2008 Maria Sharapova tennis season

Australian Open series

Sharapova began her season at the Australian Open, as the 5th seed. She won the tournament without dropping a set (or playing a tie-break set), as she gained redemption following the previous year's heavy defeat in the final to Serena Williams. En route, she defeated Lindsay Davenport in the second round, served three bagels (one each to Elena Vesnina, Elena Dementieva and World No. 1 Justine Henin, whom she defeated very impressively in the quarter-finals)^[2] and defeated Jelena Janković (who had defeated the defending champion Williams in the quarter-finals) in the semi-finals, before facing Serbian Ana Ivanovic in the final. In a match dubbed as the "Glam Slam final",^[3] Sharapova upset the highly fancied Serb in straight sets to claim her first Australian Open title, and third Major title.^[4]

Middle East series

After playing two Fed Cup rubbers for Russia to kick off February, Sharapova then competed at the Qatar Ladies Open. She defeated Galina Voskoboeva, Tamarine Tanasugarn, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwańska (who had benefited from the withdrawal of top seed Ana Ivanovic in the third round)^[5][6] before facing (and defeating in three sets) Vera Zvonareva in the final.^[7]

Sharapova then withdrew from Dubai due to a viral infection.^[8]

Indian Wells & Miami

Sharapova reached the semi-finals at Indian Wells for the third time in four years, but was defeated there by compatriot and eventual runner-up Svetlana Kuznetsova, bringing an end to her 18-match winning streak to start the season.^[9] Following Indian Wells, Sharapova withdrew from Miami, citing a recurring shoulder injury.^[10]

Clay court season

Wimbledon

Sharapova's 2008 Wimbledon campaign turned out to be short-lived, as she was defeated in the second round by Alla Kudryavtseva, in the process suffering her earliest ever defeat at Wimbledon, and her earliest defeat at a Major tournament since the 2003 US Open.^[18]

US Open series and shoulder injury

Sharapova next played at the 2008 Rogers Cup, however she had to withdraw following her second round win against Marta Domachowska due to a recurring shoulder injury, which ended up being serious enough to necessitate surgery.^[19] As a result, Sharapova was forced to withdraw from her remaining tournaments for the year, including the Olympic tennis tournament in Beijing, the US Open (thus missing her first Major tournament since her debut in 2003) and the year-end championships.^[20] Her withdrawals from those events eventually led to her finishing the year ranked World No. 9, her lowest year-end singles ranking since 2003.

Singles matches

Tournament	#	Round	Opponent	Result	Score
Australian Open Melbourne, Australia Grand Slam Hard, outdoor 14–27 January 2008
	1	1R	Jelena Kostanić Tošić	Win	6–4, 6–3
	2	2R	Lindsay Davenport	Win	6–1, 6–3
	3	3R	Elena Vesnina	Win	6–3, 6–0
	4	4R	Elena Dementieva	Win	6–2, 6–0
	5	QF	Justine Henin	Win	6–4, 6–0
	6	SF	Jelena Janković	Win	6–3, 6–1
	7	W	Ana Ivanovic	Win (1)	7–5, 6–3
Fed Cup WG 1st Round Ramat HaSharon, Israel Hard, indoor 2–3 February 2008	8	1R R2	Tzipora Obziler	Win	6–0, 6–4
	9	1R R3	Shahar Pe'er	Win	6–1, 6–1
Qatar Ladies Open Doha, Qatar Tier I Hard, outdoor 18–24 February 2008
		1R	Bye
	10	2R	Galina Voskoboeva	Win	6–4, 4–6, 6–1
	11	3R	Tamarine Tanasugarn	Win	6–2, 6–2
	12	QF	Caroline Wozniacki	Win	6–0, 6–1
	13	SF	Agnieszka Radwańska	Win	6–4, 6–3
	14	W	Vera Zvonareva	Win (2)	6–1, 2–6, 6–0
Pacific Life Open Indian Wells, United States of America Tier I Hard, outdoor 9 March–23 April 2008
		1R	Bye
	15	2R	Stéphanie Cohen-Aloro	Win	6–1, 6–0
	16	3R	Eleni Daniilidou	Win	7–5, 6–3
	17	4R	Alona Bondarenko	Win	6–2, 5–7, 6–4
	18	QF	Daniela Hantuchová	Win	7–6(7–2), 6–1
	19	SF	Svetlana Kuznetsova	Loss	3–6, 7–5, 6–2
Bausch and Lomb Championships Amelia Island, United States of America Tier II Clay, outdoor 7–13 April 2008
		1R	Bye
	20	2R	Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová	Win	6–1, 6–3
	21	3R	Anabel Medina Garrigues	Win	7–6(7–3), 5–7, 7–6(7–1)
	22	QF	Alona Bondarenko	Win	6–7(9–11), 6–3, 6–2
		SF	Lindsay Davenport	Walkover	N/A
	23	W	Dominika Cibulková	Win (3)	7–6(9–7), 6–3
Family Circle Cup Charleston, United States of America Tier I Clay, outdoor 14–20 April 2008
		1R	Bye
	24	2R	Bethanie Mattek	Win	6–0, 6–0
	25	3R	Tatiana Perebiynis	Win	7–5, 6–2
	26	QF	Serena Williams	Loss	5–7, 6–4, 1–6
Internazionali BNL d'Italia Rome, Italy Tier I Clay, outdoor 12–18 May 2008
		1R	Bye
	27	2R	Dominika Cibulková	Win	6–2, 3–6, 6–4
	28	3R	Caroline Wozniacki	Win	6–4, 7–6(7–3)
	29	QF	Patty Schnyder	Win	6–7(3–7), 7–5, 6–2
		SF	Jelena Janković	Withdrew	N/A
French Open Paris, France Grand Slam Clay, outdoor 25 May–8 June 2008
	30	1R	Evgeniya Rodina	Win	6–1, 3–6, 8–6
	31	2R	Bethanie Mattek	Win	6–2, 3–6, 6–2
	32	3R	Karin Knapp	Win	7–6(7–4), 6–0
	33	4R	Dinara Safina	Loss	7–6(8–6), 6–7(5–7), 2–6
The Championships, Wimbledon London, Great Britain Grand Slam Grass, outdoor 23 June–6 July 2008
	34	1R	Stéphanie Foretz	Win	6–1, 6–4
	35	2R	Alla Kudryavtseva	Loss	2–6, 4–6
Rogers Cup Montreal, Canada Tier I Hard, outdoor 26 July–3 August 2008
		1R	Bye
	36	2R	Marta Domachowska	Win	7–5, 5–7, 6–2
		3R	Ai Sugiyama	Withdrew	N/A

Singles Schedule

Head-to-head matchups

Ordered by percentage, number of victories to number of losses, then in alphabetical order

Finals

Singles: 3 (3–0)

Category Grand Slam (1–0) WTA Tier I (1–0) WTA Tier II (1–0)

Titles by surface Hard (2–0) Clay (1–0)

Titles by conditions Outdoors (3–0)

Outcome	No.	Date	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	17.	January 26, 2008	Melbourne, Australia (1)	Hard	Ana Ivanovic	7–5, 6–3
Winner	18.	February 24, 2008	Doha, Qatar (2)	Hard	Vera Zvonareva	6–1, 2–6, 6–0
Winner	19.	April 13, 2008	Amelia Island, USA (1)	Clay	Dominika Cibulková	7–6(9–7), 6–3