Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova; born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player. A United States resident since 1994, Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions, for a total of 21 weeks. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medalist, having earned silver for Russia in women's singles...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionTennis Player
Date of Birth19 April 1987
CityNyagan, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
I think today I played much better, especially in the first set, than in my first match on Wednesday,
I was in that period right after I won Wimbledon, ... The next four months, I felt like I had to win every match. It's a matter of telling yourself that it's impossible to win everything ? no matter what people say. You can't control people's actions. My big thing is to just keep working hard. Because one day, you're going to be on court and you'll win a match and realize that the hard work paid off. That's exactly what I did last year. I lost here and I worked my butt off.
I think I started of really well from the first match. I was really read. It was a bit unexpected because I didn't play a lot of matches coming into the tournament, so I thought I would be a little rusty at the beginning.
It can be tough to stay motivated to run and train. So when I have a comfortable shoe where I can feel cushion and I can feel like I'm walking on air, then there's so much more enjoyment in my training. The Air Max 360 does that for me.
I actually felt pretty good. I'm really happy about it because that's one of the first times I played a match without feeling anything. You know, I don't expect it to be that like for the whole tournament. So I'm very happy I got through that one without any pain.
Physically it was very difficult to keep up with Svetlana today. I just wasn't physically ready to run down a lot of balls.
I enjoy it. Like I said in my previous press conferences, I think in the morning I was doing the 'Today' show, all being glamorous. Then I'm back on the court after three hours, and I'm working hard. This is where I feel I really belong.
Martina's return gives a lot of excitement to the game. Definitely she hasn't played for a long time, but I think everyone is very excited.
Lindsay is always tough on this surface, it's very quick. I know it was a great final this year, so I'm really looking forward to, hopefully, another great final with her.
I won the first set, and I felt like for some reason, it was over,
I was very disappointed (at the U.S. Open), and I went out there and I worked really hard.
I was hoping that it would be better by now, ... but unfortunately I am not yet able to play.
I also want to play in the Olympics and would love to represent Russia there as well.
It feels really great. Honestly I was having a really tough end of the year last year. You know, not a lot of people know about it, but it was very frustrating because tournament after tournament, you know, I'd be working hard and I'd be trying to get back in shape and all of a sudden my injury would bring me down again.