minutes and Hantuchova managed to earn a set point even though Zvonareva had a match point at 5-4. However, the Russian finished the match in a tiebreak 6-3 7-6(6). Zvonareva will next play Maria Sharapova, whose quarterfinal against Samantha Stosur lasted shorter than Zvonareva's second set. Sharapova cruised past Stosur, 6-3 6-2 and their head-to-head is now 9-0! Read more »

Last week it was Serena Williams who won when five other Grand Slam champions lost in Toronto, and on Thursday in Cincinnati Maria Sharapova was sole such winner. To reach the quarterfinals Sharapova defeated US Open and Roland Garros champion Svetlana Kuznetsova, and three other Grand Slam champions lost their third-round matches.

In the first set Sharapova broke Kuznetsova for a 3-2 lead and then won five straight games until 2-0 in the second set. Late in the second set Kuznetsova broke Sharapova’s serve, but Sharapova soon advanced with a 6-2 6-3 victory.

Other Grand Slam champions in action, Petra Kvitova, Francesca Schiavone and Li Na, didn't advance to the quarterfinals. Kvitova, the winner of Wimbledon 2011, fell to Andrea Petkovic 6-3 6-3. Roland Garros 2010 champion Schiavone lost to Jelena Jankovic 6-3 5-7 6-4. Jankovic revealed that laziness played a role in her bad results. Reigning Roland Garros champion Li was defeated by Samantha Stosur 6-4 3-6 6-4.

Sharapova's opponent in the quarterfinals will be Samantha Stosur, against whom she has an impressive 8-0 head-to-head record.

And talking about Sharapova, Novak Djokovic has returned to his famous impersonations of the Russian, this time for a Head commercial. Djokovic is wearing a blond wig . By the way, Sharapova is also using a Head racquet.

Here's Maria's comment from her Facebook page:

HAHAHA did you see what Novak Djokovic posted? Hey @Novak, is that your new road to success – trying to be me? I am a little disappointed you did not wear my dress and think you could work on your body language a bit more! And the hair… no comment on that… what do you guys think?

(via Maria Sharapova's official website, photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Nadia Petrova started both sets against Ana Ivanovic with a deficit, but the early advantage wasn't enough for the Serb to end up victorious and the Russian won 6-3 7-6(4) at the Western & Southern Open.

The 15th-seeded Ivanovic had a comfortable 6-0 6-2 victory over qualifier Alexa Glatch in the first round, and against Petrova in the second round Ivanovic started the match by breaking her opponent (she quickly lost that advantage, though, when Petrova broke back in the following game) and in the second set Ivanovic established an initial 3-0 lead. However, no advantage was enough to counterbalance Ivanovic's numerous errors, including eleven double faults.

Petrova's next opponent will be Christina McHale, who made the biggest news of the tournament by defeating world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Serena Williams' awe-inspiring comeback has suffered a shocking setback – the champion's 12-match winning streak has been cut short by a retirement! It might be Serena's tactical decision to prevent her from exhaustion or injuries ahead of the US Open, but it still is disappointing that her string of victories is ending in such a way. Serena retired with a right toe injury prior to her second-round match against Samantha Stosur at the Western & Southern Open.

After almost a year away with injuries and illness, Serena returned like a storm, winning Stanford and Toronto and following it up with a victory against Lucie Gradecka in the first round of Cincinnati this week.

Update: Here's Serena's press conference following the withdrawal.

(photo courtesy of FIJI Water)

Caroline Wozniacki’s form ahead of the US Open is becoming worrying – the Dane suffered her second straight loss in an opening match and not even the presence of her rumored boyfriend Rory McIlroy did her good today against Christina McHale, an American ranked 75 placed below her.

In the second round of the Western & Southern Open, McHale broke Wozniacki’s poor serve five times during the two-set encounter which finished 6-4 7-5. Last week at Toronto Wozniacki lost her opening match against Roberta Vinci with the same score.

The world No.1 has lost only 12 matches this season, but early exists have piled up recently, including her retirement against Sofia Arvidsson in the second round of Bastad last month. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

In the beginning it seemed Serena Williams would cruise to a quick victory over world No.49 Lucie Hradecka in the first round of the Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, as the American stormed through the first set with a 89% of first serve points won.

However, at 5-1 down in the second set, the Czech fired back and frustrated Serena when she leveled at 5-5 by breaking the American's serve twice. The tiebreak was played, but Hradecka had an unglamorous finish when she lost the tiebreak 7-5 with a double fault.

Both players hit 31 winners, but Hradecka committed more unforced errors. Final score: 6-3 7-6(5).

Serena's rankings improved on Monday from No.80 to No.31 following her triumph at the Rogers Cup. Together with her Stanford title, Serena is now on a 12-match winning streak. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

Tenth seed Maria Sharapova wasted three match points as clouds were approaching Cincinnati and didn’t manage to be faster than the rain, so her final against fourth seed Kim Clijsters got suspended at 6-2 5-3 with Clijsters serving on deuce. You know how these rain delays can bring a turnaround and that's exactly what happened. When play resumed, Clijsters took charge, won three successive games, soon after the tiebreak 7-4 and the deciding set 6-2. The victory slipped through Sharapova's fingers and on top of everything she even needed a medical timeout for her ankle. Final score: 2-6 7-6(4) 6-2.

The world No.7 Clijsters has become the first WTA player this year to win three titles: Brisbane, Miami, and now Cincinnati. The Belgian improved to 4-0 in finals since her comeback and is now 38-17 in career finals.

En route to the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open title Clijsters defeated Dinara Safina in the second round, Christina McHale in the third, seed No.11 Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals, Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals, and finally the three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova.

By winning the Cincinnati title Clijsters earned $350,000, while Sharapova earned $175,000 as runner-up. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)