Sharapova's approach is too rigid
French Open defeat shows Russian needs to add variety to her game
 Jacques Demarthon / AFP - Getty Images Maria Sharapova is resisting adding variety to her game, a major reason why she has lost her two biggest matches of the year, including a French Open semifinal to Ana Ivanovic, writes Bud Collins of MSNBC.com. |
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PARIS - Maria Sharapova's two biggest matches this season -- losses in the Australian Open final and the French Open semifinals -- have revealed the limits in her game.
What the young Russian star needs to develop is a better and more varied strategy than the bang-bang-bang approach she always relies on. It seems that if the bang, bang, bang, isn’t working, it’s good-bye, good-bye, good-bye to Sharapova.
A lesson from across the net
The latest indication of Sharapova's inflexibility in her approach to her tennis came on the red clay of Roland Garros, in the semifinals against 19-year-old Ana Ivanovic, the seventh seed, who overwhelmed the Russian from the start. Sharapova got in trouble early and couldn’t figure out how to get out of it. The result was a 6-2, 6-1 spanking that was in the books in just over an hour.
This defeat brought to mind a similar kind of knock down dealt to Sharapova, that was back in January when Serena Williams cruised past her 6-1, 6-2 to take the grand prize Down Under. Maybe Sharapova should take a bit of a lesson from Ivanovic, who impressed in her first career semifinal at a major by displaying a fabulous variety to her game, an asset that gave her the momentum and confidence she needed to survive one of the biggest stages in the sport.
Ivanovic is a real talent. She can do everything. She can hit the ball early, hit with spin, hit with slice, serve big, and come to the net. And with what she did to Sharapova she showed she can control her nerves under the most pressurized of circumstances.
In addition to her inflexibility, Sharapova was hurt in her bid to reach her first French Open final by sloppy play. She made 25 unforced errors to only 11 for Ivanovic, who also took advantage of the five break points she had on Sharapova’s serve.
The Serbian took the play right away from Sharapova just as Serena Williams did in the Australian Open final.
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Kicking the dirt
Dismiss any nervousness as contributing to Sharapova's Paris exit. She has experience winning at the majors, capturing Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004, and winning the U.S. Open last year. But the Russian just doesn’t feel all that comfortable on clay and definitely didn’t bring her “A” game to the court against Ivanovic.
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Sharapova says she feels like “a cow on ice” playing on clay, so it doesn't look promising that she’ll ever be able to win a French Open title. Despite her being uncomfortable playing on dirt, she is making some progress on clay courts. Getting to the semifinals this year was her best showing at Roland Garros. If she needs a positive to take away from the Paris fortnight that would be it.
A shoulder injury limited Sharapova's play coming into the French Open, but if her wing was hurting it didn't show in how she served against Ivanovic. I monitored her serves and she got quite a lot of them up to between 110 and 112 mph. If that shoulder was hurting badly, that wouldn't have been possible.
Perhaps what is most revealing about Sharapova on clay can be found in comments she made after staging a comeback in the fourth round to defeat Patty Schnyder. After that match Sharapova said, "I wasn't going to beat her by being a clay-court player. I'm simply not a clay-court player. I started moving in and I started hitting the ball and I started attacking."
None of that magic could be found against Ivanovic.
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