By Charles Bricker
Maria Sharapova’s famous right shoulder appears to be fine, though let’s not get carried away by the 121 mph serve she walloped last week on the grass at Birmingham, England.
And the 17-5 record with two tournament titles she’s carrying into Wimbledon this week probably look impressive — to the more pedestrian tennis fans.
But when you strip away the veneer and look more closely at this comeback season for tennis’ most glamorous player, prospects for another successful Wimbledon look a lot dimmer.
Without question, Maria is playing and, more importantly, serving with more authority and accuracy. But there isn’t a win among those 17 triumphs that rates much more than a yawn, and that includes final victories over No. 102 Sofia Arvidsson at Memphis and No. 49 Kristina Barrois at Strasbourg.
Outwardly, she hasn’t changed much. She’s still more or less a stick figure at 6-foot-2 and maybe 130 pounds and, judging by her shrieks last week in Birmingham, where she lost the final to No. 11 Na Li, she’ll be in good voice at Wimbledon.
There are some cosmetic differences. She’s changed her service motion to accommodate the health of her newly repaired shoulder and she’s turned into a two-bouncer. Deep breath at the line before serving, then two bounces. Up goes the toes on her lead (left) foot, then a high toss and wham.
And the flowing ponytail behind the visor might be replaced at Wimbledon by the pulled-back/braided ponytail look she wore at Birmingham, but we’ll see when she takes the court against No. 127 Anastasia Pivovarova on Tuesday.
Despite her 17-5 record and her comfort zone on grass, no match is a gimme at this point for Maria — though she couldn’t ask for a tidier draw to reach the fourth round against Serena Williams. And reached the second week at Wimbledon would be a triumph in itself for her.
Now 23, she’s six years removed from her Wimbledon title and so much has happened to a young woman who could have, at this moment in tennis history, been at or near the top of the game. But she’s been felled by misfortune and a shoulder which was not, physically, designed for crashing 100 mph plus serves.
Still, she’ remains philosophic. Two days ago at Wimbledon, she spoke a bit about how her life has proceeded since she was Wonder Woman at age 17.
“Everyone is going to have setbacks,” she began. “Some are going to have bigger setbacks than others. Some are going to have injuries. Some are going to get away from the game for a little bit.
“We travel 10, 11 months a year and constantly play tournaments and we’ve done it from a very young age. Things are bound to happen. I mean, I was unfortunate that I had to have a pretty severe operation at a young age. At that point in your career, it’s not exactly the best situation.
“I certainly knew that some have never come back from it. A majority of players who come back from shoulder surgery never came back to play tennis again. It always crosses your mind, creates a setback.”
But, she insisted, “I never gave up on coming back. I always wanted that feeling of competing and hitting. First, trying to hit for more than a few minutes a day.Then it was trying to get back to competition because that’s what I love.
“I woke up every morning trying to get back to that. When you’re on the court, you have to put many things in perspective and realize that it’s not all rainbows and butterflies, that you’re going to have your days and moments where it’s going to be not so fun.”
What is good about Sharapova’s game at this point? She hasn’t lost her aggressiveness and desire to be a risk-taker on court, and she still hits a heavy ball from the baseline. What’s not so good? The service isn’t consistent enough yet and, while she’s much more improved since those early days back on court after surgery, it’s all about repetition in matches now. Eventually, you have to believe, it will come — unless there are, as she put it, more setbacks.
Winning Memphis and Strasbourg was something of a confidence builder, but she knows there is a certain hollowness to those titles. She played no one ranked higher than No. 66 at Memphis and no one higher than No. 49 at Strasbourg.
Meanwhile, in the tournaments that count most, she’s had mixed results. Lost first round at the Australian Open to Maria Kirilenko, then played probably her best match of the year in losing in three in a two-day, interrupted match to Justine Henin in Paris.
She likes playing Birmingham and has a good history there, though most top players would rather rest the week before a Slam. Sharapova won four matches — against No. 108, No. 86, No. 144 and No. 185, then lost 7-5, 6-1 in the final to Li.
She’s never played Pivovarova, who just turned 20 and who has spent much of the year in Challengers and trying to qualify for WTA events. She had her best tournament at the French Open, where she won three qualifying matches, then two rounds in the main draw.
I think Sharapova is sobered enough by her own physical history to know this is no easy passage to the second round. It’s a great fantasy plot to think Maria will reassert her brilliance on the lawns where she rocked tennis six years ago. But I think she knows that there are no more fantasy lands for players coming back from shoulder surgery. It’s all hard work and time now, and she’s got a lot more of it in front of her if she’s going to return to the game’s elite.
Charles Bricker can be reached at nflwriterr@aol.com