Maria Sharapova had no time to celebrate her victory over Daniela Hantuchova at the Zurich Open on Sunday, packing her bags immediately to move on to Linz where she is the top seed this week.
Despite the win in Zurich the Russian is still at number three in the world rankings, behind Amelie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne, but her fourth title of the season took her closer to finishing the year as number one.
For Sharapova, that is not an important factor. She wants to regain the number one ranking she first reached in August 2005 but the timing is of no consequence to her.
"I won the (Zurich) title but it's not the first thing I thought of, that I can be number one and that my chances are better than they were before I won it," she said in Linz, where she has a first-round bye.
"Number one in general, it's an amazing accomplishment. Of course, that's what every girl dreams of when they're growing up and playing tennis. If I get the chance (again) then it's great, and ending the year number one is a big achievement I guess.
"But personally I don't feel it's a huge deal. I honestly don't remember who ends the year number one. You remember people who won Grand Slams but I don't personally remember who ended as number one last year."
The Russian took a break after winning the U.S. Open title last month and did not play again until Moscow two weeks ago, but she is still feeling the effects of the long season as it draws towards its finale in Madrid in two weeks' time.
"Tired? I'm looking forward to booking a room at the hospital," she said. "That's an understatement but that happens to all the players. At the end of the year you're just trying to find a way to recover after your matches. You're hoping that the little aches and pains that you have won't bother you too much and you can play through them."Her list includes the right-foot injury that forced her to default her quarter-final match in Moscow.
"The foot's the same, mediocre," she said. "When you play a match you don't really think about it. You think about it more when you're losing the point, but winning the point you don't think about it. But it got no worse during the week."
Sharapova tops a challenging Linz field composed almost entirely of players ranked in the top 30.
Defending champion Nadia Petrova of Russia is seeded two, third seed and 2005 runner-up Patty Schnyder of Switzerland will be hoping to put last week's disappointing first-round loss in her home city of Zurich behind her, and Russian teenager Nicole Vaidisova is seeded four.
In Monday's play, Israel's Shahar Peer held off a strong second-set challenge to beat Marion Bartoli of France 6-3, 7-6 and set up a second-round meeting with Petrova, and Australia's Samantha Stosur progressed when Maria Kirilenko of Russia retired with a hip injury with Stosur leading 6-4, 3-2.
