The Hindu : Sport : Maria Sharapova opens her defence in style

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 22, 2005

Sport

Sport

Maria Sharapova opens her defence in style

Nirmal Shekar

London: Her face reflected pure joy. The face that adorns the bedroom walls of tens of millions of testosterone-charged teenagers from Mumbai to Montreal and London to Lahore betrayed all the emotions of a long time prisoner just released from a 6x8 cell into a world of sunshine and freedom.

As Maria Sharapova hurried into the Centre Court at Wimbledon on Tuesday, almost jogging in on legs longer than a village fair performer's stilts, the radiance on her face suggested a rapturous sort of excitement. She was back in the land of dreams, back where the fantasy-craft was launched here a year ago.

A year is a long time in sport; time enough for several image make-overs, time enough to catapult yourself from No. What's That? to No. 2 in the rankings, time enough for surreal smiles to turn into scowls of surliness and, most of all, time enough to overcome the shock of being told what you are, who you are, instead of exploring and seeking to establish your own youthful identity as a vast majority of teenagers do.

As the 18-year-old defending champion from Russia won her first round match 6-2, 6-2 before you could learn to pronounce her Spanish opponent's name, Nuria Llagostera Vives, it was obvious that Sharapova was glad to get back on the court rather than answer questions about stalkers and endorsement deals and the commercial prospects of her own brand of perfume.

A few hours later, Sharapova, seeded two, would find out that one of her main challengers was gone on Day Two! Eleni Daniilidou, an unseeded Greek-woman, played confident serve-and-volley tennis and benefited from the largesse of the seventh seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne's 48 unforced errors to bring off a stunning 7-6(8), 2-6, 7-5 victory.

Henin, who did not play in any tournament after winning the French Open, looked rusty and clueless on the lush grass of the No.1 court. She staved off two matchpoints in the 10th game on serve but succumbed in her next service game, sending down a double fault (No.11) on matchpoint.

"I didn't have the best preparation coming here," said Henin-Hardenne. "I never felt a good rhythm and missed a few opportunities. But you have to live with these things."

New world

Celebrity, as the strikingly beautiful Sharapova has found out, does not always smell sweet. It may not quite stink — perhaps not yet — but Sharapova has, now and again, seemed a touch irritable and ill at ease in her new world of agents, promoters, hangers-on and suspected stalkers.

Surely, yet another chapter of sport's age-old love-hate relationship has begun.

In a way, iconic sporting celebrities are seldom who we are told — by the media — they are. The power of sporting culture to create a social construct is unimaginable. And many of these stars are social constructs with a name and a face stuck on them. They become prisoners of their own image, some of it self-created, most of it media-manufactured.

Then, before long, begins the phase of rebellion. Suddenly a Sharapova, on an off day, might sit up on the couch at home and say to herself: `Hey, that's not me.'

By then, it is often too late. The money has been banked, acres of rain forests have been felled to write soap opera-style stories and the image is cast in stone. And this is particularly true in a sport — women's tennis — where the media is in a sort of time-warp when it comes to portraying femininity and (champion) female identity.

Lost innocence

Of course, Sharapova, keenly aware of her gifts, both in terms of athletic talents and good looks, will learn to live with it. But the brief age of innocence, characterised by the hand-in-the-mouth astonishment and the childish display of annoyance at not being able to reach her mother on her mobile after her victory over Serena Williams in last year's final, is well behind the champion.

No matter that, on the positive side, Sharapova's focus, once on court, will earn her the envy of a Zen master. The statuesque blonde blasted backhands and forehands — and even went up once in a while for powerful drive volleys — past Vives, an opponent who stands a foot shorter than the champion.

The world's most famous active sportswoman, playing in gold-trimmed tennis shoes, won three games in a row at the start and raced through the first set. She faced a little more resistance — if you can call it that — in the second before going through in 58 minutes.

Sharapova's serves, a weapon even last year, have become even more powerful and she hit six aces and won almost 80 per cent of her first serve points.

"This is where, you know, magic happened," said Sharapova. "So it was really good to feel that again. It was so amazing."

Life, and tennis, continue to amaze Maria Sharapova whose father bundled her into a flight to Florida, from Moscow, with just $700 in his wallet and a great, big dream in his heart almost a dozen years ago.

Ah, the power of dreams!

Roddick through

Andy Roddick, unlike the man who has been his nemesis here, Roger Federer, is no dream merchant. But the powerful American is no slouch on grass and he is playing with the sort of confidence that can take him far, perhaps all the way.

Today, Roddick, seeded two, blasted 14 aces and powered his way past Jiri Vanek of the Czech Republic 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-2 in the first round. There was just that whiff of trouble in the second set tiebreak when Vanek was up 4-3 but Roddick raced through in style, closing out the set with a rare backhand volley.

Today, Sania, playing alongside Anna Chakvetadze of Russia, went down 6-2, 6-1 against Alina Jidkova or Russia and Tatiana Perebiynis of Ukraine in a first round doubles match.

THE RESULTS

Prefix denotes seeding

Men's singles: First round: 15-Guillermo Coria (Arg) bt Tomas Behrend (Ger) 6-1, 6-2, 6-2; Jurgen Melzer (Aut) bt 20-Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) 6-4, 6-4, 6-4; 28-Jiri Novak (Cze) bt Peter Wessels (Ned) 7-6(4), 6-3, 6-4; Danai Udomchoke (Tha) bt Stefan Koubek (Aut) 5-7, 6-4, 4-6, 6-3, 8-6; Andrew Murray (G.Br) bt George Bastl (Sui) 6-4, 6-2, 6-2; Alex Calatrava (Esp) bt Tuomas Ketola (Fin) 6-4, 7-6(4), 6-4; 2-Andy Roddick (U.S.) bt Jiri Vanek (Cze) 6-1, 7-6(4), 6-2; 14-Radek Stepanek (Cze) bt Robby Ginepri (U.S.) 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4, 6-2; Davide Sanguinetti (Ita) bt Andreas Seppi (Ita) 6-3, 6-2, 6-1; Janko Tipsarevic (SeM) bt 19-Tommy Haas (Ger) 6-2, 2-1 retd.; Igor Andreev (Rus) bt 30-Robin Soderling (Swe) 6-7(3), 7-5, 6-1, 7-5; Fabrice Santoro (Fra) bt Stanislas Wawrinka (Sui) 6-2, 6-7(7), 7-5, 6-1; Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) bt Nicolas Almagro (Esp) 7-6(2), 7-6(4), 6-1; Xavier Malisse (Bel) bt Jonathan Murray (G.Br) 6-3, 3-6, 2-6, 6-1, 6-4; Daniele Bracciali (Ita) bt Ivo Karlovic (Cro) 6-7(4), 7-6(8), 3-6, 7-6(5), 12-10; 6-Tim Henman (G.Br) bt Jarkko Nieminen (Fin) 3-6, 6-7(5), 6-4, 7-5, 6-2; 27-Richard Gasquet (Fra) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (Ger) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2; Lu Yen-Hsun (Tpe) bt Arnaud Clement (Fra) 7-6(4), 0-6, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3; Alexander Popp (Ger) bt Jerome Haehnel (Fra) 6-2, 6-3, 2-6, 6-4; Guillermo Garcia-Lopez (Esp) bt 17-David Ferrer (Esp) 6-3, 6-2, 7-6(7); Gilles Muller (Lux) bt Felix Mantilla (Esp) 5-4 (retd.); Wayne Arthurs (Aus) bt 32-Filippo Volandri (Ita) 6-3, 6-4, 6-4; Novak Djokovic (SeM) bt Juan Monaco (Arg) 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3.

Women's singles: First round: 2-Maria Sharapova (Rus) bt Nuria Llagostera Vives (Esp) 6-2, 6-2; 11-Vera Zvonareva (Rus) bt Marlene Weingartner (Ger) 2-6, 6-4, 6-0; 20-Daniela Hantuchova (Slo) bt Evgenia Linetskaya (Rus) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2; Katarina Srebotnik (Slo) bt 31-Anabel Medina Garrigues (Esp) 6-3, 6-3; Shahar Peer (Isr) bt Meilen Tu (U.S.) 6-3, 6-3; Kveta Peschke (Cze) bt Dally Randriantefy (Mad) 7-5, 6-1; Yoon Jeong Cho (S. Kor) bt Arantxa Parra Santonja (Esp) 6-3, 6-3; 14-Venus Williams (U.S.) bt Eva Birnerova (Cze) 6-2, 6-4; Nicole Pratt (Aus) bt Ludmila Cervanova (Slo) 3-6, 6-3, 6-1; 29-Marion Bartoli (Fra) bt Rika Fujiwara (Jpn) 6-2, 6-2; 8-Nadia Petrova (Rus) bt Virginia Ruano Pascual (Esp) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2; Tatiana Panova (Rus) bt Lisa Raymond (U.S.) 7-5, 6-3; Sesil Karatancheva (Bul) bt Amanda Janes (G.Br) 7-5, 6-7(6), 7-5; 16-Nathalie Dechy (Fra) bt Maria Elena Camerin (Ita) 7-6(1), 6-1; 4-Serena Williams (U.S) bt Angela Haynes (U.S.) 6-7(12), 6-4, 6-2.

Severine Beltrame (Fra) bt Claudine Schaul (Lux) 6-2, 6-1; Eleni Daniilidou (Gre) bt 7-Justine Henin-Hardenne (Bel) 7-6(8), 2-6, 7-5; Kristina Brandi (Pue) bt 21-Francesca Schiavone (Ita) 6-3, 3-6, 9-7; 32-Virginie Razzano (Fra) bt Catalina Castano (Col) 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-4; Conchita Martinez (Esp) bt Katerina Bondarenko (Ukr) 6-1, 7-6(4).

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