Maria Sharapova vs Strycova Strycova can s**y Sharapova win Wimbledon 2010
Often criticized as a player more focused on the fame side of her tennis career, many believe that Maria Sharapova has lost the edge that made her become the world number one. For the past two years, Sharapova has failed to reach the third round of the Wimbledon championships, giving speculators more fuel to build their fire on. This 2010, Sharapova’s chances of winning the Wimbledon trophy has increased compared to the past two years.
In a recent interview, Sharapova attributed her drive to win, or at least to last longer in the competition, to the fact that she has had dismal performances these past two years at Wimbledon. It’s quite shocking to see a player of Sharapova’s caliber being defeated in the second round of Wimbledon by a No. 154 player like Alla Kudryavtseva (2008) and Gisela Dulko (2009). This makes her win against Ioana Olaru such a bittersweet moment for Sharapova. By advancing to the third round of the tournament, Sharapova has removed the stigma of her second round losses in the last two years, which allows her to focus on the more important things such as winning the Wimbledon trophy. Her win against Ioana Olaru, ranked 114 in the world, sets her up against Czech Barbora Záhlavová-Strýcová in the fourth round of the competition. With momentum on her side, Maria Sharapova is expected to prevail against Strýcová on Friday, albeit she will be given a really hard time by her fairly unknown opponent. Should she win against the Czech, she is either going to face defending champion Serena Williams or Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova in the fourth round.
Despite overcoming the second round jinx of Wimbledon, Sharapova should not rest on her laurels in preparation for her match against Strýcová. Strýcová caused one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon this year by eliminating Daniela Hantuchova in the second round of Wimbledon. Hantuchova, ranked 25th in the world, was beaten by Strýcová, who is ranked 68th in the world. Hantuchova started the match strong, taking the first set of the match at 6-1. However, Strýcová came back in the 2nd set and forced a third by winning 6-2 and eventually winning the third set at 6-4 against the Slovak.
Sharapova should not lose focus of her main goal which is, of course, to win the Wimbledon trophy. Strýcová, despite being a fairly unknown player and despite being ranked in the lower part of the top 100, is a dangerous player. Strýcová has nothing to lose in her match against Sharapova; she’s young and needs to learn a lot. Sharapova on the other hand, has a lot of skeptics that are wondering if she could ever gain back the edge that once brought her to the top of the women’s world rankings.
Strýcová and Sharapova only joined one pre-Wimbledon tournament this year and had different outcomes. Strýcová exited the first round of the Unicef Open while Sharapova reached the finals of AEGON Classic, where she lost to Na Li. Sharapova may have better results in the pre-Wimbledon tournament, but she must be careful in playing against a newcomer like Strýcová. Sharapova has a tendency to become overconfident, which Strýcová can definitely take advantage of. Based on history, Sharapova has often lost to low ranking players in the early rounds of Wimbledon and Strýcová is not different from the players who defeated Sharapova these past two years. Strýcová has nothing to lose, but has everything to gain.
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