Maria Sharapova says she doesn’t try and spend time making friends on tour. Sharapova, who just won Rome, will travel to Paris with her fiancée Sasha Vujacic, her coach Thomas Hogstedt, her physical therapist Juan Reque and her hitting partner Cecil Mamiit. Sharapova’s mother Yelena, who traveled with her for the first time to Indian Wells and Miami this year, will not be going to Europe. Her father Yuri, who still occasionally coaches her at home, will not be traveling with her either.
"It's tough to have really good friends on the tour," she said. "I find it difficult to be having dinner with someone one night and then having to play them two days later because it is at the end of the day an individual sport and we are all very competitive. It's typical in sport to try to beat each other. You know we are not on a team and as far as really close friends goes, I have my family who come with me on the road. I don't hang around in the locker room—it's my least favorite place in the world. I do my job at the site, I play matches do what I have to do and live my world away from the site and don't talk tennis all day. It's not in my best interests."