Maria Sharapova says she’s no longer engaged to Sasha Vujacic

NEW YORK -- Maria Sharapova, who on Friday won her second-round U.S. Open match against Stanford psychology major Mallory Burdette, 6-1, 6-1, said afterward that she and former Laker Sasha Vujacic are no longer engaged.

Sharapova said she and Vujacic split in the spring, before stories appeared in Turkish newspapers that she and Vujacic were going to get married in Istanbul in November. Vujacic has been playing for a professional team in Turkey.

“It’s been since the end of spring,� Sharapova said. “I was waiting for someone to actually ask me that question.

“I have never really been the person to announce things. I never announced when we were together or never announced we were engaged. I never have in any of my previous relationships as well.�

Sharapova said the decision to split from Vujacic was “challenging.�

“It was a really nice period of time for both of us, but our career schedules just made it extremely difficult to see each other with the traveling and especially his career move to Turkey. But we have a tremendous amount of respect for each other. I still would love to call him as a friend. We spent really great years together.�

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