I know: far easier said than done for a player as chained to a power game as Sharapova. But it's equally crazy to continue impersonating vintage Monica Seles - without vintage Monica Sele's depth, or placement. Man, it hurts me just to watch the way Sharapova's head snaps back as she hits that forehand, as if she has just been struck on the jaw by a Joe Frazier upper-cut. There's such a thing as leading with the chin - in fact, more women players (like Schnyder) probably should try it. But not when your jaw is made of glass that day.
And Schnyder? Don't get me started! Serving for the match at 6-4, break-point down, she hit a great first serve to Sharapova's backhand and stopped - just stopped, to watch. Now if there's one thing Sharapova did well in the match, it was fire backhand returns. In fact, it was suicidal for Schnyder to keep going to the port side, but when did that ever stop an unaware player? And on the occasion in question, watching to see what would happen next instead of making something happen led to Schnyder getting caught back on her heels, framing a ugly backhand wide.
At 5-5, the crowd once again broke into the increasingly familiar chant: Pa-tee, Pa-tee, Pa-tee. . . and just as the serenade was dying out, some jovial soul threw in: Allez Amelie. That's one of those Not Funny lines people trot out all the time, cheering for a player who isn't present, and I laugh at it about as often as I join in the general hilarity when a served ball gets stuck in the net. But when you think about it, Schnyder is basically Amelie Lite - a little less versatile, a little less powerful, slightly less athletic, but clearly smooth, talented and comfortable in her own skin as an athlete - something you would never say about, oh, Sharapova.
So anyway, there were also two controversial moments in the late stages of the match. The first one happened with Sharapova serving at 30-love for 8-7 in the third. Just as she tossed the ball, some cloun called out "Allez!" and just as the ball flew by, Schnyder raised her hand to indicate, "Hold it!" Chair umpire Stefan Fransson [[correction: chair umpire was Kader Nouni, Fransson is the tournament referee]] allowed the ace to stand. Schnyder protested, although not that much (she's a "not that much" type, through and through). The umpire refused to budge - which I thought was probably the right move - and the girls went on acting out an execution, passing the knife back and forth to each other, above each other's throats, without actually doing anything, much like in that harrowing, endless scene at the end of Kafka's novel, The Trial.
The other incident was Sharapova's sudden decision that she absolutely, positively, utterly needed to have a new racquet with Patty Schnyder serving at 40-15 in the final game. It seemed a calculated act of gamesmanship, and Fransson slapped her with a Code Violation warning. Sharapova returned to the baseline to receive and never lost another point, which owed just as much to Schnyder's waning enthusiasm as Sharapova's new racquet.
Okay, I'm sick of the "warning" phase of the Code of Conduct system. These players know the Code, what the hail is the point of having a warning - especially when a player knows that, in a late, critical, stage of the match, he or she can buy a little time or mess with an opponent's mind and pay no greater penalty than a warning: Gee, don't do that again, you know it's against the rules!
That rule has to be changed.
However, I never felt Sharapova cheated or stole the match. She was far too incompetent to pull that off without having Schnyder as a co-conspirator. I asked Schnyder in her presser if Sharapova had engaged in gamesmanship. Unable to suppress a trace of bitterness, she replied: "Ask her. I mean, I was there. I was playing my points. It didn't affect me. And at the end, yeah, she was the big champion. I'm the little one who could not win. That was, yeah, the match today."
So Sharapova, in my book, was 1-1 in controversies. I didn't think it right to take away her ace, and I thought it wrong of her to change racquets. When she was asked in her presser if she had ever considered playing the ace over because Schnyder might have been truly thrown off by the "Allez", she replied: "It's hard to consider because, like I said, it's tough playing tennis and being Mother Theresa at the same time and making everyone happy. You know, you're playing an individual sport; you're fighting for every single point out there. . ."
It was the second time in her presser that Sharapova pointed out that she is not to be confused with Mother Theresa, which left only one question in my mind: Whoever confused Sharapova with Mother Theresa?
Like I said, the match had it all.
