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
She tried to mix it up a little at the end of the first set and I knew it would be physically harder. Mentally, I told myself it doesn't matter how many balls it takes, you're going to do everything possible to get one more ball back.
I basically just tried to hang in there. I wasn't playing my best tennis, for sure, but I started to pick it up in the third.
I played well today, ... I started off strong but then I made a few mistakes and she capitalized. She's a good player and has a strong return. I just tried to play my game and in the end I got the win.
The major problem was that I tried to do too much at certain times,
The wind was definitely a factor with the serves sometimes. I tried not to go for the lines so much, and just tried to be consistent.
It was definitely not easy. We were breaking each other's serves left and right out there. It was a miracle when someone held serve. I just tried to hang in there. It's really tough being down two set points. But I gutted it out in the first point, then had an easy second point.
I hit a good, deep return and Samantha made some errors, she tried to go for too much and she gave me easy ones to put away.
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,