Tennis Latest: Russian star Maria Sharapova out of Pan Pacific Open
Maria Sharapova may very well be one of the more pretty players on the tennis circuit, but her recent performances have been incredibly poor as she has been faltering for quite some time now; not only in Grand slams but also on
ATP tour challenges.
Given her sensational rise in 2006, when the relatively unknown starlet came from nowhere to lift the Wimbledon title, she has since not lived up to expectations.
In her teens she was phenomenal and everyone who saw her game was never in any doubt that she will become the number one women’s tennis player and will remain at the top for a long time. But that’s not been the case, as it has
been a sorry story for the beauty queen from Russia. Her career has been dodged by injuries which has affected her game badly as her opponents seem to overhaul her easily.
In the past few grand slams she has been very average to say the least, as she has been suffering early exits which clearly indicate an early demise.
Her early exits in quite a few tournaments came back to haunt her as she found herself out of the Pan Pacific tournament early on as well. What could be said about a lady who has started designing her own clothes under the auspices
of big sponsors Nike?
Her life outside of the tennis court seems to be moving fine, but what matters is the fact that she if she could get her act right on the courts, she’d be called and remembered as a great player.
She ran out of steam in the Pan Pacific Open when Japan’s favourite, Kimiko Date, defeated her 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. Sharapova, who was the 12th seed in the tournament, was the champion here in Tokyo in 2005. The Russian was
never at her best as she nailed herself by hitting eleven double faults which are too many by anyone’s standards.
The Russian star was full of praise for her opponent, Date, who remarkably will turn forty in a few weeks and is still going with her passion for tennis. Maybe there is a big lesson in this defeat for Sharapova; if you keep concentrating
on the court, age becomes just a number.
Sharapova needs to resort back to basics if she wants to achieve something in her life, as advertisements can earn you money but not respect. She needs to spend time in training instead of doing modeling shoots, as only practice
can bring her back into her old form and rhythm.
Sharapova was pretty generous with her comments for her rival who became the reason for ousting. Maria said that Date never allowed her to settle in the game and she felt as if there was no rhythm and she was playing second fiddle
to Date. She further said that Date had a different style of play as compared to others as she was pretty fast with her movements and strokes while remaining inside the baseline. That made her even more difficult to play against.
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