Tennis Update: Will Sharapova’s power reign supreme
Is defensive ability or offensive ability ruling women’s tennis at the moment? The women’s game has always been dominated by the powerful players who hit the ball with power like Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Serena Williams.
The excitement arises, when in the fourth round of the U.S. Open former champion Maria Sharapova, one of the best offensive players, meets top seed Caroline Wozniacki, one of the best defender.
Wozniacki is the best seed for the U.S. Open so far, she has won the Rogers Cup in Montreal and the Pilot Pen in New Haven back to back. However, she is the best seed for the tournament just because Serena William is not playing due to her foot injury, although Wozniacki’s resume is relatively modest as compared to other top players.
The sunny 20-year-old from Denmark has so far kept her haughty position, striking the ball snappishly and dropping just three games in the first three rounds. Not even the No.1s have been so consistent during the first week of a Grand Slam event.
"I think I've shown I belong where I am, and I'm just happy to be through to the fourth round," Wozniacki said. "For me, it's just about winning the matches. I think it's up to everyone else to judge what I've shown or not shown."
Wozniacki knows that she will have to stand against Sharapova’s power with her own stellar performance and try to outsmart the Russian. "I need to be ready that she's going to try to attack from the first ball, and I need to be fast," she said.
A win against Sharapova would help Wozniacki to prove herself as the top professional tennis player and that she is at a level capable of prevailing against the strongest players in tennis. The upcoming match will decide who the Grand Slam threat is. Until now, Wozniacki has only two top ten wins this season, one over Agnieszka Radwanska and the other over French Open champ Francesca Schiavone. Currently Sharapova is not in the top10 after missing a few months this season with an elbow injury but her three Grand Slam titles make her true test for any player.
Former No.1 Sharapova 23-year-old is trying to show that she has achieved lost ground and is still ahead of the upcoming players. Symbolic evidence of that came in the third round match on Saturday when she defeated Beatrice Capra; she was erasing the sting of defeat to last year’s American teen queen, Melanie Oudin.
On that day, Sharapova’s shoulder and serve was still shaky after surgery the previous fall lost three sets to a courageous 17-year-old Oudin in Arthur Ashe Stadium on the middle Saturday. She served 21 double faults.
Despite all the opponents, Sharapova never gave up and fought through. She sees her as her biggest show of mental strength. "Coming back from that and setting another timetable for yourself and doing it over and over again until I slowly found myself working myself up to hitting 10 to 15 serves, 20 serves, and being able to do that without pain and really being patient," she said.
Sharapova has always noted for her toughness and spirited drive since winning Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004. However, Wozniacki doesn’t have any inadequacy in that department either and she got that X factor when she comes to competing according to Darren Cahill, who worked with her as a part of the adidas player development program. Cahill also said that Wozniacki just hates to lose.
A battle of determination and a battle of approach. Whoever wins will be able to reach the finals and will become favourite for the U.S. Open 2010. However, tough opponents like Svetlana Kuznetsova and Vera Zvonareva will remain and perhaps the results will show that it’s a great offensive ability or a great defensive ability that wins the match at the moment.
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