With red clay still staining her shoes and socks, Maria Sharapova is
already getting ready for the toughest transition in tennis.
Sharapova won her second French Open title in three years on Saturday,
beating Simona Halep 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-4 in the final at Roland Garros.
It's her fifth Grand Slam title overall and it comes 10 years after her
first, which she won on the grass of Wimbledon.
"Doesn't matter," Sharapova said, already thinking ahead to the next few
weeks. "Wimbledon is right around the corner, and that's what I'll be
working for."
Clay is the slowest surface on the tennis circuit, and the one that used
to give Sharapova the most trouble. Before her shoulder surgery in
2008, she had won each of the other three major titles once, but she
struggled on the clay in Paris, once famously referring to herself as a
"cow on ice" when playing on the surface.
But now 27 and the owner of two French Open titles, those days are
behind her. Sharapova is 20-1 over the last three years at Roland
Garros, and has won 20 straight three-set matches on the surface.
None of that matters now, though, because it's time to turn her
attention to Wimbledon, the site of her first major title and the focus
of her hopes for a sixth.
"I don't care what my results were in the past. You start from a clean
slate," Sharapova said, looking ahead to the tournament that starts on
June 23 at the All England Club in southwest London.
"That's how I go into a Grand Slam. I don't think that I've won it
before, because when you have the mentality that you've won it, then it
gets boring. You have to go out there hungry and want to compete for
more."
Although Sharapova won again in Paris this year, it was far from her
best tennis. She still struggles with her serve, and had 12
double-faults against Halep. She had nine doubles in the semifinals, and
eight in the quarterfinals.
But she still manages to find a way to win, even dropping sets like she did in each of her four last matches at Roland Garros.
"My mentality is that the match is not over after the first set, no
matter if I win it or lose it," Sharapova said. "If I'm doing good and
if I'm playing the right way and I won the first set, I need to continue
that. I cannot think too far ahead. The same way with being down and
losing a set."
Against Halep, Sharapova was two points from victory in the tiebreaker,
but the fourth-seeded Romanian won four straight points to even the
match.
That didn't get Sharapova down.
"She's an extraordinary competitor," said 1978 French Open champion
Virginia Ruzici, Halep's manager and the only Romanian woman to win a
Grand Slam title. "I put her in the same category as (Rafael) Nadal or
Serena Williams, players who give nothing away, who fight, who want it
so much, and who play their best tennis when it matters."
The next time it will matter this much will be at Wimbledon, and
Sharapova will have a new set of shoes and socks at the ready. Just like
10 years ago.
"Even though you always remember those incredible moments of holding
that trophy," Sharapova said, "you got to try to erase that from your
mind, because you got to create new ones."
Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/maria-sharapova-ahead-wimbledon-24045633
Source:
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/maria-sharapova-ahead-wimbledon-24045633