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 physically it was very difficult to keep up with Svetlana today. She was able to come back from the tough points and play a few more.
She tried to mix it up a little at the end of the first set and I knew it would be physically harder. Mentally, I told myself it doesn't matter how many balls it takes, you're going to do everything possible to get one more ball back.
She's physically very healthy, I'm being aggressive when facing her again.
I think at some point I may be able to dominate, but honesty, I don't think I'm physically there yet and I don't want to go out there and say I am, when I'm really not.
Physically it was very difficult to keep up with Svetlana today. I just wasn't physically ready to run down a lot of balls.
But in the future, dominating is something I would like, but I'm still not where I need to be physically or with my game.
I played really well in the first set but then I just got too comfortable. I wasn't physically tired but mentally I was coasting. I just had to get myself together mentally and fight for it.
I played great tennis this week. It was a tremendous effort for me to be able to play two really tough matches yesterday and still play a high level of tennis today. In the first set it was just one or two balls didn't go my way I guess, and then after that I was physically tired from yesterday.
I don't think the scores showed anything, it was physically and mentally so challenging to play against her today. We were fighting for everything.
I gave it all I had in the tie breaker and then in the third I ran out of gas, ... At that point it's pretty tough, physically as the points were going longer, it was to Kim's advantage. Physically, I still have to get a lot better.
The score doesn't say much about the match,
I've said this like 30 times. I feel like I'm saying it again. The physical part of my game is very important right now. It's what I'm working on. That's what's been improving. I mean, if you look at me a year ago, I don't think I was at this point physically. It didn't take five days, it didn't take a month. It took a whole year to progress and get better.
It would be amazing if I could win here as it's the toughest Grand Slam to win, just because of the traffic.
It was up and down. I felt a little awkward in some situations because I haven't been match tough lately. I'm absolutely exhausted.