Maria Sharapova had no time to celebrate her victory over Daniela Hantuchova at the Zurich Open on Sunday, packing her bags immediately to move on to Linz where she is the top seed this week.

Despite the win in Zurich the Russian is still at number three in the world rankings, behind Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne, but her fourth title of the season took her closer to finishing the year as number one.

For Sharapova, that is not an important factor. She wants to regain the number one ranking she first reached in August 2005 but the timing is of no consequence to her.
“I won the (Zurich) title but it’s not the first thing I thought of, that I can be number one and that my chances are better than they were before I won it,” she said in Linz, where she has a first-round bye.