{"id":606,"date":"2007-06-03T23:01:47","date_gmt":"2007-06-04T07:01:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/?p=606"},"modified":"2007-06-03T23:01:47","modified_gmt":"2007-06-04T07:01:47","slug":"how-far-will-maria-sharapova-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/how-far-will-maria-sharapova-go\/","title":{"rendered":"How Far Will Maria Sharapova Go?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sharapova and Schnyder serve up the first controversy at the heretofore sleepy French Open.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

By the end of her match between with Patty Schynder<\/strong> on Sunday, the crowd was raining boos down on Maria Sharapova<\/strong>. They were unhappy about an incident that was the exact opposite of Justine Henin\u2019s<\/strong> hand-raising adventure with Serena Williams<\/strong> in 2003.<\/p>\n

In that situation, Henin raised her hand to call time out as Serena was serving. Serena served a double fault and Henin refused to admit that had she raised her hand. Here, the score was 7-7 in the third set \u2013 no third set tiebreakers here, remember \u2013 and someone in the crowd yelled as Sharapova served. Schnyder raised her hand to call time out, the serve dropped in for an ace, and the chair umpire let the ace stand. Why? Schnyder didn\u2019t raise her hand until the ball had crossed the net and that\u2019s a bit late to be calling time out.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember the incident in 2003 but I\u2019m guessing the crowd supported Henin. She\u2019s not only Belgian but her opponent was an American. Here, the crowd supported the Swiss Schnyder, and not U.S. resident Sharapova.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not Sharapova\u2019s fault and you can\u2019t blame Sharapova for the chair umpire\u2019s call but you could complain about her next act. Schnyder was serving to stay in the match at 7-8 and was up 40-15 when Sharapova walked over to her seat to get a new racket even though she didn\u2019t have a broken string. It was an act of pure gamesmanship. She got a warning from the chair umpire for delaying the game but it was worth it. Schnyder didn\u2019t win another point and Sharapova broke to win the match, 3-6, 6-4, 9-7.<\/p>\n

There is no gutsier player on the WTA tour than Maria Sharapova. She\u2019d fought off two match points in the third set. She\u2019d beaten a clay court player despite an ailing shoulder for which she\u2019s taken a cortisone shot. She\u2019d made it to the quarterfinals despite missing all of the clay court season except for a Tier III event in Istanbul last week.<\/p>\n

Yet the same naked ambition that got Sharapova through the turmoil turns people off. We used to tune in for John McEnroe<\/strong> yelling at chair umpires and Jimmy Connors<\/strong> rubbing out opposing players\u2019 ball marks. Today, though, we like our champions to be polite and civil. They can have ambition but it can\u2019t be naked. Today, if you raise your hand to call a timeout then later deny it, we\u2019ll hold it against you. If you\u2019re opponent has suffered from a controversial decision and needs only one more point to stay in the match, you don\u2019t mess with their serve.<\/p>\n

Last week, baseball player Alex Rodriguez<\/strong> yelled \u201cMine!\u201d at an opposing infielder who was trying to field a pop fly. The poor guy backed away from the ball and it dropped in for a hit. Rodriguez was lambasted by the media and even his own manager for going too far.<\/p>\n

Sharapova is the commercial star of the WTA but she won\u2019t get the respect she deserves for her game until we like her a bit more.<\/p>\n

Pollster:<\/strong> here\u2019s the new poll (go to the sidebar to cast your vote)<\/p>\n

Sharapova is into the quarterfinals and will play Ana Chakvetadze<\/strong> next and either Svetlana Kuznetsova<\/strong> or Ana Ivanovic<\/strong> if she makes it to the semifinals. Sharapova beat Chakvetadze here two years ago and has never played Kuznetsova or Ivanovic on clay. So here’s the question:<\/p>\n

Sharapova got to the quarterfinals with a bum shoulder and a lot of guts, what are her chances of getting to the final? 25%? 50%? 75%? 100%?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Did you know, by the way, that Ivanovic outweighs Sharapova by 60lbs. No wonder Ivanovic reminds me of Jennifer Capriati. Kuznetsova outweighs Sharapova by 61lbs. Wow, that is two solidly built women.<\/p>\n

\n

See also:<\/strong>
\nB**tch And Sing Dept: At the French Open<\/a>
\nSuicide Pools and Richard Gasquet<\/a>
\nB**tch and Sing Dept: Springtime in Paris<\/a>
\nSerena, Roger and Posh Spice
\n<\/a>Familiar Final at the French Open (French Open preview)<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sharapova and Schnyder serve up the first controversy at the heretofore sleepy French Open. By the end of her match between with Patty Schynder on Sunday, the crowd was raining boos down on Maria Sharapova. They were unhappy about an incident that was the exact opposite of Justine Henin\u2019s hand-raising adventure with Serena Williams in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,96,97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-french-open","category-wta-players","category-wta-tournaments"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ninarota.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}