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Back from injury, Sharapova not feeling pressure
2009 French Open
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Instead, she returned to Grand Slam play at the French Open, meaning she must test her extremely rusty game on the clay, a surface on which she has suffered some debilitating losses and has been unable to overpower foes she would otherwise have her way with if they met on hardcourts or grass.
But the three-time Grand Slam champion was sick of playing practice matches, tired of learning new recipes, ready to get back on the court.
So in the last two sets of her 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory over Anastasiya Yakimova at Roland Garros' infamous Bull Ring, Court 1, Sharapova shook off her nerves and powered through, stinging her down-the-line backhands on the tape, hammering her crosscourt forehand and serving hard enough to put herself in a position to bury short returns.
"I think this is the first time in my career where I can really say where I don't have any expectations," Sharapova said. "I don't know what's going to happen tomorrow, how my shoulder is going to feel. Obviously, I haven't played competitive matches in a long time. That's a big factor for my body and for my shoulder — and tennis-wise, competing and playing, getting all that back. It's tough coming out and thinking of the things you have to do in order to win, because at the end of the day, you have to focus on yourself and on what you do well. You don't want to come out making too many errors, and that kind of hesitation today forced me to make more errors than I usually do."
It's going to be a long time before the 21-year-old Sharapova will able to walk on court, deliver a cold stare and essentially win the match on reputation alone. The WTA is a no-mercy tour, and ambitious competitors won't take pity on you just because you were once a great champion.
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When former No. 1 Sharapova strides on court, the announcer lists her multiple achievements, including her title runs at Wimbledon in 2004, the 2006 U.S. Open and the 2008 Australian Open. But a young player such as Yakimova also is aware that Sharapova's severe shoulder injury has limited her to just six matches in the past year.
As Sharapova said, this is a second career for her, one in which she must reestablish herself and learn to put losses (as well as victories) in a different light.
"It's the first time in my life where I couldn't practice for such a long period of time," she said. "Everything about it was just bizarre. It was some things were just taken away from your life. In a strange way, it's a little calming. Even though it's obviously stressful, because you don't know if you're ever going to get the chance to be out here again and you always have to be positive. Don't get me wrong, there are many days where I was really hesitant, and you try to do the best things, but there are so many different paths, voices and so many opinions, and at the end of the day, you have to try and choose the right one."
Sharapova chose to listen to herself, as well as to her parents, coach, doctor and a couple of close friends. The advice she received was to stay patient and not rush herself back. They told her that she'd eventually heal and be able to do what she loved the most — although some of her critics would contend her real loves are fashion shoots and commercials. In many ways, Sharpova's still the little kid who worked her way out of Siberia, spending thousands of hours honing her skills on back courts in Florida in the blazing sun.
Although she's the world's richest female athlete, she's not going to go the way of Anna Kournikova: quitting the game rather than holding up to the heat of competition.
HOT SHOTS
Photos: Maria Sharapova is back on the court after an injury layoff. Check out these shots of one of tennis' brightest stars in action.
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"Tennis drives everything — drives myself, drives my business, drives everything that I do," Sharapova said. "You miss it. You want to be out there. It's from the hour you're in the locker room and putting your dress on to the 15 minutes before your match, where you're warming up and you're pumping yourself up and going to get out there in front of 20,000 people. I certainly missed it."
Sharapova isn't serving quite as hard as she was prior to the shoulder problems that forced her to undergo surgery last fall. But against Yakimova, she did hit one serve at 115 mph, close to her career high speed, and she averaged around 100 mph on her first serves. Given that some of those serves are deliberately slowed down to find sharp angles, that's a pretty good sign for a player who was unable to even practice for three months of the past year.
"I've never hit 20 ace in a match," she said. "I've always been a solid server, so I think especially on clay, it's just so important to have a good percentage of first serves. Make the opponent hit a good return. Make them get back in the point. After shoulder surgery, I'm not going to come out and hit Mach 50 and try and hit aces left and right."
Sharapova will face her old rival Nadia Petrova in the second round. She's 1-5 against her fellow countrywoman, but the two have had some epic battles, including at the 2005 U.S. Open. They have never faced each other on clay, and former Roland Garros semifinalist Petrova is hoping that will give her the edge.
"It could be very interesting on one of the biggest arenas, and I'm sure there will be a lot of talking in the world about it," Petrova said. "It will be very challenging, and if I'm able to pull everything together and stay focused on my tactics, then I can think from there. But she's always going to be very competitive, and fight for every point and do everything she can to win."
Fighting until the last ball kisses the line is one of Sharapova's greatest qualities, but she also has to rediscover her rhythm and her confidence. She can't be expected to quickly take down a player of Petrova's quality yet, and enters the match as the underdog, though she's more than capable of gutting out a victory.
Sharapova and her team are at Roland Garros so she can get some matches in what will be a fairly rapid build-up to Wimbledon, and a slower build-up to what she hopes is a more realistic assault on the U.S. Open in three months' time.
But who knows? If she can scratch past Petrova, Sharapova just might be able to make it into the second week of the French Open again. With Vera Zvonareva's pullout, Sharapova wouldn't see a significant seed until the quarterfinals. And then she could at least tell herself that she's back in the hunt.
"I've always really had good perspective, but I'm a competitor," she said. "So is everyone else here in the draw. Everyone wants to win, and unfortunately there's only one winner in the field. You want to be that one person. When you're not, you're always thinking of how you can be."
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