Maria Sharapova hopeful of winning U.S. Open 2010
Maria Sharapova, the 23-year-old Russian tennis ace, who has recently improved her world rankings after a shoulder injury that badly affected her game, feels that she is getting back in form and has bright chances of grabbing her second United States Open at Flushing Meadows in four years.
Maria suffered due to her shoulder injury because of which she had to go through surgical treatment back in 2008. As a result, the Florida resident stayed away from the professional tennis for a couple of months. Consequently, she dropped down in WTA rankings to as low as number 126 in the world.
However, Sharapova is now ranked 16 in the world by WTA. The Russian has played a total of 12 tournaments so far this year and has made her way into a total of two finals. Therefore, Sharapova is convinced that she has bright chances of winning a major title at Flushing Meadows this season.
“I have a strong feeling that I have chances to win a US Open title this time as my game is improving and I am slowly getting back in form,” said the right handed Maria who pulled out of the WTA championship in Montreal just a few days ago as a result of her heel injury.
“I’ve had some wonderful success memories at the Flushing Meadows in New York apart from some harsh ones. Having to skip it for two years ago as a result of my shoulder and then returning back previous season with pressure … well that absolutely wasn’t easy at all for me.”
Sharapova, who has won three major single titles, has not won a single grand slam since her Australian Open triumph in 2009. Almost eight months after that success, the 23-year-old Russian went through a right shoulder surgery. As a result of that, she struggled to find her form that once improved her rankings to as high as number one in the world.
Sharapova, who has won a total of 22 WTA titles, achieved her career high ranking of number one in the world back in 2005 during the month of August.
However, 2010 has not been kind to her. Maria lost in the Stanford final against Victoria Azarenka. She then lost to reigning United States Open champ, Kim Clijsters from Belgium at the ATP Cincinnati Open final. However, she is still hopeful that a comeback of fortunes is just around the corner.
Until late July, the Russian has not defeated a player from the top 25 in WTA rankings. However, during last month, Sharapova managed to knock down sixth ranked Elena Dementieva as well as two-time major winner Svetlana Kuznetsova in the summer hard court season.
The former number one is working really hard on her current form in order to erase the memories from last season’s United States Open at the Flushing Meadows where the Russian beauty struggled particularly with her serve. She was upset by U.S. teenager Melanie Oudin in the third round of the competition.
Sharapova has already started working on her service motion that was a major cause of her failure in New York last year. Maria has already shown the sight of her former self during recent hard court tune up events.
While Maria said that Wimbledon is her favourite one, she is definitely looking forward to come back under the spot light at Flushing Meadows for the US Open title which she won in 2006.
She said, “In New York it’s all about the craziness, the excitement along with the rivalries,” said Maria. “It is highly stimulating. I want to perform at my very best and win a title at the Flushing Meadows”.
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