WIMBLEDON, England (AP)—Maria Sharapova is more used to watching her fiance play sports than having him in the stands to support her.
With the roles reversed at Wimbledon—where NBA player Sasha Vujacic has watched the Russian get through the first week without dropping a set— Sharapova thinks he, for once, has the tougher task of the two.
“I think it’s a lot easier to play. That’s what I’ve learned. It’s a lot tougher to be on the sidelines, or (watching) on TV,” Sharapova said after beating Klara Zakopalova of the Czech Republic 6-2, 6-3 Saturday in the third round. “I mean, there’s no doubt that I’ve watched more basketball in the last couple of years than I have in all of my life, (and been) a lot more nervous in my life in those games that I’ve watched than I have been in my life.”
The two are making up for lost time this summer, having been forced to spend more time apart after Vujacic was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the New Jersey Nets last season. But with the Nets having missed the NBA playoffs, Vujacic was able to come to Paris for the French Open last month as well.
On Saturday, he punctuated several of Sharapova’s winners with shouts of “Bravo” and “Come on Maria.”
While many players have their significant others traveling with them on tour throughout the year, Sharapova said being engaged to another world-class athlete has a different set of benefits.
“It’s a different sport because (basketball) is a team sport, but at the end of the day, we’re still athletes,” she said. “We still have to put that amount of work in. There is that level of understanding of what it takes. … Like that preparation of having a warmup in the morning, coming back for lunch, then taking a nap, I think anyone else would be, ‘You’re going to take a nap in the afternoon?’ It’s really nice in the beginning. It’s like, ‘Oh that’s the way things work.’ I don’t even need to explain it.”
Sharapova won Wimbledon in 2004, and is looking for her fourth Grand Slam title overall—but first since having shoulder surgery in 2008. With both Williams sisters having only recently returned from lengthy injury layoffs of their own, many see the Russian as one of the title favorites at the All England Club this year.
Despite an often erratic serve—a recurring problem since her injury layoff — she ousted Anna Chakvetadze of Russia and Laura Robson of Britain in straight sets in the first two rounds.
“I feel like it’s getting better with every year (since the surgery),” Sharapova said. “I’ve gone with the flow of things. Even though in the beginning, when I came back, I thought you could just start from the beginning and feel like you could win everything. But at the end of the day you look back to that moment and you just know that it was going to take time. Obviously I wished I could have gotten better results earlier when I came back, but it’s just not the way things go.”
Her strong play is also helping take her relationship to a new level.
“You get to know a lot about the person by being with them every single day, which we hadn’t really had in our whole relationship,” Sharapova said. “So it’s been really nice. We both enjoyed it. But we’ve obviously been at tournaments. It’s been very hard. We’re competitive, so we’re doing everything in order for me to win tennis matches.”