Translated material
Heavy racket
Sharapova doesn't win tournaments while being number one in the world
At the ATP and WTA tournaments of the first game week after the Australian Open, Mikhail Youzhny, Elena Dementieva and Maria Sharapova lost in their semi-final matches. Yuzhny was the closest to victory. In Zagreb, where the total bonus was 353,450 euros, Mikhail, in a meeting with the owner of the court, Ivan Ljubicic, was in the lead in the third game 4:2, but lost the game on his serve. Then Mikhail again took the lead (6:5 and 30:0), and he had only two goals left before reaching the final, but the Russian was unable to cope with the Croatian’s powerful serves, failing to secure a return three times in a row.The women's tournament in Tokyo was of great significance. At the BTA first category competitions, $1.34 million in prize money was awarded. Sharapova's next, already third, attempt to win the title as the leader of the world classification ended in an early defeat to Serbian Anna Ivanovich - Maria left the court due to pain in her knee.
Sharapova first topped the WTA rankings at the end of August 2005, but lasted only one week at the top, during which she did not play as she prepared for the US Open. At the end of the US Open, the Russian woman regained her title of first racket of the world and soon went to the tournament in Beijing. In the semi-final match with her friend Maria Kirilenko, the best tennis player on the planet withdrew from the game in the second game due to a recurrence of an old pectoral muscle injury. Then Sharapova arrived in Moscow for the Kremlin Cup, where her debut match (she started the fight in the second round) almost ended in a crushing defeat. Losing 1:6, 2:4 to Anna-Lena Grünefeld, Maria was declared the winner only because the German suffered a ridiculous injury, twisting her leg out of the blue. And in the quarterfinals, Sharapova could not cope with Dinara Safina, and at the end of October the American Lindsay Davenport returned to the tennis throne.
The performance at the last tournament in Tokyo after her third ascension to the throne turned out to be very difficult for Maria and, by and large, inexpressive. The Russian suddenly began to experience problems in that element of the game that was traditionally considered one of her trump cards - the serve. In the match with Italian Francesca Schiavvone (7:5, 2:6, 6:1), 17 double faults were made - at least a personal anti-record. The Women's Tennis Association (WTA) does not keep such statistics, but for comparison we can cite a similar achievement with a minus sign, recorded by the ATP. At Wimbledon 1995, Mark Rosset was defeated by Sharapova's coach, American Michael Joyce, making 26 double faults.
And in the next meeting with Japanese Ai Sugiyama (4:6, 6:0, 6:1), Maria could not get rid of her difficulties with the first blow - 14 double faults. Nevertheless, the victory was achieved due to class and good performance in other technical components. Already in the first set of the ill-fated match against Serbian Anna Ivanovich Sharapova, according to her, felt pain in her knee and at the post-match press conference she said that her leg began to bother her even during the Australian Open. At the beginning of the second set (the first was lost 1:6), when the Russian woman was serving, the pain became stronger. A doctor was invited to the court, and after a short meeting with Joyce, it was decided not to continue the meeting. The world ranking leader will miss at least one week of active training to heal this injury.
"It's always difficult to perform immediately after two weeks of playing in a Grand Slam competition," Sharapova said. “I won’t justify my not-so-best tennis by injury. Compared to other participants, my grid in Tokyo was not very difficult. Another question is that the surface here is significantly different from the Melbourne one, and I couldn’t get used to it quickly.”
The next competition in which Sharapova plans to take part is a lower, second category BTA tournament starting on February 19 in the main city of the United Arab Emirates. It is noteworthy that in Dubai the total prize fund is even greater than the standard amount of total payments at the so-called “super ten” tournaments, which includes the Tokyo Toray Pan Pacific Open - $1.5 million. Compared to last season, purse payments in Dubai increased by 50% at once. In addition to Sharapova, the preliminary application includes Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne, Hingis, Australian Open champion Serena Williams, and our Svetlana Kuznetsova. So here, too, it will be extremely difficult for Maria to win her first title as the leader of the individual classification.
Elena Dementieva lost to Martina Hingis in the Tokyo semifinals - 4:6, 3:6. Yesterday in the decisive match, the Swiss tennis player prevailed over Ivanovic - 6:4, 6:2. In terms of the number of titles won in the Japanese capital, Hingis became the sole leader, ahead of Davenport, with five tournament victories. Dementieva was supposed to compete at competitions in Paris this week, but yesterday an official message appeared that the Muscovite refused to participate due to a groin strain.