Maria Sharapova of Russia holds her trophy after she won the woman's singles final match against Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic at the China Open Tennis Tournament, in Beijing, October 5, 2014. REUTERS/Stringer
Maria Sharapova of Russia holds her trophy after she won the woman's singles final match against Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic at the China Open Tennis Tournament, in Beijing, October 5, 2014. Reuters

Maria Sharapova stopped over in Phuket before flying to Singapore for the BNP Paribas Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Finals, which will run from Oct. 17 to Oct. 26. It was the second time that the newly ranked World No. 2 visited the Southeast Asian nation.

According to The Phuket News, Phuket's English newspaper, Sharapova had a training session and did a motivational talk with the students of Thanyapura's Elite Junior Sports Academies. It is an institute that claims to have the world-class and finest Olympic training facilities in Asia.

"Was an honour and privilege to be able to host @mariasharapova here at Thanyapura for the last week as she prepares for the WTA Finals in Singapore this weekend and gain her #1 ranking back (currently #2) #tennis #mariasharapova #tennisresort #asiansportresort #thanyapura #WTA," Thanyapura wrote on Instagram.

In an interview with the sports resort hotel, Sharapova said she was extremely delighted to be able to visit Phuket for the second time. The tennis star revealed that she first visited Phuket for a holiday vacation and she was excited to be able to come back for a different cause, "with training and getting ready for one of the biggest tournaments of the year."

Thanyapura even developed a new concoction to honour the Russian tennis darling. Sharapova was asked what would be her signature smoothie. She said she has been into green juices. "I've been making them with kiwi, cucumber, kale, mint then pineapple or apple to give a bit of sweetness," Sharapova said. "That's pretty much been my go-to juice," she added.

The concoction is now available at Thanyapura. It is called Sharapova Smoothie.

Sharapova will make her seventh appearance in the WTA Finals in Singapore. She qualified for the first time in the season-ending tournament in 2004, which was held in Los Angeles, where she defeated Serena Williams to clinch the title. Since then, Sharapova has not been able to repeat his victorious debut in the WTA Finals, also known as Tour Championships. She finished as a runnerup in 2007 and in 2012.

In 2014, Sharapova became the second player to qualify in Singapore. Will she be able to win her second WTA Finals trophy? If she wins, it will be her fifth title of the season. She has won titles in Stuttgart, Madrid, Roland Garros, and Beijing.

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