Maria Sharapova may be the shot in the arm that women’s tennis needs right now while Serena Williams is out on maternity leave.
Sharapova just can’t make 64 errors many times, and still win the way she did Monday night against Simona Halep in the U.S. Open. If Sharapova takes care of that part of her game, she may really have a shot at returning to the top of the women’s game.
Sixty is a nice round number in winners.
MARIA’S TALENT IS STILL THERE
Surely, some of the errors will go away as Sharapova continues her comeback from a ban by the International Tennis Federation for failing a drug test during the 2016 Australian Open.
The talent and competitive spirit that has carried Sharapova to a career Grand Slam are still there. They just need some fine tuning.
Yes, the tall blonde Russian native thrilled the crowd in Arthur Ashe Stadium that helped set a new opening day attendance record at the U.S. Open. She appeared to be stronger than ever, repeatedly hitting the lines with bullets that seemed to frustrate Halep in taking a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win over the world’s No. 2 player.
MOCKERY OF HALEP’S SERVES
Sharapova, at times, made something of a mockery of Halep’s second serves, powdering forehand service returns cross-court for outright winners that Halep often didn’t even move for.
The 30-year-old Sharapova blasted errors and winners from the start to finish of the match lasted nearly three hours. In the end, she backed off on a few of the errors and kept the ball in play long enough to win the decisive points.
Yet, Halep played amazingly well at times. Especially late in the second set, the talented 5-6 Rhodesian hit and served bigger than in the early going as she grooved her serve and strokes.
SHARAPOVA CAME TO LIFE JUST IN TIME
Halep, who still had eyes on becoming a new No. 1 player in the world, actually out-hit Sharapova in the last part of the second set to deadlock the match, and then again after falling behind 5-2 in the third set. Sharapova, a former world’s No. 1 but now ranked No. 146, almost let Halep back into the match in a second straight set.
But Sharapova came back to life just in time to end the long match without last-minute dramatics.
It’s that small difference in the term “almost” that made all of the difference in this match, maybe even in the future of the two players. Halep can’t win the big match, and Sharapova just needs to find another really big opportunity. Monday night may have jump-started Sharapova’s second career.
With the state of today’s women’s tennis, Sharapova may even have a chance in this U.S. Open. She certainly has the potential.
James Beck is the long-time tennis columnist for the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier newspaper. He can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com. See his Post and Courier columns at
