by Pete Bodo
MIAMI, Fla.—In some ways, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova are mirror images of each other, or, if you prefer, different sides of the same coin. Both young women are blonde and leggy, and they share a common mother tongue, Russian. They both belt the felt off the ball, and have no fear of taking chances. If Azarenka is quicker and more athletic, she's also been more prone to bouts of emotional self-destruction, and less able to impose the pace and tone she likes on a match.
And, of course, both women shriek like banshees each time they strike the ball. Listening to them today in the Sony Ericsson Open final, you might have thought there was just one cry and then a slightly overlapping echo. It's another element suggesting that Azarenka studied at the feet of the master, modeling her aggressive game and piercing shriek on those of Sharapova.
Admittedly, the difference in their ages isn't great (At 23, Sharapova is two years and a few months older). But the gap in experience is vast. Sharapova was a Grand Slam champion and world No. 1 by the time she was Azarenka's current age. Furthermore, Sharapova's signature qualities were state-of-the-art at the time Azarenka was coming of age, although recent years haven't been kind to her. She's been struggling with a shoulder injury since she was first sidelined in August 2008, and came into this tournament seeded No. 16, while Azarenka was No. 8. Their match was a wild shoot-out, ultimately won by Azarenka, 6-1, 6-4.
Azarenka said afterward that her first memory of Sharapova was a little over a decade ago, when Sharapova was 12 and both girls were competitors (albeit in different age divisions) at the Eddie Herr junior tournament here in Florida. "Yeah. I saw her the first time when she was 12," Azarenka recalled, adding with a smile, "And then when she was 14 she was like three times bigger."
Sharapova concedes that there are "certain similarities" between them, while Azarenka denies any Sharapova influence on her game—other than the aggressive disposition they share. I guess she's in denial about their similar ululations. When she was asked who had the better shriek today, she sniffed, "I don't know. I think mine is quieter."
Could have fooled me.
A cynic could easily scoff at this match. It was a blow-out, right? Sharapova held all of one service game, and that one not until the sixth game of the second set, by which time she was down 6-1, 4-1. What a laugher! It should have ended 6-1, 6-1, but Azarenka couldn't close it out. How could Sharapova make so many unforced errors (43!)?
But while there were no close sets, there were numerous close games in this absorbing struggle. Some matches with a comparable score are over in about an hour, and characterized by woeful shotmaking and ghastly errors. But this one took an hour and forty-six minutes and featured really wonderful ballstriking by both women. Sure, there were numerous unforced errors (61 in all), but it was a measure of how boldly the women were playing. To me, this was a much better match than some 6-4 in-the-third finals that I've watched. You couldn't ask for either player to step up with greater verve.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the women—and the source of a good part of Sharapova's problems—was her ragged service-return performance. That's after having distiguished herself with deadly returning, going all the way back to Indian Wells. In fact, you could almost say Sharapova has been living largely by the grace of her return. Today, though, it was different. On numerous occasions, she failed to make the aggressive return that has been her trademark. "When you have 15?30, 30?All, it's just—I mean, you got to go for it," she said of those errant returns. "You got to make your opponent play. It just gives her all the confidence in the world (when you miss)."
