The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : It's just a game that I play: Sharapova

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Friday, Mar 23, 2007
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It's just a game that I play: Sharapova

Nandita Sridhar

Miami: Maria Sharapova is more than just a saleable face and monster groundstrokes. She has more to offer than the most audible grunt in women's tennis. It seems like she has just the right philosophy for modern day sport. Despite being part of a world of sporting megalomaniacs, she chooses instead to fall back on the most underused aspect of sport, which is perspective.

Tennis, for the Russian, is just a game. "I read the papers and see what's happening around me everyday. Tennis is just a game that I play, that's it," she said prior to the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami.

One would expect a 19-year-old with two Grand Slams, an imposing game, worldwide fame and a product-selling face to give herself the luxury of losing it all, but here again it was about rationalisation and perspective. "It's just the way my parents have raised me, I guess. When I was young, I didn't get anything easy. Now, it's all about perspective. You're going to have your good days and your bad days, that's life. You don't think about being the number one all the time, you just look at things to work on in your game," she said.

Comfortable at No. 2

"There isn't much of a difference between being number one and number two, and I don't keep thinking about it (losing the number one spot to Justine Henin) all the time."

Does it bother her that her pronounced good looks, despite a thundering game, will always be her primary identity? "It's not like I have a choice. If I said that it bothered me, would it matter? I don't think it would," she said.

All soaked in the philosophy, you search for more, but the teenager in her shows up instead. WTA Tour chief executive Larry Scott had a tough time communicating the good news on equal prize money to his super star player.

"He called me when I was shopping, and I don't answer calls when I'm shopping. But I finally did, and told him it better be worth it," she said.

Worthy it was.

"We kept fighting for equal prize money, even with some of the ATP players, and now there's nothing to fight about," she said, adding that it was more a matter of principle than money.

Tennis-wise, she will look to brush off her Indian Wells loss, and go one step better than her runner-up position in 2006 at Miami. Knowing how competitive she can get on court, and how philosophical she can sound off it, brushing off losses should hardly be a problem.

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