Schnyder Ends No. 1 Hopes for Sharapova

Maria Sharapova's dreams to ascend to No.1 on Monday came crashing down as the top-seeded Russian was done in by wily vet Patty “Wagon” Schnyder 3-6, 6-3, 6-1 in the semifinals at Rome.

After being broken three times in the first set, Schnyder held her serve the rest of the way blasting five aces in the match without double faulting even once.

"It's one of my best wins," Schnyder said. "Once the rally went on, I was the dominant player. I move better on clay than she does. At the end that was the key, that I could play better rallies from the back."

Schnyder has won three of her nine career WTA Tour titles have come on clay, and she also reached the final at the Tier I clay court event in Charleston in 2002, where she took out Serena Williams and then-No.1 Jennifer Capriati before losing to Iva Majoli.

"I really believe in myself, especially on clay, and I know that I can beat the top players," she said. "I've beaten some No.1s and most of the players on tour. But, you have to do it every week and every day, and that's the challenge.

By winning the title in Rome, Sharapova would have climbed to No.1 in the WTA Rankings on Monday.

"I'm not disappointed," said the Cell Phone Mannequin, who followed up an impressive quarterfinal finish last week in Berlin with her first ever clay court semifinal finish here. "I feel like I've been getting better and better as the matches went on this week. So hopefully I'll take this experience and these last two tournaments that I've played and take it to Paris."

When asked about losing the chance to become No.1, the reigning Wimbledon champion stressed her result-oriented outlook.

"I'd rather play well at a Grand Slam and just learn the things I need to work on and keep working on them... I've said it before, there's no rush."

In the final Schyder will face Amelie Mauresmo, who kept her title defense hopes alive beating No.6 seed Vera Zvonareva 6-2, 6-4.

The third-ranked Mauresmo now has a 7-0 record against the 10th-ranked Zvonareva.

Mauresmo and Schnyder will resume an extensive rivalry in the Sunday's final. The two have played each other 14 times, with Mauresmo leading the head-to-head by 9-5. They are tied 2-2 on clay with half of their previous meetings have gone to three sets.

"I expect a great match," said Schnyder. "There's going to be some rallies. She moves really well. I'm just going to go out there and give it the best I can."

In Saturday's doubles semifinals, No.2 seeds Cara Black and Liezel Huber avenged last week's title loss to No.3 seeds Zvonareva and Elena Likhovtseva while the unseeded pair of Maria Kirilenko and Anabel Medina Garrigues defeated No.4 seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Meghann Shaughnessy.