The Russians may be right about Sharapova...

Question

For some time now, I've been reading that the other female Russian tennis players are not fans of Maria. The criticism has been that she constantly and convenient "opts out" of play whenever she is asked to represent Russia (i.e. Fed Cup and now the Olympics). They claim her motivation is mainly about keeping her endorsements and that she's basically an American and should change her citizenship.

Ultimately, they are angry because she is the best Russian player and is usually first choosen to represent the country, leaving other Russian women out of play until she decides to back out.

I didn't believe this one at first, but now that she's out of the Olympics I am suspicious. What do you think?

Answer 1

djokovic is her frend 2.nd luk dear she might hav some luv interest dere,about which she does not want 2 go public.she dated andy murray too.nd besides,jst b'coz djokovic,federer r still getting themselves trained in european countries.it does.nt mean she 2 has 2 follow d herd.its her life anyway.

Answer 2

shes just injured. why would she have participated in fed cup earlier this year. she said she really enjoied her fed cup experience and i wold bet a lot of money that she will be in fed cup again. she cant help it that her rotator cuff is a little torn in her shoulder. she is a great player. i do agree she needs to become and american citizen because she basically already is but thats her choice i guess so who cares, its none of our business because its not really afecting us at all.

Answer 3

what about her saying that she'll miss the US open too?

Answer 4

the bit.ch is anti-russian and should be killed! she is no russian, a real patriotic russian lives in russia and represents russia even if she is about to die! this sl.ut is just another spoilt american brat! i think sharapova is pi.ssing off the russians and it might not be long before a couple of russian men pay a little visit to her and her little family in florida! anyone that lives in the USA and calls themselves from another country are pro american and anti their native country! the only reason they go there is because of that s**+.tty tennis academy bolleterri where in the 1980's and 1990's it was the only academy in the world! now in the 2000's nearly every nation has much better academies than that! look at the russian academies,spanish academies,the french academies,german academies, chinese academies,etc all these new academies are far better with much more advanced training and coaching facilities than the american ones! just look at the federer's,nadal's and djokovic's who have trained in european academies and are destroying the american players! in the 1980's and 1990's only the americans had the facilities and coaching so they produced many OK players competing with poorly trained and coached european players! but since 2000 the europeans are utterly dominating and the russians are dominating on the womens and the chinese are about to become the next tennis superpower! just look at the young american players are hopeless, and they are hopeless not because they have less talent than sampras,etc but because the europeans and russians are much more talented and now they get far superior coaching and training facilities than the americans! same thing in the olympics, emerging nations are rising and becoming sporting superpowers in different sports and the americans are wondering what happened, well nothing happened,its just that the americans got an easy ride with hardly any decent competition! but now hard working sportspeople from all over the world are rising and are just much better because they go through the hard life and are more motivated and determined,look at ivanovic and djokovic stories! whereas the americans just get everything handed to them on a silver platter and dont do jack so they appear they suck but they are the same talent as sampras,agassi,mcenroe,connors,etc! back then only people like borg and navritalova gave the americans competition but now its 1000 times that competition! the american cant even win the basketball champs or olympics because everyone else is better! simple as that! i know americans have a hard time listening to the truth but americans better get used to it, the good ol' days are long gone where they had no competion! now russia,china,asia as a whole,eastern europe,latin america, india,etc are rising and are bigger powers than the united states! IT IS FACT! the dominance of the USA is fading in every aspect of life,its just the way planet earth works! long time ago britain was winning just about everything, now they cant produce 1 good sportperson let alone win something decent! the days of 1 nation dominating everything are long over, its a very competitive world now! nothing or nobody gets any easy ride now!

Answer 5

Do you really think that Sharapova didn't want to play in the Olympics?  Let's be real here.  The girl is injured and can't play...Don't get it twisted.  I think it's more important that she take care of her body, and not risk further injury.  Besides if she were to play injured, she would be more detrimental to her country.  There are several other Russian players that are healthy and capable to play in the Olympics.

Answer 6

Well it's true the other Russians don't hold her in the highest regard but this time around I think her missing the Olympics is really not because of "opting out" but because of her shoulder injury. I also agree that she is much more American than Russian, despite the fact she plays under the Russian flag. Not all the Russians hate her, as Maria Kirilenko is good friends with her.  

Answer 7

Of course they are.

Maria is essentially an American. Her father moved her to the US when she was a little girl and she's been there ever since.

All the "real" Russians, who all grew up and trained in Russia do feel a bit slighted when this "American Russian" all of a sudden comes and takes their spots on the Russian teams. Just think how you would feel if this happened to you.

The only way for Maria to make good with her comrades is to move back to Russia and set up a training camp for young tennis players. She needs to help the Russians develope and promote tennis and not focus on all the money she can make and alienating everyone else.

Besides, it's not just the Russian players that dislike her.

Answer 8

I'm no Sharapova fan but I think the Olympics and the US Open are very important to her.  I think any slam is very important to all the players.  I do think that she showed interest in Fed cup because it would benefit her which is sad.  Also, I don't think the Russian girls are the only ones who aren't really fond of Maria.  People seem to feel like she can be cold but I don't know how true it is.

Answer 9

OF COURSE she is missing all the team events (representing her country... etc) !!!!!!!!! its obviously all the endorsements that wont let her represent her country blahblahblah.. so thats why she has to come up with lame excuses.

Answer 10

you know,i don't care for sharapova more than next person but come on....do you really believe she would opt out of the olympics just to p**s off the russian players and the federation? of course not. in fact she,was present for last year's fed cup final and participated in the first round of it this year just so she could have a chance at being named for the russian team in beijing! yes,she's been a bit of a witch about the fed cup before and i know that this effort this year was obviously in vain but it was her goal to perform in beijing.

and as somebody else pointed out,she has pulled out of the us open too now so i don't think that suggestion has any substance. she tore two tendons in her left shoulder.

Answer 11

What? she not an American citizen?  The girl came over when she was 7yrs old.  So what, she has been on a visa for 14 years now?

My sarcasm stems from the fact that I can't stand these athletes who come over here, live here for years, become U.S. Citizens reap all the benifits, then go play for some other foreign country in Davis Cup or the Olympics.  When you become an American Citizen that becomes your "nationality", which has nothing to do with race/ethnicity.  What, because Dara Torres in hispanic, she should swim for either the Mexico or Spain. This is why both Americans and Russians dislike this girl. (and her awful grunts, shrieks)...  

Answer 12

Yep, she's a goddamn traitor, a really hot one, but a traitor nonetheless.

Just like Kournikova.

Yep, give up that Russian Passport!

Answer 13

I disagree with that completely. I'm not a really big Sharapova fan, but I gotta stick up for her on this one. I believe any kind of grandslam is very important to Maria, just the same way it is to any other player on the WTA tour. I know Maria wouldn't miss the US Open and the Olympics if she wasn't seriously hurt. She's been having shoulder problems the entire year and it's been sort of evident with the way her playing has sort of gone downhill since she won the Australian Open. I don't think she would purposely miss two major tennis events just to p**s off Mother Russia, I really don't think she would seriously take the time to even do such a thing,LOL.