The star rises

 – The most beautiful tennis player on the planet is back to shining on the courts. After finishing the 2010 season ranked 18th, Russian Maria Sharapova decided to hire Swedish coach Thomas Hoegstedt. The court star hit the bullseye: she started to recover positions, won the WTA Rome on Sunday (15), ending a drought of almost a year without titles, and took seventh place in the WTA ranking on Monday. She overtook Australian Samantha Stosur, defeated in the final of the Italian competition, who is now in eighth place.

Sharapova has 4.761 points, compared to 4.645 for the Australian player. The lead remains comfortably held by Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, who has 10.105 points and was eliminated by Sharapova in the Rome semi-finals. Second place continues to be held by Belgian Kim Clijsters, with 8.115 points, while Russian Vera Zvonareva is third, with 7.675 points.

The only other change in the top 10 involved Czech player Petra Kvitova, who moved up from tenth to ninth place, while Serbian Jelena Jankovic, eliminated by Wozniacki in the quarterfinals in Rome, dropped to tenth.

Another highlight in the rankings updated this Monday was the further fall of Venus Williams. Injured and sidelined since January, when she abandoned a match in the third round of the Australian Open due to a hip injury, the American plummeted from 19th to 29th place. Because of her physical problems, she has already announced that she will not play in Roland Garros, the Grand Slam that begins next Sunday in Paris, and this will certainly cause her to fall even further in the rankings next month.

Among the Brazilian players, the highest-ranked is Ana Clara Duarte, 233rd overall, followed distantly by the country's number 2, Roxane Vaisemberg, at 286th.
Check out the new WTA rankings:

1st Caroline Wozniacki (DEN), 10.105 points

2nd Kim Clijsters (BEL), 8.115

3rd Vera Zvonareva (RUS), 7.675

4th Victoria Azarenka (BLR), 5.425

5th Francesca Schiavone (ITA), 5.047

6th In Li (CHN), 4.775

7th Maria Sharapova (RUS), 4.761

8th Samantha Stosur (AUS), 4.645

9th Petra Kvitova (RCH), 3.743

10th Jelena Jankovic (SER), 3.670

11th Marion Bartoli (FRA), 2.925

12th Agnieszka Radwanska (POL), 2.876

13th Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS), 2.870

14th Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (RUS), 2.715

15th Andrea Petkovic (ALE), 2.670

16th Kaia Kanepi (EST), 2.526

17th Serena Williams (USA), 2.500

Julia Goerges (GER), 2.500

19th Flavia Pennetta (ITA), 2.495

20th Shahar Peer (ISR), 2.445

233rd Ana Clara Duarte (BRA), 236

286th Roxane Vaisemberg (BRA), 181 

355th Vivian Segnini (BRA), 118

389th Nathalia Rossi (BRA), 104