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 have to feel safe in order to perform well,
Reaching the No. 1 ranking has been a lifelong goal of mine, and achieving it here in Los Angeles would have been a dream come true. I am eager to get back to feeling 100 percent healthy and playing as soon as possible.
It's like he's Mr Perfect and nothing's going wrong for him at this point,
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.
Right now the most important thing to become number one is to be healthy and ready to play. When you are healthy and happy, then you perform your best, so that's very important that I'm healthy.
The first few games I was serving 69 miles per hour, ... It's pretty funny. I think it's even funnier from TV because they can't see the wind. These people probably think we look like beginners. That's the sad part.
I know that in a few years when I do improve little things in my game by one or two percent that I will get better.
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 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.
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.
I know I didn't win this match fairly,