By Blair Henley
When Maria Sharapova’s camp announced that she would be playing the Madrid Open this week after being sidelined for almost two months by an elbow injury, a collective cheer erupted from her fans (and sponsors).
Too bad their excitement was short-lived. Rising star Lucie Safarova put a damper on the comeback party Sunday when she rolled past the lanky Russian 6-4, 6-3 in the first round. Sharapova’s critics, which are easy to come by these days, will use this loss as more proof that her best days are behind her, but here’s why it may be too early to count her out.
Let’s start with the obvious. The last time we saw Maria was after her third round loss to China’s Zheng Jie on the hard courts at Indian Wells. The clay court season has since started, with many of the players in Madrid having already played multiple tournaments on the markedly slower surface. Safarova, who has toppled two top ten players already this year, is no exception. Let Sharapova use this tournament, as well as next week’s event in Strasbourg, to regain her footing on clay before judging the success (or failure) of her return.
Also keep in mind that the operation on her right rotator cuff in the fall of 2008 kept her off the court for ten months. Ten months! That’s an eternity in the tennis world. It’s not unreasonable to give her a bit more time to rebuild the game that won her three Grand Slams. Though female players aren’t exactly known for their longevity, Maria just turned 23 and should have several more years in the tank. The past seven weeks she’s spent recovering from a bruised elbow bone were an unfortunate setback, but it won’t completely erase the work she’s done so far.
In fact, that short break might even give her some time to reevaluate her serve strategy. Since the shoulder surgery, it has become routine for Maria to turn out double digit double fault totals in her matches. She has worked hard to develop a new, shortened motion in order to take some pressure off of her injury prone shoulder, but it’s likely that the mechanics have become a distraction in competition. It’s time to stop tinkering and use her feel for the game to find a way to get it in.
Sharapova’s coach/hitting partner, Michael Joyce, is a key factor in pushing her to execute an effective serve as well as her trademark “hit-the-ball-as-hard-as-you-can” game plan. She is one of the few players talented enough to succeed using that strategy, but she has yet to regain an acceptable level of consistency. Her matches have been littered with unforced errors, though don’t forget that she was never really known for her clean play and marathon points in the first place.
In her first round loss to fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko at the 2010 Australian Open, she committed 72 unforced errors and had 11 double faults. The score? No, not 6-0, 6-0. Kirilenko barely pulled out a win in three sets 7-6, 3-6, 6-4. If Sharapova can find a way to weed out just a fraction of those unforced errors, she is going to see a huge improvement in her results. After playing both Madrid and Strasbourg, assuming her elbow has fully recovered, it seems fair to think that she will have enough time to work out the kinks, setting her up for a strong run at Roland Garros.
Tennis fans have also surely noted the conspicuous absence of Maria’s father, Yuri Sharapov. In the past couple of years he has slowly, and wisely, started to pull himself away from his daughter’s tennis game. Compared to the parental shenanigans we’re used to seeing on the tennis sidelines, their father/daughter relationship seemed to function fairly well, but it can be immensely helpful to have a fresh set of eyes critiquing practice sessions and matches. Joyce, a former ATP Tour player who reached a career high singles ranking of 64 in 1996, has a solid vision for her tennis and wouldn’t have gotten involved if he envisioned her wallowing around outside the top ten for the remainder of her career.
Sharapova’s game has clearly been sidetracked for the past couple of years with multiple injuries, evolving mechanics and new coaching, but one thing has not changed. She plays with a fiery tenacity rarely seen in the women’s game. There’s no doubt she hates to lose, but she mentioned in her post-match press conference on Sunday that she sees this rough patch as “a lesson.” That can only mean she’s learning.
Though her results since the rotator cuff repair have been disappointing at times, her ranking still sits at No. 13 in the world. Not too shabby. It takes incredible talent and intensity to succeed at that level with only bits and pieces of a world class game. If Maria continues to make adjustments with that same intent focus, it won’t be long before we see streaks, instead of flashes, of brilliance from the tennis star.
Whether or not Sharapova’s right arm (both elbow and shoulder) can hold up over the remainder of the grueling professional tennis season remains to be seen. Though her serve has widely been criticized as the cause of her injury troubles, it’s hard to imagine that her forehand, with a follow through that often finishes somewhere above her head or behind her right ear, hasn’t also put undue strain on those joints. But regardless of how her mechanics might affect her in the future, she is healthy as of today, and that’s all we can ask for.
Maria Sharapova has been in the spotlight for longer than her age would suggest, and she has proven herself to be more than a One-Slam Wonder. With her elbow pain behind her and fresh start going into the heart of the pro schedule, fans should get ready to hear a lot more of her trademark shrieking. Don’t lie – you know you missed it.
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