Maria Sharapova vs Petra Kvitova

Saturday, July 2, 2011

Maria Sharapova vs Petra Kvitova

Petra Kvitova defeats Maria Sharapova to win Wimbledon title

scharapowa vs kvitova ,LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 02: Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Maria Sharapova of Russia in action during thier Ladies' final round match on Day Twelve of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 2, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Clive Brunskill/Getty

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 02: Maria Sharapova of Russia returns a shot during her Ladies' final round match against Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic on Day Twelve of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 2, 2011 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 02: Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic celebrates match point after winning her Ladies' final round match against Maria Sharapova of Russia on Day Twelve of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 2, 2011 in London, England. Kvitova won 6-3 6-4. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

LONDON, ENGLAND - JULY 02: Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic kisses Maria Sharapova of Russia after winning her Ladies' final round match on Day Twelve of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 2, 2011 in London, England. Kvitova won 6-3 6-4. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

Petra Kvitova won her first Grand Slam title Saturday by defeating Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-4 at Wimbledon, finishing with an ace and dropping to her knees in disbelief.

Kvitova was playing in her first major final, but it was three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova who showed her nerves. The 2004 Wimbledon winner double-faulted six times, including twice to get broken to 4-2 in the first set.
The 21-year-old Kvitova is the first left-handed woman to win Wimbledon since Martina Navratilova in 1990. Using a fast and accurate forehand, Kvitova did little wrong on Centre Court as Czech greats Navratilova and Jana Novotna sat in the Royal Box with other former Wimbledon champions.
“It’s hard to find some words if I’m standing here with the trophy and see the great players in the Royal Box,” Kvitova said. “Well, I’m so happy that I won.”

Kvitova (pronounced kuh-VIT-uh-vuh) kept Sharapova on the run with 18 winners, and never seemed to lose confidence despite being broken three times.

“Of course, I was nervous,” Kvitova said. “I thought I can win Wimbledon. But I had to focus on each point.”
Sharapova was the clear favorite. Besides winning at the All England Club in 2004, she also won the U.S. Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008. Shoulder surgery in October 2008 slowed her career, but she returned to the semifinals at a Grand Slam tournament for the first time since then at the French Open last month.
“I’ve had amazing support over so many years and to be back at this stage and holding the runner-up trophy this year is something. … Obviously I would have wanted that big one. It’s something I’m going to be back for and I’m hoping to get again,” Sharapova said.
Sharapova had not lost a set heading into the final. But she struggled with her serve in the semifinals, double-faulting 13 times before beating German wild card Sabine Lisicki
Sharapova won the toss at the net before the final and elected to receive, perhaps wanting time to settle in before testing her serve. Whatever the reason, it appeared a smart move because she broke for a 1-0 lead as Kvitova missed three forehands.
Sharapova then served for the first time in the next game. Although she only had one fault in five attempts, she lost four of the points to make it 1-1.
Sharapova wasted her second chance at a break in the third game. A few games later, with the score 30-30, Sharapova produced her second double-fault of the match. The third came two swings later.
Trailing 5-2, Sharapova double-faulted again to open the eighth game. But she did manage to hold and force Kvitova to serve out the set.
Kvitova broke Sharapova again in the opening game of the second set, with the Russian double-faulting for the fifth time to give the Czech a break point.
The pair twice traded breaks later in the set, but Kvitova held to win the championship dish.
“Unfortunately in tennis there’s only one winner at the end of the day and that’s what makes this tournament so special,” Sharapova said before turning her attention to Kvitova. “So big congratulations on a wonderful victory, you played a wonderful tournament.”

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Maria Sharapova

Friday, July 1, 2011

Maria Sharapova

video: Victoria Azarenka double faults on match point

In the second Thursday semifinal at Wimbledon, Maria Sharapova was able to withstand 13 double faults and advance to the tournament final. In the first semi, Victoria Azarenka wasn't so fortunate:

1. Azarenka had double faulted once all match prior to that one.

2. If there was ever a doubt about how affected Azarenka's grunts are, listen to the similarities between the first serve and second serve shrieks. How could an easy, 81 mph serve elicit the same sort of effort squeal as a loaded up first serve?

3. To all television broadcasters, please stop cutting to the player's box immediately after the match. The progression of cuts are the same following every victory: wide shot of point, close-up of player celebrating, close-up of people clapping/high-fiving in player's box, lingering on the close-up of people clapping and high-fiving in the player's box for a beat too long and then the handshake at the net. Look, we get it; the people in the player's box are happy. Who cares? Unless there's Brooklyn Decker or Sasha Vujacic there, people in the player's box are completely interchangeable. So are their celebrations. Instead of cutting to them, how about keeping the camera on the winner or showing a shot of the player who just lost? That's where the drama is. How long will the winner celebrate? Will he/she jog to the net? Is the loser going to be perturbed because of the wait? There are dozens of ways the end-of-match scenarios could play out. The player's box is the same thing every time.

4. Given that Petra Kvitova is playing the erratic-serving Maria Sharapova on Saturday, there's a legitimate chance she could be on the receiving end of match-winning double faults in both the semis and the finals.

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Sharapova Wimbledon final since

Thursday, June 30, 2011

Sharapova Wimbledon final since

Sharapova reaches 1st Wimbledon final since ’04

So what if Maria Sharapova managed to
win only two of the first 13 points of her Wimbledon semifinal Thursday,

dropping the first three games?

So what if she bungled her serve so badly that she double-faulted 13 times?
All that mattered to Sharapova was that she roared—well, shrieked—her way back into the match, taking 12 of the last 16 games to beat wild-card entry Sabine Lisicki of Germany 6-4, 6-3 and return to the final at the All England Club for the first time since 2004, when she won the title at 17.
“It’s been many years, but it’s a really great feeling,” Sharapova said. “Today wasn’t my best match of the championships, so I was real happy to get through in two sets. But, yeah, it’s pretty amazing to be back on that stage.”
In Saturday’s final, Sharapova will play No. 8 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, who hit nine aces and dictated points throughout her 6-1, 3-6, 6-2 victory over No. 4 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus.
Sharapova’s seven-year gap between Wimbledon finals is the longest for a woman in the Open era, which began in 1968.
“I’m in a different stage in my career. I’m 24 years old. I have a lot of experience behind my back,” said Sharapova, who hasn’t lost a set during the tournament. “But I’m still playing tennis.”
That wasn’t always a given: Months after winning her third, and most recent, Grand Slam title at the 2008 Australian Open, Sharapova was sidelined with a serious injury to her right shoulder. When rehab wasn’t enough, she had surgery in October 2008. It was an arduous road back, and only now has she returned to the top of the game.
“You’re going to have certain doubts, I mean, when you go through something like that,” the fifth-seeded Sharapova said, “knowing that not too many players have recovered fully.”
Kvitova, who lost in last year’s Wimbledon semifinals, is the first left-handed woman to reach a Grand Slam title match since Monica Seles at the 1998 French Open. She would be the first lefty to win the Wimbledon trophy since 1990, when Martina Navratilova—who was born in Czechoslovakia and was a spectator at Centre Court on Thursday—earned her ninth title.
“There’s been so few women lefties that were good,” Navratilova said. “For Petra, I think the key’s always been to minimize those streaks of bad play. She’s very streaky.”
There’s little question who the favorite is Saturday: Sharapova will be playing in her fifth major final; the 21-year-old Kvitova in her first. Sharapova seeks her 24th career title; Kvitova her fifth.
“Experience is an incredible asset,” Sharapova said, “because you feel like you’ve been through many different situations.”
In their only previous meeting, Sharapova beat Kvitova in straight sets on an indoor hard court at Memphis last year.
Then again, here’s what Kvitova’s coach, David Kotyza, took away from that: “Petra knows how to play against her.”
As for whether Kvitova might be intimidated against Sharapova, Kotyza said: “I don’t think so. No. She doesn’t care who she plays.”
In Thursday’s opening semifinal, Kvitova wasn’t distracted one bit by Azarenka’s shot-accompanying screeching—which drew snickers from the crowd on the match’s very first point—or the fire alarm that droned on for a couple of minutes in the fifth game.
Punctuating nearly every point she won with a yelp, Kvitova showed why she was honored as the WTA newcomer of the year in 2010. Still, she acknowledged afterward that, as recently as two weeks ago, “I didn’t think, like, that I could win” the Wimbledon title.
Azarenka begged to differ.
“She can beat anybody, any day, because right now she has really good game,” Azarenka said. “She’s really going for it.”
Indeed, Kvitova took the initiative, accumulating a 40-9 edge in winners. Her serve helped her get through some important moments: She hit three aces in the last game of the first set, and she dug out of a 15-40 hole while serving in the final set’s fifth game, ending it with another ace.
Sharapova was forced to tweak her service motion after her operation, and Thursday’s match is only the latest evidence that there’s still a problem. While losing in the French Open semifinals a month ago, she hit 10 double-faults, including on the final point. Against the 62nd-ranked Lisicki, Sharapova put in only 48 percent of her first serves.
There were two double-faults in Sharapova’s first service game. Two more in her next gave Lisicki a break point, meaning Sharapova was one point from trailing 4-0.
This, then, would be where things turned. Sharapova hit a serve ruled out; she challenged the call, and the replay review showed the ball landed in. The next serve was good, and Lisicki wound up trying a drop shot—a tool she used to near-perfection in her quarterfinal victory over 2007 Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli—that sailed wide.
Eventually, Sharapova held serve there, and broke in the next game, and was on her way.
“The first three games she played very well, and I did quite the opposite. She served better, and I was giving her way too many free points on my serve,” Sharapova said. “And then I told myself to take it one point at a time and really focus. I felt like I just kind of got in my zone.”
Soon enough, she was marking shot after shot with her high-pitched grunts and celebrating point after point with her signature shouts of “Come on!” Up in the player guests’ seats, her fiance, New Jersey Nets guard Sasha Vujacic, would raise a fist or clap and say, “Bravo!”
Sharapova closed the first set, oddly enough, with a 103 mph ace, threw her head back and screamed.
Fully in control, Sharapova raced to a 3-0 lead in the second set, as some drops of rain began to fall. Lisicki tried, without success, to talk the chair umpire into suspending play—it would take a half-hour or so to close the stadium’s retractable roof.
Play continued, and Sharapova kept smacking groundstroke winners on the run, generally looking like someone ready to regain the championship.
“The next match starts from scratch,” she cautioned. “Everything that kind of went before that doesn’t really matter

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Sharapova Wimbledon semis 2011

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

Sharapova Wimbledon semis 2011

Sharapova wins easily to return to Wimbledon semis 2011

Maria Sharapova’s coach called it “a statement.”
For exactly one hour of excellence, Sharapova played—and sounded—exactly the way she did when she was a teenager, when it seemed nothing could stop her.
Those powerful-as-ever groundstrokes cut through the grass, landing right where she wanted. Those solid-as-ever service returns flummoxed her overmatched opponent. And those loud-as-ever shrieks bounced around Centre Court, its retractable roof shut to keep out the rain.
Simply put, Sharapova dominated 24th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-1 Tuesday to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time since 2006 — back in the days before she needed surgery to repair her right shoulder and dealt with doubts about the future of her career.
“I would have loved for it not to have taken that long, but I’m not complaining. It’s the road that you sometimes have to take. It’s not always straight; there are a lot of zigzags. A lot of time, you feel like it’s a dead end,” said Sharapova, who won her first Grand Slam title at age 17 at Wimbledon in 2004.
“I’ve worked really hard to get in this stage, but I’m not saying this is where I want to end,” she added. “I want to keep going.”
A day after the Williams sisters and No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki were sent home, the three women responsible for those upsets all lost:
— Cibulkova, who beat Wozniacki, held serve to open her match against Sharapova, then dropped the next eight games in a row;
— No. 9 Marion Bartoli who beat Serena, faded down the stretch and was defeated 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1 by wild-card entry Sabine Lisicki the first German woman to reach Wimbledon’s semifinals since Steffi Graf in 1999;
— No. 32 Tsvetana Pironkova  who beat Venus, was eliminated 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2 by No. 8 Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic, a semifinalist for the second consecutive year.
On Thursday, Sharapova will meet Lisicki, and Kvitova will face No. 4 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who got to her first Grand Slam semifinal with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over unseeded Tamira Paszek of Austria in the day’s last match.
“Looking at the rankings, everybody says, ‘You should have been already in the semifinals,”’ said Azarenka, who moved to the United States when she was 12 and now lives part of the year in Arizona. “It was a great win for me.”
Her quarterfinal was suspended because of rain after one game outdoors on Court 1; they eventually were moved indoors at Centre Court.
“I’m glad we managed to play today,” said Azarenka, whose highlight was a full-sprint forehand that curled around the net post and landed in for a winner. “Thank God for the roof again. It’s just amazing.”
A heavy storm during the Lisicki-Bartoli quarterfinal violently pelted the roof, drowning out the normal noises of tennis, including rackets hitting balls, and line judges’ calls. During the second game, one particularly loud thunderclap startled Lisicki as she was about to serve. She flinched and stepped off the baseline, then smiled sheepishly.
“Yeah,” Lisicki said, “that was a little bit different.”
Sharapova was Tuesday’s only participant with a Grand Slam title already on her resume. She has three, part of a quick rise to the top of tennis: ranked No. 1 at 18; 2006 U.S. Open champion at 19; 2008 Australian Open champion at 20.
But her shoulder operation in October 2008 not only kept her away from the tour for several months, it also forced her to tinker with her service motion and made her question when she’d again play as well as she once had.
Sharapova went more than three years between Grand Slam semifinals, until getting that far at the French Open earlier this month. Now she wants another major title.
“It’s great, the fact that I’ve had the experience of being in those stages. But I haven’t been for a while, so it’s a nice and refreshing feeling to have,” Sharapova said. “I’ve put a lot of work in.”
The first game Tuesday was the only time Cibulkova held serve; Sharapova broke her six times.
Hitting deep, flat forehands and backhands, Sharapova finished with a 23-3 edge in winners, marking most with a high-pitched shriek. She limited herself to 10 unforced errors, one fewer than Cibulkova, who beat Sharapova in the 2009 French Open quarterfinals.
All in all, according to Sharapova’s coach, Thomas Hogstedt, “It was a statement.”
“It’s been, I think, a struggle for the last few years,” Hogstedt said, “and step-by-step, she has been working hard to come back. … It’s been a process. I don’t think she believed this (would happen) a half-year ago.”
When her victory over Cibulkova ended, 60 minutes after it began, Sharapova raised both arms and yelled, “Come on!” Leaving the court, Sharapova pulled out a pink pen, ready to offer the autographs being requested by fans in front-row seats.
Clearly, she’s done this all before.
Given what she went through the past few years, a Wimbledon championship now would be more gratifying than past accomplishments.
“Absolutely,” Sharapova said, “it would mean more to me.”
Her next opponent, the 62nd-ranked Lisicki, also has rediscovered her game recently.
Lisicki missed seven months last year because of a left ankle injury—“I had to start to learn how to walk again,” she says—and dropped out of the top 200.
But her movement is fine now, and her big serve is as good as ever. Lisicki reached 124 mph, the highest speed for a woman this season, while knocking off French Open champion Li Na in the second round last week. She hit nine aces against Bartoli.
There’s more to Lisicki than that, though. She produced a total of 52 winners, 40 more than Bartoli, and won 13 points with the help of delicate drop shots.
“I’m so thankful to be out there on the court again that I’m enjoying every minute of it,” said Lisicki, 11-0 on grass courts in 2011.
There was only one, brief lapse, although it nearly changed the outcome. Lisicki held three match points while serving for the victory at 5-4 in the second set—and she made mistakes on all three. Eventually, she double-faulted to get broken, and when 2007 Wimbledon runner-up Bartoli won the tiebreaker with a drop shot of her own, they were tied at a set apiece.
“I started to get tentative,” Lisicki acknowledged.
Bartoli, though, was spent, and Lisicki pulled away in the third set.
“All of a sudden,” Bartoli said, “my whole body just shut down.”
At 26, Bartoli was the oldest quarterfinalist.
At 21, Lisicki thinks she’s more mature than when she lost in three sets to Dinara Safina  in the 2009 Wimbledon quarterfinals.
“I’m more experienced and calmer. … Two years ago, it was different. I was more nervous. I couldn’t sleep so good,” Lisicki said. “But now it’s different. Also, after the injury, it’s so nice to be back. I know how fast it can be gone.”
So does Sharapova.

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Maria Sharapowa

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Maria Sharapowa

Maria Sharapowa of Russia prepares to serve against Elena Vesnina                                                          
5/10/2010

of Russia during the second round women's singles match in the China Open tennis tournament at the National Tennis Center in Beijing on October 5, 2010. Vesnina beat Maria Sharapowa 7-6, 6-2. (Photo by Peter Parks/AFP/Getty Images)

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Maria Scharapowa

Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Maria Scharapowa

Schiavone overpowers Date Krumm at Pan Pacific
29/09/2010

French Open champion Francesca Schiavone defeated Kimiko Date Krumm 6-3, 6-3 Wednesday to reach the Pan Pacific Open quarterfinals.

 Maria Scharapowa

Top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki cruised overpowered Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia 6-1, 6-2.
Date Krumm beat defending champion Maria Scharapowa in the first round and celebrated her 40th birthday on Tuesday with a win over Daniela Hantuchova, but was no match for the fifth-seeded Italian.
Schiavone outhit Date Krumm and broke serve three times in the first set to lead 5-1.
Date Krumm fought back in the second to take a 3-2 lead, but was broken in the seventh game and couldn’t recover.
“I said to her at the end it was an honor to play her,” Schiavone said. “I’ve followed her career and she’s not just a great tennis player, she’s a great person. To come back and show the people anything is possible is really inspiring. And today we were playing on the senior tour - we were 70 together!”
American qualifier Coco Vandeweghe defeated Germany’s Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-0 and will meet eighth-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, who advanced when Marion Bartoli of France retired ill after losing the first set 6-2.
Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, the Wimbledon and U.S. Open quarterfinalist, beat third-seeded Jelena Jankovic 6-4, 6-4. Kanepi will play Schiavone.
Date Krumm, the Tokyo champion in 1995, turned professional in 1989. She retired in 1996, and returned to the tour in 2008. Earlier this year, she became the oldest woman to beat a top 10 player when she defeated Dinara Safina  at the French Open.
Date Krumm played last week in Seoul, and said her busy schedule was a factor in Wednesday’s defeat.
“This morning, I felt a little bit tired,” she said. “She used a lot of spin and made me run very wide so I ended up tired.”
Wozniacki defeated Pavlyuchenkova for the fifth straight time - and third time this year - and will meet No. 6 seed Agnieszka Radwanska  of Poland in the quarterfinals. Radwanska beat Germany’s Andrea Petkovic 6-3, 6-3.
“I feel like I am playing good tennis,” Wozniacki said. “Today was a tough match even though the score was 6-1, 6-2. I really had to be focused. Anastasia is a good player.”
In other matches, second-seeded Vera Zvonareva of Russia beat Roberta Vinci of Italy 6-4, 6-0 to set up a quarterfinal against seventh-seeded compatriot Elena Dementieva, who beat Flavia Pennetta, 6-4, 6-2.

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maria scharapowa

Monday, September 27, 2010

maria scharapowa

maria scharapowa vs Kimiko Date Krumm

maria scharapowa of Russia reacts while playing against Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan during their women's singles first round match at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Tokyo on September 27, 2010. Date Krumm won the match 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.
(Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)












maria scharapowa of Russia (L) shakes hands with Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan after their women's singles first round match at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Tokyo on September 27, 2010. Date Krumm won the match 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)

maria scharapowa of Russia reaches for a return against Kimiko Date Krumm of Japan during their women's singles first round match at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament in Tokyo on September 27, 2010. Date Krumm won the match 7-5, 3-6, 6-3. (Photo by Kazuhiro Nogi/AFP/Getty Images)

maria scharapowa

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