Sharapova fires into quarters at Stanford
Maria Sharapova defeated Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-3, 6-3 on Thursday, as she fired through the match into the quarterfinals at the Bank of the West Classic in Stanford.
This was the first meeting for Sharapova and Govortsova, and although Sharapova lost her serve in the opening set, she soon regained composure, storming past Govortsova in a straight set victory that took one hour and 19 minutes. The Belarusian demonstrated a good effort, but was unable to hold against Sharapova's powerhouse serve. Sharapova showed that her discipline and training since coming back from injury have certainly paid off, with finer aspects of her game seeming fine-tuned. Her staggering backhand and forehand, as well as the athleticism in her footwork all speak to her ambition to move past her injuries towards another Grand Slam title.
Sharapova appeared in the quarterfinals at the Bank of the West Classic last year as well, but ended up being defeated by Venus Williams.
Inspired by Wimbledon loss
Having been ousted at Wimbledon 2010 after her disappointing defeat to Serena Williams, Sharapova is undoubtedly looking to impress at the upcoming US Open at the end of August. Currently injury free, she is able to get in valuable playtime at the smaller tournaments in preparation for the Grand Slam.
Sharapova is now looking forward to her face-off with fellow Russian Elena Dementieva, who is seeded at No. 2 at the Bank of the West Classic. Judging by their previous meetings, this should be a sure victory for Sharapova, who leads with a winning record of 8-3 against Dementieva, despite losing during their last match meeting in Toronto last year.
Claim to Fame
The world started to pay attention during Wimbledon 2004, when at the age of 17, the young Russian beat out top seeded Serena Williams in the final to claim her first ladies’ singles title at the prestigious grass-court tournament.
Pestered by her unrelenting shoulder injury, Sharapova was forced to spend a significant amount of time off-court following her Grand Slam title victory at the Australian Open in 2008. Her lack of on-court appearances on the WTA tour resulted in a drop in her rankings over the years. Having held the world No. 1 title, Sharapova is now ranked at No. 15 in the world.
Besides her professional tennis career, Sharapova has amassed an illustrious number of sponsorship and advertising deals with major companies such as Canon and Nike, and has appeared in the Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. Sharapova has also contributed to humanitarian efforts as a United Nations Development Project Goodwill Ambassador, and has given special attention to the Chernobyl Recovery and Development Program.
So far in 2010
With a couple disappointing first round defeats earlier this year, Sharapova was ousted out of the opening round matches at the Australian Open, the Madrid Open. She regained her composure at the AEGON International, making her way to the final, and showed a commendable performance at Wimbledon until losing to Serena Williams in the fourth round. She was nevertheless pleased with the overall performance, commenting that she was in much better shape than she had been at the same time last year.
Sharapova is the winner of a total of three Grand Slam titles, including Wimbledon 2004, the US Open in 2006, and the Australian Open in 2008. Since her comeback following her recovery, Sharapova is aiming to reach another Grand Slam title win, with hopes of beating the Williams sisters, who have been her longstanding rivals, in the process.
Sharapova now continues her campaign for the US Open with her run at Stanford, having won the first two round matches. She now anticipates her face-off against Dementieva to push her further into the draw in hopes of gaining both momentum and confidence in her vie for success at the 2010 US Open.
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