Maria Sharapova with the Tokyo trophy. Photo via d.yimg.com

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Maria Sharapova won the Toray Pan Pacific Open final in Tokyo in only seven games Saturday, after a wrist injury to Jelena Jankovic stopped the match before the end of the first set.  Sharapova was leading 5-2, 0-30* when Jankovic retired.  This was Sharapova's fourth title in Tokyo, by far the highest total of any active player.

It's a shame the match had to end so quickly and in that fashion, because it was shaping up to be a great one in the early goings.  Jankovic was counter-punching beautifully, keeping Sharapova uncomfortable and on the run on her way to going up an early break and a 2-0 lead.

But Sharapova found her way in through some tough holds and breaks, finding the range on her groundstrokes and hitting the ball hard and flat on the lines, out of the reach of even someone as quick as Jankovic.

And then after a medical timeout during the changeover, Jankovic abruptly retired two points into the eighth game of the set, leaving Sharapova looking bewildered and somewhat annoyed.  Jankovic hadn't been showing any visible signs of discomfort, but while Jankovic is known for some dubious injury timeouts, she's not a player with a reputation for questionable retirements. 

Once the shock wore off, Sharapova seemed genuinely thrilled to be leaving Japan with her first title of the year.  On the heels of a disappointing, sloppy summer, this Premiere 5-level win should give her a lot to feel good about going into the off-season.  Reverting to her old service motion paid huge dividends this week, as she was able to serve both powerfully and consistently for the first time since early 2008.  But how much more of full-range serving can her shoulder take? That's the factor that will determine Sharapova's chances of getting back into the elite echelons of the game in 2010.

Dinara Safina, via d.yimg.com

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The top seeds dropped like kamikaze planes in their first matches in Tokyo, with none of the top six seeds winning even one match.  An exodus of historic proportions

(Q) Kai-Chen Chang TPE def. Dinara Safina RUS [1] 7-6(5), 4-6, 7-5 -- Dinara Safina continued to make her case for being the most laughable #1 in the history of tennis with a first round exit to Kai-Chen Chang.  There's a whole lot that's pathetic about this loss for Safina, but perhaps most so is that she actually served for the match at 5-4 in the third set, and couldn't close the deal.  For a top player to lose to a teenager outside the top 100 because her nerves aren't as good is just bafflingly terrible.  Safina keeps finding new rock bottoms, but it's tough to see her finding a way to surpass this one any time soon.

(Q) Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova RUS def. Venus Williams USA [2] 7-6(6), 7-5 -- Pavlyuchenkova is an up and comer, to be sure, but this is a match Venus should have had.  Considering Pavlyuchenkova won all of three games vs. Melanie Oudin at the US Open, this is a bad loss for Venus in what is increasingly looking like the tail end of her time as a threat to win hard court events.

(Q) Kateryna Bondarenko UKR def. Elena Dementieva RUS [3] 6-2, 6-7(3), 6-1 -- With this win, Kateryna moves ahead of sister Alona in the rankings for the first time.  Bondarenko's run to the US Open quarterfinals is looking like less of a fluke now, eh? By the same token, so is Dementieva's second round US Open exit.

Aleksandra Wozniak CAN def. Caroline Wozniacki DEN [4] 5-0 ret. -- Wozniacki has been battling flu symptoms for some time, and she really had no business even stepping out on the court for this match.  Should have given a Lucky Loser (perhaps Melanie Oudin?) her spot.

(Q) Andrea Petkovic GER def. Svetlana Kuznetsova RUS [5] 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 -- Kuznetsova's wild inconsistency makes this loss no surprise, but Petkovic should be no threat to anyone on hard courts.  Bad loss.

Alisa Kleybanova RUS def. Vera Zvonareva RUS [6] 3-6, 6-4, 6-2 -- This is also a pretty excusable loss for Zvonareva, who falls to a pretty tough player in Kleybanova.  It's a shame Kleybanova didn't have her act together in the first round of the US Open, because she easily could have made it out of the top half.