Maria Sharapova - Tennis

MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) (http://en.rian.ru/sports/)
Russia's Sharapova to return at Hong Kong expo tournament
MOSCOW, November 28 (RIA Novosti) (http://en.rian.ru/sports/) - Russia's former world No.1 Maria Sharapova will join two other Russian tennis players to play in an exhibition tournament in Hong Kong on January 7-10.
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The 21-year-old tennis player withdrew from the WTA Rogers Cup in Montreal in late July because of a shoulder injury.
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The injury forced Sharapova, who began the year by winning the 2008 Australian Open, to miss the U.S. Open, the 2008 Beijing Olympics and other major tennis events.

This year the annual exhibition event is to be held in a team format bringing world tennis stars together and dividing them into four teams representing Russia, Europe, the Americas and Asia Pacific.

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Sharapova will be joined by world No. 7 Vera Zvonaryova and 19-year-old Alexandra Panova in the Russia team.

World No. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia will lead the team from Europe along with Agnes Szavay of Hungary and Portugal's Michelle Larcher De Brito, while this year's Wimbledon Champion Venus Williams of the U.S. will head the team from the Americas, which also includes Gisela Dulko of Argentina and Coco Vandeweghe of the United States, the 2008 U.S. Open junior champion.

China's Zheng Jie, the 2008 Wimbledon semifinalist, together with India's No.1 Sania Mirza and Zhang Ling of Hong Kong will be playing for the Asia Pacific team.

The tournament will start with semifinal games consisting of two singles and one doubles match, the Russian team will take on Asia Pacific, while the Americas will compete against Europe.

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The winning teams will meet in the finals to play four singles and one doubles match.