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
The wind was definitely a factor with the serves sometimes. I tried not to go for the lines so much, and just tried to be consistent.
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.
It was definitely not easy. We were breaking each other's serves left and right out there. It was a miracle when someone held serve. I just tried to hang in there. It's really tough being down two set points. But I gutted it out in the first point, then had an easy second point.
I hit a good, deep return and Samantha made some errors, she tried to go for too much and she gave me easy ones to put away.
I played well today, ... I started off strong but then I made a few mistakes and she capitalized. She's a good player and has a strong return. I just tried to play my game and in the end I got the win.
I basically just tried to hang in there. I wasn't playing my best tennis, for sure, but I started to pick it up in the third.
I'm going to be busy these next several weeks rehabbing, training and getting healthy so that I can play my very best for myself, the fans, tournaments and sponsors in 2006. I tried my best to fight through my injuries during the season, but I now realize that I need to take some time off to rest my body and get back to being 100 percent healthy. I look forward to regaining my form and playing at the same highly competitive level that I have in the past. This has been such a disappointing year for me because I'm such a competitive person and I like to win for myself and for my fans.
I knew she would be very patient and I tried to be extra-patient. I knew she wouldn't overpower me.
The major problem was that I tried to do too much at certain times,
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.
It was very frustrating because tournament after a tournament, I'd be working hard, I'd be trying to get back in shape, and all of a sudden my injury would bring me down again.