Sharapova's biographers claim that Masha first picked up a racket at the age of just over four years. Consequently, it took her only twelve years to win the first professional tournament. Impressive. However, Mary does not cease to amaze. A little over a week ago, she prematurely completed the fight at the Kremlin Cup with the explanation: “It hurts me so much that I can’t even walk.” And already last Sunday she managed to win a major tournament. From the first step that the tennis player had to take in order to be confined to a press conference, to this victory - 10 days. Unique!
Having rejected the sarcasm caused by regret that the first Russian racket left the Kremlin Cup so early, we admit: the decision to play it safe and not risk health on the injury-hazardous cover of the Olimpiysky, and even on the eve of the decisive tournament of the season, was logical. The peak of the form for Sharapova this season came at the US Open. It was the second victory at the Grand Slam tournament that the Russian woman wanted like no other to feel again the emotions of two years ago, when she arrived at Wimbledon among many, and left the first and only.
After such significant and long-awaited victories, not many have enough strength and emotions to immediately rush into battle again. An eloquent example of the Belgian Kim Clijsters. She returned to tennis last year after an injury, went all the way to victory at the Grand Slam and, having achieved it in the USA, failed the season's ending. And then she admitted that she could not so quickly find strength for new achievements.
It seemed that Sharapova would also need time for a new challenge. After the US Open, she took two weeks off, saying that she wanted more, but the Kremlin Cup ... It turned out that if you can’t refuse a trip to Moscow, you can not stay there for a very long time. And the acupuncture sessions that Maria, according to her, devotes at least 20 minutes a day, to continue somewhere in a warm and calm place, for example, in Switzerland. Moreover, at the tournament in Zurich, in the absence of unhealed Belgians, Enin-Ardenne, Clijsters and the Frenchwoman Moreresmo Sharapova, who appeared during the competition, were really waiting for quite comfortable conditions. A serious rival could get Maria only in the decisive match (Hingis, Kuznetsova and the future finalist Khantuhova performed in the parallel part of the net). And the path to it with fights against Israeli Peer, Swiss Bazhinsky and Slovenia Srebotnik was passed without a single set given to the beat of Maria’s advertising slogan: “I feel pretty”.
The only fact that was not quite “pretty” in Zurich was another warning to Father Maria for loud shouts from the rostrum. A similar incident at the US Open almost turned into a big scandal, to the questions about which Sharapova herself reacts very painfully. Indeed, not to blame the girl for the fact that she has such a temperamental father who, even though you think of a thousand prohibitions, will still not be able to control himself. Only after all, in tennis there are a lot of such parents of children possessed by success, and it’s scary to imagine what will happen if they all feel impunity and begin to give advice from the stands.
However, the final, which in Switzerland was dubbed the battle of the sex symbols of world women's tennis, Mary was able to win without outside help. According to statistics, Sharapova very rarely loses to tennis players below her rating, and even less often inferior in the finals.
As a result, only the second set was unsuccessful for the third racket of the world. “My thoughts were somewhere far from Zurich,” the girl will comment on her windy play in it. However, the victorious first, in which Masha gave the rival only the game, and the third sets left no doubt who in the world is all the prettiest, all blush and whiter. Well, the tennis player, of course, is beautiful.
Now, on the eve of the WTA final champion starting in early November in Madrid, Sharapova, given the unimportant form of Moresmo and Ardennes, is becoming his main favorite. This is a good chance to decorate the season with another valuable title. “For me, there are few victories,” Sharapova likes to show off her appetite. - Each new success is like another cherry on a delicious cake. Can there be few of them? ”
Health, Masha! Only be careful with the bones.
Andrey IVANTSOV