Maria Sharapova splits with fianc Sasha Vujacic

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Maria Sharapova splits with fianc Sasha Vujacic

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Maria Sharapova has called off her engagement to basketball player Sasha Vujacic.

01 September,2012 08:10 pm

The 25-year-old tennis ace told reporters at the U.S. Open on Friday the pair ended their relationship in the spring.At her postmatch news conference - following a 6-1, 6-1 victory over NCAA runner-up Mallory Burdette to reach the fourth round - four-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova said matter-of-factly: I was waiting for someone to actually ask me that question, but nobody did, directly.She added: It was obviously a challenging decision, you know, from both of our ends.Word of their engagement came in October 2010, when Vujacic said he had proposed on the one-year anniversary of their first meeting at a friends barbecue.Vujacic was there to support Sharapova at Wimbledon last year during her run to the final, even standing and screaming and pumping his fists in her guest box.We have a tremendous amount of respect for each other. Still would love to call him a friend, Sharapova said. We spent really great years together.The Slovenian guard was a first-round draft pick of the Los Angeles Lakers in 2004, and played for them until being traded to the New Jersey Nets in the 2010-11 season, then left the NBA to play in Turkey.It was a really nice period of time for both of us, but, you know, our career schedules just made it extremely difficult to see each other with the traveling, and especially his career move to Turkey... He wasnt able to travel much. He wasnt home one time during the 10 months that he was in Turkey, so that made it extremely difficult, Sharapova said.There hasnt been much to talk about this week when it comes to her matches. The third-seeded Russian has yet to be tested, losing a total of seven games through three matches so far.Against Burdette, who will be a senior at Stanford this year, Sharapova reeled off 12 of the last 13 points and needed only 58 minutes to wrap up the victory. Its only the second time Sharapova has reached the fourth round at the U.S. Open since winning the title in 2006.She completed a career Grand Slam by winning the French Open in early June.Took a little bit of a break after Wimbledon and went home. I think I kind of recharged a little bit, said Sharapova, who will face number 19 Nadia Petrova next.Certainly feel a lot more energy than I did maybe after the French.