Tennis: Sharapova says Slams are number one priority

Tennis: Sharapova says Slams are number one priority

SINGAPORE - Maria Sharapova on Friday shrugged off her failure to dethrone Serena Williams as year-end world number one and insisted that winning more Grand Slams will be her main goal in 2015.

"I think adding more Grand Slams is the top priority," the Russian star, holder of five majors including this year's French Open, said after being eliminated from the WTA Finals in Singapore.

Sharapova needed to beat Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in straight sets to stay alive but after winning the first set, she agonisingly lost three match points and a tie-breaker in the second.

Sharapova, who won her only WTA Finals trophy 10 years ago, rallied to win the match 7-5, 6-7 (4/7), 6-2 but crashed out of season finale because of two earlier round robin losses.

As a result, she is unable to overtake Williams and become year-end world number one for the first time, meaning the 18-time Grand Slam-winner earns the honour for a fourth occasion.

Despite the disappointing finish, injury-prone Sharapova said she was still "very happy' with her performance in 2014.

"Going into this year, I didn't really know what actually my personal expectations were. I had one goal, and that was to try to remain as healthy as possible, to keep my shoulder strong," she said.

"I've done an incredible job of that. I think it's one of the few seasons where I haven't withdrawn or retired from an event." She said she will now be going to Tokyo to promote her line of sweets - and will take a rare break away from tennis.

"I don't even travel with my racquets. It's such a nice feeling. It's really the only time you can do that, not travel with your tennis bag.

It's so rare," she said. "But I love it. I'll be signing my racquets tonight and, I don't know, throwing them in the bay or give them to charity, but I'm not travelling with my tennis bag to Tokyo."

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