Sharapova vows to win back her crown

A glassy-eyed Maria Sharapova [Images] blinked away the pain of losing her most glittering possession on Thursday, promising to return bigger and stronger next year to win it back.

The 18-year-old second seed surrendered her Wimbledon crown in a 7-6, 6-1 semi-final defeat by American Venus Williams [Images] on Centre Court that exposed the lanky Russian's lack of muscle.

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"I'm obviously very sad," said Sharapova after her first grasscourt defeat in 23 matches. "This tournament means a lot to me, more than any other tournament.

"I guess there's many more years to come. It's just one of those things where you want to win, but you can't.

"I think I need to be stronger. The stronger I get, the bigger my serve will be, the easier it will be for me to hold serve and get more free points.

"But at 18, I don't think it's possible to have a huge consistent serve. I realise that and I accept it.

"I know with hard work and practice and repetition it will get bigger and stronger and more accurate."

The style-conscious Russian has attended most of her post-match news conferences in eye-catching dresses.

On Thursday, as the rain pelted down outside, Sharapova wore the air of just another beaten tennis player, slouched miserably over the microphone in her tracksuit and baseball cap.

She had more than enough grace, however, to admit she had lost to the better player on the day.

"I just played against a really good opponent. I thought we played a really good match. Today it went to the better person.

"I don't think I played my best tennis but credit to her for not making me play my best.

"She had a lot of deep balls -- hard, deep balls. She was serving consistently big. I don't think I was serving as big. I don't have as big a serve as her.

"That put a little bit of pressure on my serve and I wasn't serving consistently. So she had the advantage on the return and wasn't making many errors."

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