* !Picby Pete Bodo*
If you ever find yourself wondering how the Russians held off the German 6th Army during the battle of Stalingrad (and I just know you find yourself thinking about it a lot more than you let on), just imagine an entire Russian city choc-a-bloc with Maria Sharapovas. Gritty, tough, give-no-quarter, ask-no-quarter types.
All of you aspiring tennis parents out there better hope that Lleyton Hewitt doesn't dump Bec and Maria doesn't dump Sasha, because the spawn of Hewitt-Sharapova could be the ultimate genetic expression of combative fitness. And be doubly glad that Sharapova is probably too vain to hook up with a guy who has a mohawk and barely comes up to her chin.
Once again this week, Sharapova is showing that she has sand—more, perhaps, than any woman on the tour. The No. 4 seed can't claim to be a rival of this generation's icon, Serena Williams, who's seeded 12th but has 13 Grand Slam titles to Sharapova's three. But it's still a pity that they're on track to meet in the quarterfinals, because they're the two most able competitors out there—even if Serena is simply more gifted and perhaps even tougher. Each wants to be the last woman left standing, but in Sharapova's case it may well be without the trophy in hand. You sense she's learned to deal with that, and in my eyes that makes her more rather than less admirable.
Apart from a cameo at the WTA Championships, Sharapova has played no tennis since the end of last September. Given the extent to which her game is predicated on precise shotmaking and a big serve, the lack of match play combined with her ongoing serving yips did not bode well for her chances in Australia. But there's never been a player who so well represents the mandate to "dance with the one that brung you." In fact, for Sharapova, options are not an option, and maybe that makes it easier for her. So she answers the call and goes out to fight as best she can, the only way she knows how. She's lost just five games in three matches. The Red Sea parts.
When you see Sharapova lose, and how she loses, you could be forgiven for asking how she can cling so persistently to her place near the top. It sometimes seems that she owns that No. 4 ranking, no matter what happens. There is an explanation. She beats the people she's supposed to beat. And she shows up. She shows up and comes to play. Especially at majors.
As Sharapova said when she was asked about distractions the other day, "I think if your concentration is there, you're only there for a certain amount of time—you're not there for 24 hours. I think your time and commitment has to be on the court, the ball and racquet, what you're doing with it, instead of paying attention to what's around you."
The key word there is "commitment."
This uber-professional attitude can seem joyless at times, although the obvious retort to that would be that, as she said in the quote above, there's plenty of other hours in the day to laugh. A TENNIS.com contributor who goes by the handle Gauloises really nailed it yesterday, when she wrote, "Sharapova marches mirthlessly on." Wonderful line that, made rather than undone by the alliteration.
So it's hardly surprising that Sharapova is reading George Orwell's classic, 1984, as opposed to, say, Eat, Pray, Love. In all honesty, though, she feels obliged to read that grim if invaluable tome because it was a gift from her trainer, and as a person who knows the value of money (her childhood coach Robert Lansdorp once had to buy her (family) a Christmas tree, Sharapova said:
"I have to be nice and read it. He (the trainer) spent twenty dollars on it. It was either that , or the running book by Haruki Murakami, where he wrote about running. I was like, I don't think so. . . the only worse thing than running is reading a book about running."
Sharapova doesn't lack a sense of humor; she just knows when the situation calls for one. And now is not the time.