Shame.

"When you get an injury, you don't know if you can play or not," Jankovic said. "My wrist and whole arm is inflamed and swollen and I don't know when I will recover."

(ESPN)

Ouch. I don’t normally look favourably upon retirements in final rounds, but JJ came out of that match with what at one point, looked like Popeye’s right arm.

I don’t think playing Beijing would be the smartest move in the world right now. But with Jelena only being a mere 190 points behind Vera in the Race to the SEC, and with Jelena being Jelena, the lure might prove irresistible.

(Photo: AP)

That said the seven games these two managed to play seemed designed to impress, and despite the anti-climax, went some way to limiting the damage done in the opening few days of the event.

It also further strengthened my belief that Jelena has this time found her way to the correct comeback trail, after a season littered with false starts. Better late than never. Nothings for certain, but it could have been so very different if the wrist had held up.

"I really had a good feeling that I was going to get through this match," said the fifth-seeded Sharapova.

"I believed in myself ... even when I was down in the tiebreaker I knew I could do it and I did."

(ABC News)

That’s what Masha had to say after winning her maiden title at this very venue, six years ago. How very little has changed in her second career.