The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sharapova stuns Serena

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Sunday, Jul 04, 2004

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Sport - Tennis

Sharapova stuns Serena

By Nirmal Shekar

LONDON, JULY 3. "Oh my God! It's unreal.''

With that exclamation, the future of women's tennis arrived shortly before 3.30 p.m. today, golden mane blowing in the wind, a million-dollar smile of sheer disbelief plastered on a teenaged face that might not be out of place in a Miss Universe parade, feet barely on the ground, heart pounding with excitement.

A flight into the realms of fantasy is almost always a flight into danger. For, when landing time comes, it more often than not turns out to be a crash-landing.

Yet, there are times in sport when reality turns out to be fantasy to the power of four, as it happened in the 118th Wimbledon championships on Saturday. Even as we rubbed our eyes and pinched ourselves, on the hallowed centre court turf, a 17-year old girl lived out a dream that even the truly gifted ones would seldom dare seek to turn into reality. Yes, the future is upon is. And Maria Sharapova has arrived — well, sorry, she has raced to her destiny much before her time — with a stunning 6-1, 6-4 defeat of the two-time champion and top seed Serena Williams in an hour and 13 minutes in the women's singles final.

Sharapova, seeded 13, world ranked 15, and the youngest champion since Martina Hingis won the title here at age 16 in 1997, is also the first ever Russian to win a Wimbledon singles championship. She is richer by 560,500 pounds but that might be small change compared to the endorsement money this success will bring.

``This is unbelievable. I want to thank everybody who's helped me in my career, my dad and mom, for all the sacrifices, Nick (Bollettieri) and Robert (Lansdorp). I want to cut this trophy and give it to everybody,'' said Sharapova, still unable to comprehend the enormity of her achievement.

In the men's championship, the so-called fantasy final connoisseurs were dreaming of became a reality, too, as Roger Federer, the defending champion and top seed, and Andy Roddick, the U.S.Open champion and second seed, cleared the hurdles to make way for a Sunday afternoon duel, weather permitting.Federer did not have to spend too much time on the court today as he beat the Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean 6-2, 6-3, 7-6(6), after resuming at 4-3 in the third set. But Roddick had a lot more work to do before he put an end to the unseeded Croatian Mario Ancic's considerable challenge 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 after resuming the semifinal contest midway in the second set.

Nerveless display

For a teenager playing in her first major final, and in only her second Wimbledon, Sharapova came up with an astonishingly nerveless display of powerful, attacking tennis from the back of the court to take the wind out of the champion.

At 17, five years Serena's junior, and far less experienced, the Russian never once betrayed any sort of stage fright as she started and finished the match with the composure of a professional sniper taking care of yet another `target'.

Then again, in the world of sport, the younger you are, the more fearless you can be; for you are not carrying the excess baggage of experience, of failure and its scars.

``Maria played a very good match. It was not my day,'' said Serena, who was hoping to become the first woman's champion since Steffi Graf in 1993 to win three straight titles.How many more Sharapova will win is an interesting question. But there can be no doubt at all that she deserved to get her hands on the Venus Rosewater dish today.

It was a day when Serena was hardly the player who outclassed Jennifer Capriati in the quarterfinals and outlasted Amelie Mauresmo in a seat-edge thriller in the semifinals. But that should take nothing away from Sharapova's awesome display of irresistible tennis.Serving superbly, hitting blistering passes on both flanks and stepping in on her opponent's serves for scintillating return winners, Sharapova was playing dream tennis.From the moment she broke Serena's serve in the fourth game — thanks to a pair of backhand errors from the champion — the Russian teenager was in the zone.Shaparova needed five setpoints to close out the first set and the only time when she appeared just that bit shaky was when she lost serve for the only time in the match, in the sixth game of the second set.

Then again, the teenager struck back immediately and raced to the finish, breaking Serena's serve twice in succession. As Serena's forehand sailed over the baseline on her second championship point, Shaparova dropped her racquet, sank to her knees and buried her face in her palm, tears welling in her eyes.

Moments later, in what has now become a familiar ritual at Wimbledon, Sharapova climbed into the stands to hug her father Yuri Sharapov and the rest of the entourage.

Federer steers clear of drama

On Friday evening, as the dreaded rain arrived again, Federer must have felt like a gifted sculptor who had chiselled out a masterpiece against all odds and was giving it the finishing touches when he was rudely pulled out of his studio.

It is never easy to sleep on an unfinished masterpiece but the champion said that he had no problem shutting eyes, although he admitted it was difficult to come away when he did last night.

``I am very relieved,'' said the top seed. ''It is never easy to stop like that. You never know, he could have turned it around.''

In fact, Grosjean did find himself the platform to turn it around dramatically. The Frenchman fought off two matchpoints on serve in the 10th game and then he not only broke Federer to lead 6-5 but also, after losing his own serve in the 12th game of the third set, went on to open up a commanding 4-0 lead in the tiebreak.

``I was hoping he wouldn't run away with the tiebreak like Hewitt did (in the quarterfinals),'' said Federer.

Well, the point is, he was not merely hoping; Federer was making sure that wouldn't happen. He seems to be able to raise his game as easily as you and I would turn up the volume on the television in our drawing rooms. Just press the right key, as simple as that.

Few men in the entire history of the game may have been quite as outrageously gifted as this Swiss master. In the face of a looming threat, without so much as blinking, Federer leaves the atmosphere peopled by the likes of Grosjean and travels to his own stratospheric heights.

A pumped fist here, another there and quickly Federer was level 4-4. A questionable call on the baseline saw him lose the next point and then a touch of uncharacteristic anxiety carried what might have been an easy backhand winner, on matchpoint No.3, marginally wide. But Federer brought up a smashing end to the semifinal, putting away an overhead, on his fourth matchpoint.``I am really looking forward to the next match,'' said Federer, who has now won 23 straight matches on grass. "But tonight will be a similar night to all other nights.''

Of course, sleeplessness is a condition more familiar to Federer's opponents. Roddick shows characterThen again, it is unlikely that Roddick might end up tossing and turning in his bed tonight, no matter that he was considerably excited after seeing off a fighting Ancic this afternoon.

Roddick, who resumed breakpoint down on serve in the eighth game of the second set, went on to lose that game and soon the set too. But he hung in there through two rain-breaks and showed tremendous resilience and courage in the face of adversity to go through in four sets.

``I'm excited. He (Federer) is the best and I want to see how I can match up with him,'' said the second seeded U.S. Open champion. ''We'll both come out firing. I can't wait.''

Nor indeed can the fans. For, this is one match-up that might produce a real classic, given the strengths of the finalists. And Roddick, it must be said, is far more mature now than when he lost to Federer in the semifinals here last year.

And the young American underlined his growing maturity this afternoon with commendable determination and skills. When rain sent the players back to the locker room the first time, Ancic, having won the second set, was up 5-4 in the third.

But Roddick came back to play his best tennis of the match, breaking the Croatian's serve in the 11th game with a backhand crosscourt pass and then hitting two big aces (140mph, 138mph) to close out the set.

Such bombs, as we found out, were slightly in short supply in the fourth set but Roddick showed us how much more he is able to do now with his second serves, using it successfully as a weapon of self-defence quite often.

The American finally broke through in the 11th game, yet again, as Ancic handed the break to him on a platter with a double fault although Roddick had done the groundwork earlier.

Serving for a place in the final, his first at Wimbledon, Roddick was down 0-30 and let go of two matchpoints before taking his appointed place in the championship match with a forehand winner.

He will need more than a few of those tomorrow when he stands across the court from the champion hoping to lay claims on the silverware that many feel might as well be locked away in the safe at Federer's home for the next few years.

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