Maria Sharapova - Lindsay Davenport Match cancelled

A New Year’s exhibition match in Seoul between Maria Sharapova

and Lindsay Davenport has been cancelled due to the latter’s pregnancy, an organizer said Wednesday. The two world-class players were due to clash on the first day of 2007 in Seoul. “Early this morning, we were notified from the agent for Davenport that she cannot play the exhibition match because of her pregnancy,” Lee Seung-hwan, the president of sports marketing company Sema Sports, told Yonhap News Agency. “Because of the short notice, we have decided to cancel the event.”

Maria Sharapova ova to play Davenport in South Korea

Maria Sharapova will play Lindsay Davenport in an exhibition match in January in South Korea, an official at Seoul's tennis association said.

Maria will face American Davenport on 1. January in the South Korean port city of Inchon, the official said by telephone. Maria Sharapova lost a previous exhibition match in Seoul in 2005 to American Venus Williams.

Two of the world's leading female tennis players will compete in a match in Seoul next month.

They said that Russia's Maria Sharapova and America's Venus Williams will play against each other in eastern Seoul on Sept. 19 on the Korean post-harvest holiday of Chuseok. It promises to be the highestprofile tennis game ever in South Korea, according to organizers who hope it will promote the sport in a country more fascinated by other sports such as football and baseball. The 18-year-old Sharapova won the women's Wimbledon title in 2004, but the 25-year-old Williams took the coveted trophy last month.

Maria Sharapova stole the show last year at the Hansol Korea Open, the first WTA tour tournament ever held in South Korea. Although she only played several matches here, her visit led to a burst of interest in tennis across the country and media headlines that read "Sharapova Fever."

Maria gets rankings boost from title

A victory over No. 1 Lindsay Davenport in the final of the Pan Pacific Open on Sunday means reigning Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova will move up to a career-high third in the WTA rankings.