Tennis Insider: Maria Sharapova wants to play 2020 Tokyo Olympics

Maria Sharapova was expected to come at the Kremlin VTB Cup as a special guest The president of the Russian tennis federation Shamil Tarpischev said: 'Maria is very unlikely to come. She decided to start preparing for the next season. It will be important, she will have to become elegible to play Tokyo Olympics and Maria wants to play there.' The ATP and WTA tournaments at the Kremlin Cup take place in the same week. Could it change in the future? 'We appreciate that this is the only men's and women's tournament combined in our country. We want to keep this format. We can split the men's and women's events if there is no space for the competition.' The Hopman Cup tournament director Paul Kilderry hopes that the event will continue to be played after 2019. 'We've got a contract through to 2022 with the government and our intent is to honour that contract,' Kilderry said. 'The world of tennis is more political at the moment than I've ever seen in my 30 years of being around it. The Davis Cup has changed - there's a lot of change at the moment. I don't think anyone has a real clear outlook on it. We've just got to focus on this year's event, have a great event and our intent is to honour the contract we have.'

ATP Updated ratings announced: Djokovic is closer to Nadal