The Hindu : Sport : Sharapova waltzes past Sugiyama

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Sunday, Jul 01, 2007
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Sport

Sharapova waltzes past Sugiyama

Nirmal Shekar

TENNIS / Unrelenting aggression takes Mauresmo past Santangelo; Sania-Peer duo advances

— Photo: AP

RUSSIA’S PRIDE: Maria Sharapova squeezed in a victory between downpours at Wimbledon on Saturday, beating Ai Sugiyama of Japan to book her place in the fourth round.

London: Maria Sharapova has taken wing. Strutting her stuff in a layered white dress that would have earned her a part in a performance of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake — the most beautiful of classical ballets — at the Royal Albert Hall here, the Russian diva has comfortably retained her status in the 121st Wimbledon championships this week as the game’s No.1 eye candy.

The glamorous blonde who won her first Grand Slam title here three years ago as a 17-year old has had so many sartorial surprises to offer us that you might think one day soon she might turn up in her mink — except that Wimbledon has this ‘predominantly white’ dress code.

Playing the experienced 31-year old Ai Sugiyama of Japan in a third round match on the No.1 court on Saturday — a day when play did not begin until shortly before 3 p.m. because of rain — Sharapova’s mood seemed to match the brooding skies.

She tugged at her racquet strings, remonstrated with herself on losing critical points, glared at her surroundings and generally seemed to be auditioning for the protagonist’s role in a soon-to-be-made film titled ‘The Angry Young Woman.

Easy for Mauresmo

By the time Sharapova was digging herself a small hole early in the second set, losing serve to love, a huge lob away, on the centre court, the defending champion and fourth seed, Amelie Mauresmo, was serving for the match against Mara Santangelo of Italy.

Mauresmo, winner of two Grand Slam titles last year — the Australian Open and Wimbledon — faced a breakpoint serving for the match. But on a day when she displayed unrelenting aggression and tremendous confidence, the Frenchwoman went on to close out the match with an ace down the middle for a 6-1, 6-2 victory.

It was a touch more difficult for Sharapova.

But this is a hard woman. Don’t be carried away by her looks and the million-dollar smile off the court in front of cameras. For, adversity almost always turns her into a bloody-minded marauder.

Sharapova took some time to come to terms with the fact that a woman who would turn 32 next week was seriously challenging her on her turf — even if was a brief challenge.

Once she did that, the most marketable sportswoman on the planet was home and dry, beating another spell of rain by seconds. The second seeded Russian won 6-3, 6-3.

Injury concern

Her shoulder injury has been a concern for Sharapova for some time now, although she says her doctors gave her the green signal to play here.

And her game lacks the variety that a Mauresmo or a Justine Henin can fall back on.

There are times — when things are not going right — when Sharapova looks like a flightless kiwi, flapping about in the Swan Lake-inspired dress which will definitely add to her endorsement potential even if you believed that someone who makes $28m a year from her sponsors alone would not care about such things.

Gloomy start

Under leaden skies, Sharapova let go of six break points in her Japanese opponent’s first two service games of the match before hitting a running forehand pass to find the break.

Sugiyama, aggressive but inconsistent, sent down a double fault in the ninth game to surrender the set earlier than she might have expected to.

But, then, when the Japanese woman opened up a 3-1 second set lead, it looked as if this match too would go all the way to the wire as their two previous meetings did.

In the players’ box, Yuri Sharapov, Maria’s father and coach, was far from happy.

He gestured angrily to his daughter after the third game. Perhaps that was just what Sharapova needed.

The swan was sliding down the water majestically again, winning five games in a row.

Indians post wins

Late on Friday evening, Sania Mirza and her Israeli partner, Shahar Peer, beat Sofia Arvidsson of Sweden and Lilia Osterloh of the United States 7-5, 6-3 in a first round match in the women’s doubles competition.

Leander Paes and his Czech partner Martin Damm beat James Auckand (Britain) and Stephen Huss (Australia) 7-6, 7-6, 3-6, 7-6 to make the men’s doubles pre-quarterfinals.

Finally, play was abandoned at 7 p.m. (11.30 p.m. IST). Sunday is a rest day and play will resume on Monday.

Important Results

(Prefix denotes seeding)

Men: singles: third round: Janko Tipsarevic (Serb) bt 5-Fernando Gonzalez (Chi) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 4-6, 8-6; Paul-Henri Mathieu (Fra) bt 15-Ivan Ljubicic (Cro) 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, 6-3; 13-Tommy Haas (Ger) bt 21-Dmitry Tursunov (Rus) 1-6, 6-4, 7 -6 (5), 6-4; 12-Richard Gasquet (Fra) bt Edouard Roger-Vasselin (Fra) 6-3, 6-4, 6-2; Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (Fra) bt Feliciano Lopez (Esp) 6-3, 7-6(4), 6-3; 1-Roger Federer (Sui) bt 26-Marat Safin (Rus) 6-1, 6-4, 7-6(4); 3-Andy Roddick (U.S.) bt Fernando Verdasco (Esp) 6-3, 6-4, 7-6(2).