* !201203291503542298684-p2@stats.comby Pete Bodo*
MIAMI—It can’t always be easy being Maria Sharapova. For all of the accolades and rewards she’s earned, she’s too much of a competitor—too much the jock—to be content to sit back and smell the roses.
Sharapova is still a focused, ambitious tennis player and, despite having three Grand Slam singles titles and a talent for maintaining a high ranking (presently, No. 2), you sense that she wants more, desires more in a very pure way that has nothing to do with prize or endorsement money or, in a general sense, greater fame. This presents certain problems, or maybe it’s those very problems that keep her interested and coming back for more, even though she hasn’t won a Grand Slam title since early 2008.
While every pro’s game is unique, Sharapova’s is uniquely unreliable at times—like it was in the first set of her semifinal clash Caroline Wozniacki here at the Sony Ericsson Open. Like Cinderella, Sharapova has to deal with the threat of midnight, and not just once in every 24-hour period. Her game can turn from a coach into a pumpkin, then back again, any number of times during a match. No wonder she’s such a great competitor; this is a girl who knows all about stress management.
Take today. Sharapova raced out to a two-break, 4-1 lead at the start of the match, thanks to her nonpareil opportunism and atomic-grade groundstrokes. She served the next game and had a point for 5-1. During the ensuing rally, she sharply hit a backhand that smacked the tape with the sound of a pistol shot.
Deuce.
Two quick forehand errors later and Wozniacki was off and running. By the time she slowed down, she’d reeled off five straight games to win the first set. In that enterprise, she had considerable help from her opponent, particularly with Sharapova serving at 4-3, still up a break. In that game, Sharapova made a backhand error and then popped in a pair of double faults (pumpkin). Down triple-break point, she took advantage of a backhand error, cracked an inside-out forehand winner, and forced a forehand error to get back to deuce (coach). She then hit another double fault, and made a backhand error to to revert to pumpkin mode.
But the coach was waiting. Jumping all over Wozniacki’s serve in the first game of the second set, Sharapova broke. Soon she was right back where she’d been 45 minutes earlier—serving for a 5-1 lead. This time, she closed the deal and went on to serve out the set. She jumped to another two-break lead (5-2) in the third, but Wozniacki cut the lead to 5-3 and held. But she could no longer forestall Sharapova, who served it out, 4-6, 6-2, 6-4.
“I'm extremely pleased that I pulled it out today. [It was] long, tough.” Sharapova said. “After losing a few straight games, I could have easily just went down in the second set. I’d backed off and she stepped up, but I really stepped it up again. I went out and started being aggressive. I didn't stop, you know, after I put myself in a good position.”
Sharapova’s problem with coaches and pumpkins is amply demonstrated in the stat sheet as well. She hit 55 winners but racked up 46 errors (Wozniacki’s respective numbers were 13 and 25). It’s a familiar-looking stat that underscores just how fearlessly—if at times ineffectively—Sharapova plays. Clearly, she looks at errors as one of those “no pain, no gain” propositions, and that speaks well for her. The attitude also enables her to set the terms of the conversation, and today that meant that she commanded Wozniacki to play “catch-up.”
Wozniacki plays catch-up well, perhaps too well. It’s a talent cultivated mainly by good-but-not-great players. The harsh reality Wozniacki has to face is that, after taking advantage of Sharapova’s lapse at 4-1, she was unable or unwilling to change the course of the conversation. She left her fate in the hands of Sharapova, and never led after winning that first set.
When Wozniacki was asked about the contrast in styles in this match, she said (rather disingenuously, I think): “To be honest, I don't really think about these things. I just play to win, however I can to try to win the match. If that is to make her run and then try to make as little mistakes as possible, I do that. If it is to try to play aggressive, I try to do that. You know, I just play. . .”
Excuse me, Ms. Wozniacki, but when exactly have you gone out there and played aggressively?
Sharapova has been played very solid tennis at the baseline these days, those lapses notwithstanding. Does anyone else think she’s moving much better than at any time in the past?
“It's definitely something that I have worked on and always tried to build,” she said. “That's a part of my game that I always felt like could be better over my career. . .With every year, I really feel stronger. Um, maybe the older you get, you know, the better you get at it.”
Since the start of 2011, Sharapova is now 17-1 in three-set matches. You can’t explain that adequately with her penchant for bold play, her movement, or her ability to belt winners from anywhere on the court. The statistic is a tribute to her qualities as a competitor and a testament to her ongoing ambitions. Sharapova has—improbably—won a WTA title every year since 2003, which is good enough for ninth place on the all-time list, even though she’s still just 24.
For her, it isn’t just about the pumpkins and coaches. Sharapova will take as bumpy and uncertain a ride as is necessary, as long as at the end of the road she has a chance to slip her foot into the glass slipper once again.