A snapshot of Maria Sharapova’s performance in 2010
Maria Sharapova, ranked as one of the world’s richest women in sports has won 22 WTA singles titles, 3 WTA doubles titles and 3 Grand Slam singles titles, including 2004 Wimbledon, 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open. Due to her remarkable performances
since her debut in November 2001, she has achieved the title of World no. 1 in singles 4 times by the Women’s Tennis Association.
The beginning of 2010 did not prove to be very exciting for Maria Sharapova as she lost her opening match at the Grand slam event for the first time since 2003. The defeat in the first round by Maria Kirilenko at the start of the Australian Open upset her.
But she did not let it hold her back, and competed in the Cellular South Cup with a big bang as she went on to win her 21st career WTA title and her first of 2010.
However, at the BNP Paribas Open Sharapova made 62 unforced errors, 14 double faults, and was broken seven times during the match. At the end of the match Zheng, the 26-year-old Chinese, a semi-finalist at this year’s Australian Open made a massive come
back from 3-1 down in the decider to win the match. Sharapova’s crucial match at the BNP Paribas Open, lead to a bruised bone on her right elbow, which made her withdraw from the Family Circle Cup as well as the Sony Ericsson Open.
At the 2010 Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, Sharapova lost in the first round to Lucie Šafářová. However, she carried on with the preparations for the French Open at the Internationaux de Strasbourg. During the French Open, Maria Sharapova faced a seventh loss
to Justine Henin, a Belgian tennis player, in ten career meetings.
The Wimbledon crowd hoped Maria Sharapova would be functioning this time, but she lost again to the champion Serena Williams in the fourth round, despite having three set points in the opening set. Her outstanding performance as the 16th seed
at Wimbledon brought hope to the fans and expected her to be a strong challenger for Grand Slams again. Maria Sharapova felt that she was improving in form by the end of the match which brought a ray of hope.
With the advent of the next US open Series campaign in Stanford, Maria Sharapova established her previous statement "in a much better spot than I was last year" and reached the final after defeating Radwanska and Dementieva. However, she disappointed the
crowd by losing in straight sets to Azarenka, a World. No. 6 Belarusian Tennis Player.
Soon after, she made her debut at the Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open, winning there to Svetkana Kuznetsova. This was followed by her fifth straight victory against Radwanska and a win over Marion Bartoli. She also won against Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova before losing to Kim Clijsters after losing 3 championship points in the second set. During the second match against Clijsters, Maria Sharapova suffered because of a heel injury and had to pull out of the 2010 Rogers Cup in Montreal.
Maria’s come back was astonishing when she defeated Australia’s Jarmila Groth at the 2010 U.S open. Before losing to the top opponent, Caroline Wozniacki in the round of 16, she scored her first double bagel in two years against Beatrice Capra, a 201 ranked
WTA singles player. Unfortunately, the defeat against Caroline Wozniacki stigmatized Sharapova’s career, as it is recorded as the first season where Sharapova did not go any further than the round of 16 in any of the four Grand Slams.
At the current tournament, Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, ending on the 2nd of this month, Maria lost against Kimiko Date-Krum of Japan and could not make it to the second round. The year so far did not turn out to be a good reflector of Maria
Sharapova’s outstanding performance in the preceding years resulting in a rank of 14.
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