By Cheryl Jones
There’s always been something I liked about Maria Sharapova. She was just a teen when we first met and it wasn’t near a tennis court. (A friend’s daughter was a friend of hers.) There was something special about her that had nothing to do with tennis. It was just a few years later that she actually joined the professional tennis world that now is a huge part of her life.
Actually, she is a very savvy businesswoman, too. She has successfully promoted her own business – Sugarpova, a chocolate and candy business that fits the name. She has a line of clothing through Nike and a specialty connection with German automaker, Porsche. Beside all that she’s model beautiful and statuesque. One of her early coaches, Robert Landsdorp assured her that if the tennis didn’t work out, she could step right into runway modeling.
The tennis worked out and now that she has sat out a lengthy suspension, she is thirty years old and still swinging her racquet with the fervor that has buoyed her feisty spirit and thrilled tennis fans around the world. (The suspension was due to a misunderstanding about the use of a medication she had utilized for ten years, but her agent missed informing her of the recent ban of the substance, and when she tested positive for the medication, she was immediately disqualified from further competition for two years. That time was later adjusted to 15 months.)
As Roland Garros began, she was ranked thirty in the WTA rankings. That ranking should rise with her win today, and if she wins again on Saturday, it will escalate a bit more, depending on how other players perform. She faced Donna Vekic, a twenty-one year old from Croatia who is presently ranked fifty.
It wasn’t a PDQ match, but it didn’t drag on either. In an hour and forty-four minutes, she sent the Croatian woman home with a flourish. The score was 7-5, 6-4, but the women who were both clad in blue Nike duds thrilled onlookers on Court One (often referred to as the Bull Ring because of it’s resemblance to the structure). After the match, Sharapova offered her observations on the match and the court. (It’s scheduled to be razed in the near future.) She said, “I quite like that court. I like the intimate atmosphere. I mean, sometimes you have a lot of room on the court and visually from a perception point of view, it makes you back up a little. But, I think I still did that today, even though it is more intimate.”
When asked if she found a significant difference in the game when she returned to competition about a year ago, she said, “Yeah, I think maybe you see it from the younger generation.” She went on to talk about the chances that some of the younger players more are more ready take. “Coming into a tournament and just thinking that you might get a few rounds in to warm up is no longer the case.” The competition has definitely gotten stiffer.
She made her fourteenth main draw appearance at Roland Garros today. It was her first since 2015. When she won here in 2012, it was the last piece she needed to complete her Career Grand Slam puzzle. (Wimbledon 2004; 2006 US Open; and 2008 Australian Open)
Her win/loss tally here at Roland Garros now stands at 55-11, with her Grand Slam record at 190 to 46. That is the third most wins among active players. She appears to be extremely happy that she is an active player once again. There is something that looks a bit like magic in her outlook.
She was asked her about her own perception of professional tennis as a career. She thought for a moment and said, “But it’s a very special career, and I think when — you know, there is a lot of repetition, but there is also a lot of amazing moments, walking through tunnels of Grand Slams and the camera is in front of you, there is a reason they’re there, the anticipation. I love those feelings. I love finding a way to win.”
She’ll have to find a way to win just a few more matches to make that happen here again, but next up will be Karolina Pliskova a Czech player who is seeded number 6. Pliskova defeated her countrywoman, Lucie Safarova today, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Sharapova will have to dig deep to find a way to defeat Pliskova who has been competing very well of late. Their match on Saturday will be a “must see” affair and it likely won’t be in the Bull Ring, but perhaps Philippe Chatrier. Sharapova is four years older than the Czech woman, but Sharapova’s fitness appears as good as it ever has been, and the age difference shouldn’t have much to do with their match-up. Walking through the tunnel will give Maria a pep talk that should propel her to new heights at this year’s Roland Garros. After all, she surely cannot feel that she moves on clay like a cow on ice ever again. She took care of that, years ago.
She can move with the grace that has always iterated just who she is. It could be that the best is yet to come.
