Here she is ! My beauty queen ! I'm not gonna hide it : I'm a Sharapova's dear fan ! This girl is for me, everything you have to be on court talking about attitude and glamour. 2011 has been her best year since she came back in May 2009 from a right shoulder surgery. She finishes the year at the 4th sport, her better ending-year ranking since 2006.
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| Sharapova celebrates here after her victory over Caroline Woznacki in the semi-finals of the Italian Open (Rome, Italy) |
4- Maria Sharapova (RUSSIA)
2010 Ending-Year Ranking : N°18 (+14)
2011 in Review : First of all, we all have to know that Maria signed a new raquet deal with Head, which is really important in her career since she's been playing with Prince raquets since she was 8. This change became unavoidable since Prince products are way to heavy for Maria who, we all know, suffered from shoulder issues.
The Head team provided Maria a new racquet and this year has been for her, a good year, regarding 2009 et 2010 failures. In fact, she won two Premier 5 events in Rome and Cincinnati, have reached the final in Wimbledon and Miami, and the semi-finals in both Roland-Garros and Indian Wells. Her season has been consistant even though she got injuried at the end, which made her retire after two loss at the Masters, in Istanbul.
But, Maria's season did not begin well. Actually, she's been knocked out by Greta Arn in quarter-finals of the Auckland Tournament, the eventual champion and in the 4th round of the Australian Open by the German Andrea Petkovic. Her withdrawing from Dubai, Doha and Paris Indoors is followed by a loss in Moscow in the 1st round of the Fed Cup against France. She looses to frenchwoman Virginie Razzano in straight sets. At this point, Maria's season seems to be a real nightmare. Then comes the American Indian Wells-Miami tourney. Finding her form back, she goes deep in both events : semi-finals in Indian Wells losing 6/1 6/2 to world number one and eventual winner, Caroline Wozniacki and final at Miami Open losing to Victoria Azarenka 6/1 6/4. Even if she manages to do well there, her serve seems such a liability and she's comitting tons of double-faults, and this will go on until the very end of the season.
A season that will take another breathe, in May, during the claycourt campaign. After a 3rd round exit at the Madrid Open (l. to Cibulkova), she wins the Italian Open in an impressive way beating both Azarenka and Wozniacki in order to reach the final and then, beats Samantha Stosur in straight sets 6/2 6/4. Thus she goes confident to Roland Garros, the single grand slam that misses her Grand Slam Career. She reaches there the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Li Na 6/4 7/5 comitting 10 double-faults during the match. This tournament shows clearly that Maria has up and downs from one day to another : She totally outplays Andrea Petkovic (6/3 6/0) in quarter-finals playing an outstanding tennis and loses against Li Na in the semi-finals with 10 doubles faults and 23 faults. She directly goes to London to play the Wimbledon Championships where she reaches the final without dropping a single set, playing impressive tennis against Dominika Cibulkova (6/1 6/1) and then being totally outplayed in the final by Petra Kvitova.
Maria's US hardcourt has been kind of an up and down story (again). She begins in Stanford where she loses to Serena Williams 6/1 6/3, the eventual champion but the biggest disappointment comes in Toronto where she lost to Galina Voskoboeva in 3rd round, a Kazakh qualifier. Then came Cincinnati, where, without playing anywhere near her top, she managed to win the title after wins over Kuznetsova, Stosur, Zvonareva and Jankovic in the final, thus she became Nr.1 at the WTA Race Rankings. The US Open is the tournament to forget for Maria Sharapova, after a difficult win over the young british Heather Watson in a three-setter and over Yakimova, Maria loses against the Italian Flavia Pennetta in a tough three-setter : A dispointing result as Maria was one of the favorites in New York to clinch the title.
She goes to Asia in order to play the Tokyo Open. She plays some solid tennis there, especially at serve where she seemed to find back some confidence on that shot. In fact, here match against Julia Goerges showed she was still able to serve really well. But during her quarter-final against Petra Kvitova, she had to retire due to an ankle injury she contracted after...serving ! She had thus to withdraw from the China Open but wanted to go to Instanbul for the Masters.
But everything went wrong and Maria seemed really unable to run off the court and lost to Samantha Stosur for the first time in her career, and lost again to Li Na before retiring from the Masters. A bad end for a quite good year actually.
What to expect for 2012 ? :First of all, to stay healthy and to keep that motivation that she lacked in 2009 and 2010. Then, I think that everything will come back itself. She'll have also to fix up her serve which became a big weakness of her game since she came back from surgery. At the end of the year, during the Tokyo Open especially, she's been serving really well and her new coach Thomas Hogstedt will have to work with her on this serve.
In 2012, Maria Sharapova will be a big contender in Grand Slams for sure, she still got this combativity and this unbelievable fighting spirit that can lead her to win even if she's not playing well. She will also have to be more consistent. As the Nr.4 in the world, she's not allowed anymore to lose to Greta Arn or Galina Voskoboeva. In fact, she's not allowed to be erratic anymore as she's been this year, from time to time.
The biggest challenge to her will be to stop being so up and down during tournaments and somehow to manage to become again the threat she used to be. With Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters, she's part of the "old generation" (while she's only 24 !) and there's a lot of people to think that those three players are going to dominate again. No doubt she got what it takes in her raquet to do so.
The Best of 2011 : Maria Sharapova d. Caroline Wozniacki 7/5 6/3 (Rome- Semi-Final)
I hesitate for so long between this match and quarter-final in Wimbledon against Dominika Cibulkova but this win against Wozniacki meant so much to Maria Sharapova, that I've chosen that one.
The Worst of 2011 : Greta Arn d. Maria Sharapova 6/2 7/5
With no hesitation, this have been her worst match ever during the year, with, perhaps, her match against Galina Voskoboeva in Toronto.
But, Maria's season did not begin well. Actually, she's been knocked out by Greta Arn in quarter-finals of the Auckland Tournament, the eventual champion and in the 4th round of the Australian Open by the German Andrea Petkovic. Her withdrawing from Dubai, Doha and Paris Indoors is followed by a loss in Moscow in the 1st round of the Fed Cup against France. She looses to frenchwoman Virginie Razzano in straight sets. At this point, Maria's season seems to be a real nightmare. Then comes the American Indian Wells-Miami tourney. Finding her form back, she goes deep in both events : semi-finals in Indian Wells losing 6/1 6/2 to world number one and eventual winner, Caroline Wozniacki and final at Miami Open losing to Victoria Azarenka 6/1 6/4. Even if she manages to do well there, her serve seems such a liability and she's comitting tons of double-faults, and this will go on until the very end of the season.
A season that will take another breathe, in May, during the claycourt campaign. After a 3rd round exit at the Madrid Open (l. to Cibulkova), she wins the Italian Open in an impressive way beating both Azarenka and Wozniacki in order to reach the final and then, beats Samantha Stosur in straight sets 6/2 6/4. Thus she goes confident to Roland Garros, the single grand slam that misses her Grand Slam Career. She reaches there the semi-finals before losing to eventual champion Li Na 6/4 7/5 comitting 10 double-faults during the match. This tournament shows clearly that Maria has up and downs from one day to another : She totally outplays Andrea Petkovic (6/3 6/0) in quarter-finals playing an outstanding tennis and loses against Li Na in the semi-finals with 10 doubles faults and 23 faults. She directly goes to London to play the Wimbledon Championships where she reaches the final without dropping a single set, playing impressive tennis against Dominika Cibulkova (6/1 6/1) and then being totally outplayed in the final by Petra Kvitova.
Maria's US hardcourt has been kind of an up and down story (again). She begins in Stanford where she loses to Serena Williams 6/1 6/3, the eventual champion but the biggest disappointment comes in Toronto where she lost to Galina Voskoboeva in 3rd round, a Kazakh qualifier. Then came Cincinnati, where, without playing anywhere near her top, she managed to win the title after wins over Kuznetsova, Stosur, Zvonareva and Jankovic in the final, thus she became Nr.1 at the WTA Race Rankings. The US Open is the tournament to forget for Maria Sharapova, after a difficult win over the young british Heather Watson in a three-setter and over Yakimova, Maria loses against the Italian Flavia Pennetta in a tough three-setter : A dispointing result as Maria was one of the favorites in New York to clinch the title.
She goes to Asia in order to play the Tokyo Open. She plays some solid tennis there, especially at serve where she seemed to find back some confidence on that shot. In fact, here match against Julia Goerges showed she was still able to serve really well. But during her quarter-final against Petra Kvitova, she had to retire due to an ankle injury she contracted after...serving ! She had thus to withdraw from the China Open but wanted to go to Instanbul for the Masters.
But everything went wrong and Maria seemed really unable to run off the court and lost to Samantha Stosur for the first time in her career, and lost again to Li Na before retiring from the Masters. A bad end for a quite good year actually.
What to expect for 2012 ? :First of all, to stay healthy and to keep that motivation that she lacked in 2009 and 2010. Then, I think that everything will come back itself. She'll have also to fix up her serve which became a big weakness of her game since she came back from surgery. At the end of the year, during the Tokyo Open especially, she's been serving really well and her new coach Thomas Hogstedt will have to work with her on this serve.
In 2012, Maria Sharapova will be a big contender in Grand Slams for sure, she still got this combativity and this unbelievable fighting spirit that can lead her to win even if she's not playing well. She will also have to be more consistent. As the Nr.4 in the world, she's not allowed anymore to lose to Greta Arn or Galina Voskoboeva. In fact, she's not allowed to be erratic anymore as she's been this year, from time to time.
The biggest challenge to her will be to stop being so up and down during tournaments and somehow to manage to become again the threat she used to be. With Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters, she's part of the "old generation" (while she's only 24 !) and there's a lot of people to think that those three players are going to dominate again. No doubt she got what it takes in her raquet to do so.
The Best of 2011 : Maria Sharapova d. Caroline Wozniacki 7/5 6/3 (Rome- Semi-Final)
I hesitate for so long between this match and quarter-final in Wimbledon against Dominika Cibulkova but this win against Wozniacki meant so much to Maria Sharapova, that I've chosen that one.
The Worst of 2011 : Greta Arn d. Maria Sharapova 6/2 7/5
With no hesitation, this have been her worst match ever during the year, with, perhaps, her match against Galina Voskoboeva in Toronto.
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