Zvonareva sends Sharapova crashing out of Indian Wells

INDIAN WELLS, California, Mar 14 (Reuters) Vera Zvonareva sent world number one Maria Sharapova to a stunning 4-6 7-5 6-1 defeat in the fourth round of the Pacific Life Open.

In one the greatest collapses of her career, the defending champion failed to close out the match when 5-3 ahead in the second set and then completely lost control, giving up eight games in a row.

''It's strange,'' said Sharapova yesterday. ''Serving for the match, the only unforced error I really made was a swing volley. And after that I just deflated a little. I wasn't moving well at all.

''When I served, I missed the first ball. That obviously gives your opponent so much confidence.

''She just started swinging and wasn't making a lot of errors.'' Sharapova ended the all-Russian contest with 47 unforced errors, including 13 double faults.

With the defeat, the 19-year-old is guaranteed to lose her number one ranking to Belgium's Justine Henin next week.

It was 22-year-old Zvonareva's first victory over Sharapova in her last four attempts. Sharapova, who was playing her first event in nearly a month, could not shake the rust off.

''Different players are always going to have their different shining moments,'' she said.

''It's unrealistic to always do well and always have great days. You've just got to keep working.'' The 15th-seeded Zvonareva will face 12th seed Li Na in the quarter-finals after the Chinese player defeated Serbia's Jelena Jankovic 6-3 7-6.

Eleventh seed Shahar Peer of Israel also moved into the next round, beating number eight Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 6-4 7-6.

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