Maria Sharapova says she is in top shape to defend her Wimbledon crown.

The 18-year-old Russian wound up her preparations in style when she successfully defended her DFS Classic title in Birmingham, the grass-court tournament which launched her career 12 months ago.

Sharapova, who will now have a week off before Wimbledon, was not at her best as she dropped a set for the third time in the tournament but finished strongly to gain a 6-2 4-6 6-1 victory against third seed Jelena Jankovic, of Serbia and Montenegro.

"I haven't been playing my best tennis but I still managed to get through and I felt really comfortable as the matches went on," she said.

"Having to battle out some tough matches and not feeling your best but still managing to win the tournament is a great feeling, I'm really happy.

"I've played five good matches, where opponents have pushed me and I still came through. I'm going to take that experience and confidence into Wimbledon."

Sharapova's latest Birmingham triumph was her 10th WTA Tour title in two years and her third of 2005, with the promise of many more to come.

She went away with a £17,000 winner's cheque which took her prize money for the year through the one million dollar barrier and provided some loose change ahead of this week's planned shopping spree in London.

For the second successive match, however, the world number two watched her opponent tail away after being afflicted by injury.

Tatania Golovin was hampered by a foot injury in her semi-final on Saturday and the 20-year-old Jankovic needed a medical time-out to have treatment on her right thigh at the end of the second set.

And, like Golovin, Jankovic won just one game on the resumption as Sharapova breezed through the second set in just 25 minutes.

"I started feeling my left leg towards the end of the second set," explained Jankovic. "It was getting stiff and it was tough to bend, especially on my serve.

"I didn't have any power to continue and that's why it was 6-1 in the final set."

Both players struggled at times in the cold and windy conditions and, although Sharapova always looked capable of pulling out the big shot to avert a crisis, she appeared to lose concentration in the second set.

Jankovic, who beat Serena Williams earlier this year, dropped just six points on her serve in the second set to level the match but faded badly when she began to feel the effects of her thigh strain and succumbed to the Wimbledon champion for the third time in as many meetings.

"If I play my best tennis I can beat her but I wasn't playing even close to the level I can play at," she added.

Sharapova is almost over the cold that affected her performances in the previous two days but found it difficult to cope with the sudden drop in temperature and is still troubled slightly by a thigh strain.

"Conditions were heavier and the ball didn't fly as much in the air," she said.

"But I don't think I could have done much more. I played a really good first set and we were on serve in the second until she broke me with an aggressive game.

"If she could have played at that level for the whole three sets it might have been different but in the third she made a few errors and let me back in it."

Meanwhile, Sharapova dropped a hint that she could be back at Edgbaston next year in a bid to complete a hat-trick of DFS Classic wins.

The tournament traditionally falls between the French Open and Wimbledon and could fit perfectly into her plans to make the transition from clay to grass.

"It's hard to say, but I hope so," she said. "It always depends on how I feel physically after the French and how much time I have to prepare.

"But I usually like a week off before the Grand Slams."