Maria Sharapova
Maria Sharapova
Maria Yuryevna Sharapova; born April 19, 1987) is a Russian professional tennis player. A United States resident since 1994, Sharapova has competed on the WTA tour since 2001. She has been ranked world No. 1 in singles by the WTA on five separate occasions, for a total of 21 weeks. She is one of ten women, and the only Russian, to hold the career Grand Slam. She is also an Olympic medalist, having earned silver for Russia in women's singles...
NationalityRussian
ProfessionTennis Player
Date of Birth19 April 1987
CityNyagan, Russia
CountryRussian Federation
I now have two titles (singles and doubles) under my belt and it feels great, ... I think with these things, it is a matter of time. If you put in the hard work - and I have worked so hard - I think this week really showed and it paid off.
You don't want to pull out because it's a Grand Slam, but it's hard when people expect you to win.
I was in that period right after I won Wimbledon, ... The next four months, I felt like I had to win every match. It's a matter of telling yourself that it's impossible to win everything ? no matter what people say. You can't control people's actions. My big thing is to just keep working hard. Because one day, you're going to be on court and you'll win a match and realize that the hard work paid off. That's exactly what I did last year. I lost here and I worked my butt off.
It feels really great. Honestly I was having a really tough end of the year last year. You know, not a lot of people know about it, but it was very frustrating because tournament after tournament, you know, I'd be working hard and I'd be trying to get back in shape and all of a sudden my injury would bring me down again.
There was a lot of rustiness, ... The first match (after a layoff) is always tough. You practice hard and work on a lot of things, but the actual competition is totally different. I was just trying to get in a groove, get my feet wet.
It's hard to get going when your body isn't there and your mind is on your pillow.
You practice hard and work on a lot of things, but the actual competition is totally different. I was just trying to get in a groove.
It's disappointing but no hard feelings, ... I know you can't win everything and you're going to lose sometimes. I'll go home and train now and get ready for the U.S. Open.
It's going to be a very big test because I haven't beaten her yet. I've done pretty well in the past few weeks. It's not always easy coming back from a Wimbledon win, and now I'm going to play a top seed on a hard court. I'm very much looking forward to it.
I gave it all I had in the tie breaker and then in the third I ran out of gas, ... At that point it's pretty tough, physically as the points were going longer, it was to Kim's advantage. Physically, I still have to get a lot better.
I think I learn a lot from losses and they make me a lot tougher,
I think they obviously wanted a better match. After the first set, it didn't look like it was going to be much of a match.
I think today I played much better, especially in the first set, than in my first match on Wednesday,
This is my favorite grand slam and I'd never imagined I'd be in the final so early. I don't know what to say, I'm going to cry right now.