Maria loses in Hong Kong

Maria lost the final in Hong Kong to #4 seed Venus Williams of the United States by the score of 4-6 3-6 in 80 minutes in sweltering heat at Victoria Park.

Maria talking about the match: "When your opponent is serving big and serving consistently well you really have to take your chances on opportunities you have on second serves which I think I did a poor job on.  When I did get those opportunities on second serve I made errors or gave her an easy ball. Other than that I thought that I did a good job on my serve when she was trying to attack, I thought I did a good job at handling that.

The tournament and preparations for the Australian Open: "I have been happy with what I have done while I have been here. It is always good to get a few matches and I have had four matches in the last week.  This is probably one of the greatest preparations you can get and now with a good week of training in Australia I definitely think that I can be ready."

Maria will now take 1 week off to prepare for the 1st Grand Slam of the year at the Australian Open which begins on January 14th.