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 think we got the point that there was a soccer match or something going on.
It gives me a lot of confidence that I can pull out a win like that when there are points in the match where you don't feel great.
I think today I played much better, especially in the first set, than in my first match on Wednesday,
Overall I'm happy to get through the match, but it definitely wasn't the best match I played,
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.
I think I started of really well from the first match. I was really read. It was a bit unexpected because I didn't play a lot of matches coming into the tournament, so I thought I would be a little rusty at the beginning.
Wow! It's absolutely amazing, I can't believe I pulled this match out today,
I actually felt pretty good. I'm really happy about it because that's one of the first times I played a match without feeling anything. You know, I don't expect it to be that like for the whole tournament. So I'm very happy I got through that one without any pain.
But it would mean a lot. I don't think I've shown New York how I can play tennis. Hopefully I can put together some good matches for my New York fans.
But strange things do happen in tennis and today's match was one of them.
I got off to a great start and then maybe I wasn't aggressive enough and let her into the match in the second set. I don't know exactly what happened, I just lost my concentration a bit, but was able to get back on track in the final set.
We've had such tough matches and I've been able to pull through three in a row - it's a confidence boost.
She's played a lot of matches on clay, she feels the ball, she sees the ball well,
When the matches get tougher and you're pushed more, automatically, the level of your game increases.