Sharapova Out but No. 1 Ahead

It’s rather difficult to have a No. 1 party with the guest of honor gone missing, and, well, the Maria Sharapova bobblehead doll wasn’t going to serve as an adequate stand-in.

The sizzle of the heavily promoted, and hyped meeting with history evaporated at the Home Depot Center in Carson, almost like air going out of a punctured tire. There was a Russian on the court Friday night all right, but it was Elena Dementieva playing Tathiana Garbin, not Sharapova attempting to defeat ninth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia to reach the No. 1 ranking.

Several hours earlier, Sharapova withdrew from the JPMorgan Chase Open because of a strained right chest muscle, stalling her bid to supplant No. 1 Lindsay Davenport. She had been one victory from doing so but instead was added to the tour’s ever-growing list of walking wounded.

“I can pick my arm up,” Sharapova said. “I can do a lot of things with it except serve and hit a forehand.... Of course I’m disappointed, but in the back of my mind, I know that in order to go out there and play, I need to be 100% health-wise and that’s the most important thing to me.”

Now the change at the top is merely put on hold, by 10 days. Even if Sharapova does not play next week in Toronto, which is all but certain, she will become No. 1 when the WTA Tour rankings come out after that event, on Aug. 22, becoming the first Russian female to accomplish the feat. So instead of reaching the top spot via some drama -- with a forehand winner or ace -- the accomplishment will come in the dry form of an official release.

Sharapova’s downcast mood was replaced by a smile and a laugh shortly after WTA chief executive Larry Scott made the ranking announcement at a news conference Friday.

“At least that question won’t pop up anymore,” Sharapova said to reporters, laughing. “Of course it’s a dream come true to be able to win a Grand Slam and then be No. 1 in the world. It definitely puts a smile on your face.” The way she will finally reach the top didn’t diminish its meaning.

“I still think the computer doesn’t lie,” she said. “You had to achieve something in order to get there. It’s been an amazing two years and been all about hard work and dedication.”

All this was little consolation to the ticket-buying fans on the Sharapova Bobblehead doll night. As if it needed one more blow, the evening program took yet another hit when Chinese teenager Shuai Peng pulled out because of a strained lower back, forcing cancellation of the quarterfinal doubles match.

There was virtually no reaction from the fans when the pullouts were first announced to the night-session crowd, shortly before 7, perhaps because the audience was so sparse at the start.

In recent years, injured players have often taken the step of addressing the crowd, apologizing for late withdrawals. That helpful public relations measure did not happen here. Sharapova suffered a recurrence of the injury in practice on Monday, but managed to get through two matches here.

After a three-set win over Anna Chakvetadze on Thursday, Sharapova told reporters she had taken the step of getting an MRI scan, but it did not reveal anything, adding she would pull out if she felt pain practicing. But it didn’t get to that point because of the pain, which required treatment Thursday night and Friday in Santa Monica.

“”If this was the semifinals of the U.S. Open, I probably would have played through the pain and tried to do the best I can,” she said. “ ... I still have a little bit of time to get ready and get back to normal.”

Her withdrawal meant that Hantuchova received a walkover into today’s semifinals. It is Hantuchova’s third semifinal of 2005, and she will face No. 3 Dementieva, who had little trouble with the Italian qualifier, Garbin, winning, 6-1, 6-1, in 49 minutes.

In the night semifinal, No. 5 Kim Clijsters of Belgium will face No. 13 Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

In the quarterfinals, Clijsters beat No. 4 Nadia Petrova of Russia, 6-4, 6-2, and No. 13 Schiavone defeated 33-year-old Conchita Martinez of Spain, 7-5, 6-4.