15 января 2012, 21:20 6 мин.

Where′s Maria headed at the Aussie Open

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Выставил мнение Кронина о Марии.

Матт уже в Мельбурне и разговаривал с Марией.

1/14/2012 2:00:00 PM

MELBOURNE - Maria Sharapova has put together some amazing title runs, but none better than her sterling march through the 2008 Australian Open draw.

Four years ago in Melbourne, she hit the apex of her career, battering Jelena Kostanic, Lindsay Davenport, Elena Vesnina, Elena Dementieva, Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic for the title.

It was a year after Serena Williams had crushed her in the final (63 minutes). She knew she had to enter the event roaring as her draw was brutal. She served and returned huge, clipped the lines with her groundstrokes, stayed composed in tough moments and as always, fought like hell. She did not drop a set during the event, facing down three Grand Slam champions (Ivanovic wouldn’t win her sole major until six months later on Paris) a former No. 1 in Jankovic and a future Olympic gold medalist in Dementieva.

When I asked the now 24-year-old on Saturday whether it was her best tournament even, she agreed, but with a Maria-esq caveat thrown in.

“I think throughout a two‑week stage, for sure,” she said. “No matter who you are, it′s pretty tough to have a high level over seven matches in 14 days. You′re bound to have some letdowns, maybe conditions, your opponent, maybe just not a good day. I actually thought the final was probably one of the worst matches I played in the whole couple of weeks as far as level goes. But, yeah, it was the toughest draw that I think I ever had in my career, as well, so...”

Sharapova tends to play better when she has tough draws and four years later at this edition of the Australian Open, she has another one. She is not the ultra confident player she was back then, because that was just two months before she first seriously injured her shoulder, which she would eventually have surgery on in October 2008. Her road back has been full of deep potholes, and it really wasn’t until the late spring of 2011 when her fans began to consistently see the old Maria, who in 2008 was on her way to becoming a truly dominant player.

The occasional pain and numbness in her right arm will likely never allow her to consistently crack flat first serves and kick in vicious high- hopping second serves, but at the very least in 2011, she was able to make major strides off the ground and her return game – which has always been the most feared part of her arsenal outside of the never-stop-screaming fight – allowed her to break many of foes time and time again.

She reached the final of Miami, won her first major clay court title by scoring huge wins over Victoria Azarenka, Caroline Wozniacki and Samantha Stosur to win Rome. She clawed her way to the semifinals of Roland Garros, dropkicked her way to the final of Wimbledon, bullied her way to the Cincinnati title, and then experienced a major letdown when she played too passively in a three set loss to Flavia Pennetta at the US Open.

A severe ankle injury all but nearly ended her season in Tokyo, but even though she was frustrated that she could not battle hard until the end of the season, she felt like a true contender again.

" I think my level was much more consistent than where I saw it at the couple years before that, following the shoulder surgery,” she said. “It was a big step for me in the right direction.”

Recall that at this time last year, the Russian was going through major changes as she decided to part ways with her longtime coach and friend Michael Joyce in Auckland and took up with the Swede Thomas Hogstedt. She was convinced that she needed a change, but it affected her emotionally. Tears were spilled. She also switched rackets from Prince to Head and temporality lost a little feel for the ball. Consequently at the 2011 Australian, she played arguably her worst match ever when healthy at a major in quick defeat to Andrea Petkovic.

“Obviously a lot of uncertainty,” she said. “One level where I wasn′t going up or down. It′s tough. You make those changes and you want to benefit from them, but you′re not quite sure when and how. I didn′t really start the year off on the best note. I lost here in the fourth round. I got sick playing Paris. Didn′t play in Fed Cup. It was kind of, ‘Where is this going?’ Then all of a sudden things clicked because ultimately when you put in the work, it′s going to pay off. Maybe not tomorrow, maybe not in one week, but maybe in many months.”

Due to her ankle injury not healing the way she wanted it to, Sharapova was unable to play any Aussie warm-up tournaments. That′s certainly not what she prefers, but as she says, she’ll take good health over matches.

She’s in a difficult quarter of the draw, opening against Gisela Dulko, who upset her two years ago at Wimbledon and whom she has been competing against since the juniors. She might have to face US Open semifinalist Angelique Kerber in the third round, possibly former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova or the hard hitting German Sabine Lisicki in the fourth round and then maybe, just maybe, the player who gives her the most trouble on tour, Serena Williams, in the quarterfinals.

It’s not even worth discussing a rematch of her Wimbledon final with No. 2 Petra Kvitova in the semifinals, because since Sharapova stunned Williams in her maiden Slam voyage in the 2004 Wimbledon final, Serena has all but eaten her alive, including burying her at Stanford last summer 6-1, 6-3, and winning their last six meetings.

Like Sharapova, Serena enters the event with an ankle injury, but unlike Sharapova, Serena has dominated the Aussie Open in the past nine years, winning five titles in only seven appearances (she missed two years due to injury). On Saturday, Serena kicked back in her chair and had that familiar look of utter confidence when asked if playing just two matches in the past four months was enough warm up for her. “Two is plenty for me, for sure" she said with smile.

LA resident Sharapova is not thinking about how Serena feels, or how two other contenders who have been nursing injuries feel, defending champ Kim Clijsters and No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki. As it almost always is for great champions at the Slams, the focus is on what they need to do to pull off another great triumph.

On Saturday in Melbourne, Maria was all about Maria and she will stay that way until the doors close on Rod Laver Arena. And in a little over than two weeks from now another chapter of her fascinating career will be written, and she would like to script it perfectly.

“I think everyone′s really selfish and just thinking about themselves,” she said with straight forward giggle. “I′ll be really honest with you.”