was the fourth seed. She received a first round bye and faced Garbiñe Muguruza in her opener, she won in three sets. In the following round she lost in three sets to Muguruza's compatriot, Carla Suárez Navarro. At the Western & Southern Open, Sharapova was seeded fifth and defeated Madison Keys after having a first round bye. She then went on to defeat Pavlyuchenkova and newly crowned world No. 2, Simona Halep, to reach the last four. She faced Ivanovic again but lost in a roller coaster three-setter despite having two match points. Sharapova then travelled to New York for the US Open where she was the 5th seed. She defeated compatriot Maria Kirilenko and Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru before overcoming 26th seeded German Sabine Lisicki in round 3 to set up a clash with Caroline Wozniacki in the round of 16. Sharapova lost to the Dane in three sets. Sharapova next played the inaugural 2014 Wuhan open where she was seeded fourth. After receiving a first-round bye, she defeated compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova in three sets and next faced Timea Bacsinszky. Although Sharapova won their two previous encounters, she was stunned by Timea in two tight sets, thus ending her campaign at the Premier-5 tournament. The following week, Sharapova played the China Open in Beijing, a Premier Mandatory-level tournament. Reaching the final without dropping a set, Sharapova defeated world No. 9 Ana Ivanovic in the semis. In the final, Sharapova met reigning Wimbledon champion and world No. 3, Petra Kvitová. Sharapova won the match in 2 hours 30 minutes, defeating the Czech in three sets. By virtue of the win, Sharapova's ranking rose from No. 4 to No. 2 in the world and she secured herself the second seeding for the WTA year-end Championship. Also, Sharapova closed in on the year-end number-one ranking spot, being just 467 points behind Williams. Maria was ranked No. 2 heading into the WTA Tour Championships, with a chance of overtaking Serena Williams as world No. 1. She was drawn in the white group, with Kvitová, Radwańska and Wozniacki. Her first match was a three set loss to Wozniacki. Maria also lost her second round robin match to Kvitová in straight sets; her first loss to Petra since 2011. Maria still had a chance of making the semifinals, but she needed to beat Radwańska in two sets, and Wozniacki needed to beat Petra in straight sets