Sharapova moved up from No. 2 when Justine Henin suddenly retired last month. After losing in the fourth round at Roland Garros, Sharapova will drop back down and there will be a new No. 1 — current No. 2 Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, No. 3 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia or No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia.
None of those three ever has won the French Open or been ranked No. 1.
The simplest scenario: If one wins the championship Saturday, she will take over the top spot when the new rankings are released Monday. Otherwise, either Ivanovic or Jankovic would become No. 1 by losing to anyone other than Kuznetsova in the final.
Ivanovic plays Jankovic in the semifinals Thursday, while Kuznetsova faces 49th-ranked Kaia Kanepi in the quarterfinals Wednesday.
“At the end of the day, rankings take care of themselves,” Ivanovic said. “If you play well, if you’re winning, the rankings come.”
Jankovic, in contrast, made quite clear that sitting atop the rankings would mean a lot to her.
“My dream is to become No. 1 in the world, and now I’m very close,” she said. “So I will try my best, and hopefully I can do it.”
Pandering in Paris
Jelena Jankovic came up with a unique way to curry favor among the local fans at Roland Garros.
She’s been wearing a bandage around her painful right forearm during matches, and she showed up for Tuesday’s quarterfinal with a message written in dark marker on the white tape: “I (HEART) PARIS.”
Jankovic said she started the art by drawing the heart, and then her mother completed the message.
“I always have this bandage on my arm. It doesn’t look nice,” she said after beating Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3, 6-2 to reach the semifinals. “And I love Paris, so there is nothing wrong with that.”
She didn’t stick around in the city between her last two matches, however.
After her fourth-round victory Sunday, Jankovic flew by private plane home to Serbia that night to have her arm treated by a doctor. She saw the doctor again Monday morning, then traveled back to France.
“Otherwise, I don’t think I would be able to be on the court today,” Jankovic said, “because I was really in a lot of pain.”
Double doubles duty
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Special feature
The official fairplay rankings
Sharapova to be No. 1 after Henin’s retirement
