Maria Sharapova in Tokyo on Saturday

Tokyo: Second-seeded Martina Hingis will face Serbia’s Ana Ivanovic in the Pan Pacific Open final after top-ranked Maria Sharapova retired during the second set of her semi-final today with a hamstring injury.

After dropping the first set 1-6, Sharapova consulted with her trainer. She won the first game of the second set before retiring. “It’s disappointing to have to finish this way,” Sharapova said. “I started to feel pain in the second game of the first set. I tried to go on, but you can’t get away with it when you are playing against a top player.”

Hingis posted a 6-4, 6-3 win over defending champion Elena Dementieva of Russia to reach the final.

Sharapova, who reclaimed the No. 1 spot in the WTA Tour rankings on Monday, lost to Serena Williams in the final of last week’s Australian Open.

The Russian had 17 double-faults in her first match against Italy’s Francesca Schiavone and double-faulted 14 times on Friday in the quarter finals against Ai Sugiyama of Japan. Sharapova refused to blame the injury on her schedule.

“I have a simple and easy schedule compared to the other girls,” she said. “There’s no doubt it’s difficult when you come straight from a Grand Slam. The surface here is quite different and the change in court might have something to do with it.”

Sharapova said her trainer told her she would likely need about a week to recover.

“I didn’t have pain like this during the Australian Open,” added Sharapova. “This is like a sudden, sharper pain I felt when I landed on the serve.”

Hingis raced to a 3-0 lead in the first set of her semi-final and never looked back.

“It was a great start for me,” said Hingis. “I had a bad exprience last year when I lost to her in the final, so I was happy to get a little revenge.”

Hingis has won this tournament four times and will be looking to set a tournament record on Sunday.

“I share the record for most wins here with Lindsay Davenport and hopefully can set the record,” said Hingis. “It will be a tough match. Ana has played well all week but I’m looking forward to it.” (AP)