Some shocking developments going on currently.

Sharapova was serving for the match against Zvonareva in what looked to become a routine 6-4, 6-4 win when she utterly collapsed, losing the next SEVEN games in a row (and counting?) to trail 0-4 in the third set. Looks like her serve, formerly one of the strongest aspects of her game, is still plaguing her (with 11 DFs so far), but even her mental toughness looks like it fell through here.

Jankovic looked to be in real trouble, trailing Li a set and a break 3-6, 3-4, but has just now recovered the break to go 4-all in the second. This could go the distance, but Li is certainly threatening to put her out of the tourney.

At 4-1, Zvonareva dug herself out of a 0-40 hole, but a fourth break point was too much and Sharapova won her first game in eight. But she then promptly double-faulted twice, however, and was broken again (she has lost her serve five consecutive times) and Zvonareva is now serving for the match at 5-1.

Li and Jankovic still slugging it out at 5-all on the Serbian's serve.

And Zvonareva takes it on her third match point in certainly her biggest win of late. Indian Wells is now bereft of both its defending champions and finalists. Hingis and Hantuchova are the only remaining former champions of either stripe left in the draw, and only one of them can emerge from their R16 match-up.

Oh, and Justine Henin regains the No 1 spot after a relatively brief interruption.

Unfortunately, Jankovic (who stood in the best position to profit from the gap left by Sharapova's exit) is on the precipice, having been broken at 5-all. Li is serving for it at 6-5, but Jankovic has saved two MPs and now has a break point. She's not going down that easily.

EDIT: And Jankovic does indeed get a last-minute respite, breaking to take the second set into a tiebreaker.

Oh my, Zvonareva won 4-6 7-5 6-1. :o

Poor Maria...it was hard to watch at some points. :( She's totally lost confidence on her serve (13 DFs today), and unfortunately that spreads into her groundstrokes too - she got very tight and never could recover. I really hope she manages to get herself back to top form soon, because it's not nice to see her like this.

Well, Jankovic came to pieces in the tiebreak, managing only one point. Li scores the Top 10 upset 6-3, 7-6(1) and will face Zvonareva in the QFs.

Go Vera!!! :yahoo: :yahoo:

Jelena :(

Well, Vera gets revenge for her defeat at the Aus Open. :ok:

Is the Sharapova win the biggest of her career? After all she was top 10 just a few years ago and might havce had some equally big (if not bigger wins) back then??

Yep, it's the first time she's beaten the number one ranked player. :ok:

Vera :yahoo: Great moment for a player like her, and surprising :o Sharpie is so consistent, it's been ages since she last lost before the 1/4s of a non-clay event, strange the way her serve has vanished :huh:

And Jankovic out too :o I reckon Vaidisova will take it now...

Vera has beaten Sharapova before at Memphis in 2004 0 twice in fact. Their head to head is now 4-3 to Maria.

Also beat Venus at RG in 2003 which is a pretty big win too :)

Meanwhile Peer seems to have the measure of Chakvetadze so far, and is serving for the first set 5-3. Unless my maths are off Dementieva's continued Top 10 status hinges on the outcome of this match.

Her serve deserted her I thought in the AO final too. Strange.. usually it's so technically solid.. :shrug:

I know, it's such a solid shot, great technique too, modelled after Sampras' serve, maybe some shoulder problems or some uncertainty after the AO who knows :shrug:

With both Justine and the Williams sisters back in Miami, I doubt she'll defend her points there either...

Excellent! Never saw that coming - thought Sharapova was a cert to defend her points!

Maria's just not hitting through the ball enough at the moment; she's coming around the outside of it too much, and it results in a serve with much less pace. She didn't start practicing her serve again until 5 days ago, so that could also be a factor, but generally she doesn't seem to have the confidence when she steps up to the line.

Also, I've seen several pictures where she seems to be dropping her head differently to in the past. Perhaps she's pulling it down too early, and thus taking her eye off the ball too soon? :shrug:

Yeah, she was doing that at the AO too, her serve used to be such a rock, hopefully she'll really address it now cos it's clear there's a problem...

Yes GO VERA indeed :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

I know it is not nice to see maria liek this, but I have never bene convinced by her and nwo her big weapons are not firing she needs to prove herself by sorting her faults out and coming back from crap. She has aleays struck me as a confidence player and when things go wrong she can do jack about it. A great player can adapt their game and work around problems.

Omg, Sharapova absolutely cringe-worthingly awful :yikes:

Looked so secure, albeit with several ropey errors at 6-4 5-4, but then just absolute collapse. Forehand went all over the place. What in notice when Sharapova gets tight, is that the footwork disintergrates completely, and there's just a slew of errors. Serve was absolutely shocking. The technique has just left her at the moment. I still wonder whether Serena's performance in the Aussie final has dealt some pyschological blows with that shot. At times, it was landing in the wrong side of the net :unsure:

Vera though, so resillient. Not easy to play against someone who's game is completely falling apart, it can make you a bit uneasy, but she coped so well :D

A caught a bit of the match on Eurosport and Maria was awful. Her serve used to be such a menacing weapon but if it is off-key, the rest of her game is simply not good enough to bail her out.

The Peer v Chakvetadze match-up is certainly shaping up to be as tight as everyone anticipated.

Both women have been broken serving for the set (Peer in the first, Chakvetadze in the second), but although Peer managed to rebound to take the first set 6-4, it remains to be seen if the Russian will manage the feat herself.

5-all, 30-all on Peer's serve.

Blimey, Saharpova's footwork is iffy at the best of times.. can be very heavy-footed..

I think that Vera is technically very strong, so good that she kept her game steady. imo the only reason why she isn't ranked higher is that she doens't quite have the weapons to hurt the big hitters in the game, but she is definitely not an opponent that you want if your game is off-colour..

Tie break now.. and 2-2 so far

Good matchup this.. two talented youngsters :)

Peer wins the tie break to take the match..

My WTA predictions are truly stuffed!!! roflmao

Peer proved herself the stronger competitor on the day, and did well to press her winning position home with a 6-4, 7-6(2) victory. She awaits the winner of Hingis v Hantuchova now.

Chakvetadze's Top 10 debut will have to come on another occasion, if at all. She's certainly poised for it now.

Well, so far I've predicted wins for Sharapova, Chakvetadze, Jankovic... :doh:

and Vaidisova..

And Vaidisova is a break down to Bartoli in the first set! :o Marion 4-3 up and on her serve.

come on Nic, need points :D

petalp you said zvonereva to win 2-1, so you got one right at least :)

Did I Obliv? I was in such a rush that I wanted 2-1 to Vera but thought I'd put 2-1 to Sharpie! roflmao

Agreed on this.. Go Nicole!! :yahoo:

I have 2000 vcash on Vaidisova and she's just lost the first set :wacko:

if Bartoli wins, will she eat some more cake?

I always thought she was Italian, but she's French :wacko:

She is.. and she's one of the few players that i've seen that plays two handed shots off both wings.

When she warms up for a match it's as if she is wiedling a light sabre :unsure:

And the force is with her so far tonight it seems.. :huh:

Well she got 51% of her first serves in and won 67% of the points on it and her average first serve was only 11kph less than Serena's so it can't have been that bad :shrug:

She did well to hold serve twice in the second set if you ask me. I think she's lost a bit on confidence since that AO Final personally, especially on her serve which Serena just broke at will, plus she has hardly played since then and is struggling with injury.

All that said, her serve was pretty inexplicable today :huh: I am quite shocked that Maria played like that. Im sure she'll do better in Miami though :)

Also Vera absolutely stuffed Serena at Cincy last year and beat Venus in the r16 at the 2003 FO, so she's had big wins before. But considering Sharapova is the defending champion and world number I would say this is definitely her biggest win to date :D

Vaidisova is the first Top 8 seed to win her match today, dropping the first set but recovering strongly to vanquish Bartoli 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.

I think it's fair to say that the winner of her QF against Kuznetsova (I'm assuming Sugiyama won't spring the upset) will emerge from the bottom half to reach the final. Petrova is still a factor but she seems to struggle against Golovin, who will be the fresher of the two considering the Russian's late-night three-setter against Granville.

Ah.. I didn't know the stats! ;)

All that I remember was that it didn't look as being in as good nick as it usually was :)

In the Times today it says that Sharapova got a lot of detailed coaching on her serve before the match - dealing with subtle changes to the ball toss, and it goes on to suggest that this may have been the reason for the collapse http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/ten...icle1511952.ece

Bit of an error if that's right :unsure:

Wow, that's pretty bad if she can't seem to fix it, not long until Miami now, and with such a strong draw she could drop a lot of points if she goes out early.