by Matty Donaldson

Ok. I dont know how many people read the message board for updates on Maria, or whether people just come to the site for news, but after the events of the last few days, i thought it necessary to amend a couple of my predictions, as none of the players i redicted Maria would face are left in the draw now!

Maria now is the only seed left in the draw! she won this morning against Akiko Morigami in straights 6-1, 6-3. That combined with the retirement of number one seed Ai Sugiyama, and the defeats to Ashley Harkeroad and Tamarine Tanasugarn mean that Maria has a massive chance of winning this week. Let us not put a hex on her chances or anything but her route to the final now is likely to be Schaul, Zheng and Parra rather than Srebotnik, Tanasugarn and Sugiyama. So in light of that, ill do the same thing i normally do in articles and give some info on those three.

Claudine Schaul is ranked at world number 83, and comes from Luxembourg. Maria will play her in the quarters again tomorrow at 10am Japanese time. Since the US Open, she has only competed in two 75k events, progressing no futher than the quarters. In the US Open however, she reached R3, putting  out seeded Anna Pistolesi in R1. So she could be a tough match for Maria if she plays well. Assumptions are this week that she isnt playing too bad if she can reach the quarters and put out Srebotnik. So an opponent Maria should be wary of.

Next up should be Jie Zheng of China, who is 123rd in the world. Post US Open, she ahs come through the qualifiers to reach round R2 at Bali, but went out in round one at Shanghai.

And finally, her likely opponent in the final is to be Arantxa Parra, who is ranked 86. Like the other two, she presumably has been playing some decent tennis, and there are no easy matches when you reach the latter stages of a tournament. Parra also came through qualifying for Bali, before losing in R1, and also fell just short of the main draw in Shanghai, losing in the final round of qualifying.

One shouldnt really say it, but all three of these opponents, and all the other players left in the draw should my predictions not be correct, should pose little challenge to Maria. If as we keep on suggesting she has the game to cahllenbge top 20 next year, then these are the opportunities she needs to take.Let us hope that complacency does not set in. Winning your first senior event is bound to be a nervous occasion, and such an opportunity that has presented itself to Maria this week will give her an excellent chance of overcoming that first hurdle with little exertion