ALLAN THE MAN

Maria Sharapova pulled out of the US Open on Wednesday (Thursday, Manila time) because of a right shoulder injury.

The US Tennis Association announced the 2006 champion's withdrawal.

In an email statement, world number three Maria Sharapova said that she had ended the coaching partnership with tennis legend Jimmy Connors following her surprise opening round exit at the Cincinnati Open this week.

“It’s not the right fit for this time in my career,” Sharapova stated in an email sent to TENNIS.com.

Maria Sharapova's return to WTA tournament play after more than a month away was short-lived following an upset loss to 17th-ranked American Sloane Stephens 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3 in the second round of the Western & Southern Open on Tuesday.

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In a match that lasted two hours and 22 minutes, Stephens overcame double faults on two match points to pick up her first victory over Sharapova in four meetings.

Maria Sharapova believes rival Serena Williams should not comment on matters outside of tennis as she criticised the American ahead of Wimbledon.

Defending Wimbledon champion Williams was forced to apologise for what she was reported to have said about the rape of a 16-year-old girl in Ohio. 

"I was sad to hear what she had to say about the whole case," Sharapova said.

Serena Williams won her second French Open title on Saturday, 11 years after her first triumph, defeating title-holder Maria Sharapova 6-4, 6-4 in a brief, but high-quality final.

It was the 31-year-old American's 16th Grand Slam title win, taking her to within two of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova who are tied for fourth on the all-time list.

World number two Maria Sharapova confirmed on Saturday that she is dating fellow tennis star, the highly-rated Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov.

The two had been caught on camera kissing in the streets of Madrid on Wednesday, the day after Dimitrov had dumped world number one Novak Djokovic out of the Madrid Masters.

ISTANBUL - Serena Williams completed her sensational 2012 comeback by easing to a 6-4, 6-3 win over Maria Sharapova for a third WTA Championships title on Sunday.

The 31-year-old's victory came at the end of a spectacular year in which she also collected the Wimbledon, Olympic and US Open titles.

"Now I have won I can be honest -- I really wanted to win this title, and I put pressure on myself (to do so)," said Williams, whose career head-to-head record over Sharapova now stands at 10-2.

Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova will battle it out for Olympic gold on Saturday afternoon. 

Going into the London 2012 Olympics, Serena and Sharapova were the only players in the field who have achieved the legendary career Grand Slam (Serena achieved the feat back in 2002 with Sharapova completing the set in June). As such it seems only right that they're battling it out in the final with the winner achieving the career Golden Grand Slam.

Steffi Graf (who won all four slams and Olympic gold back in 1988) is the only other player to have managed this. 

Serena will be strong favourite to win her first singles gold medal (she's won two doubles golds with her sister Venus) given her progress through the draw so far this week. The American has yet to concede more than three games in a set and she's destroyed Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Victoria Azarenka in success. Given how good those players are (they've all reached Grand Slam finals), for Serena to beat them all dropping just 7 games across the three matches, is simply remarkable.