Bud Collins
PARIS – What do you do about a girl named Maria?
I’m sure Maria Sharapova has heard the lyrics from the Sound of Music song used in reference to her before and now – after her fourth-round upset 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 6-2 at the hands of fellow Russian Dinara Safina at the French Open – it wouldn’t be surprising if she heard them again.
What do you do when you are a point from the quarterfinals – like Sharapova was against Safina – and you let the match slip away?
In my mind you do nothing, you change nothing because if you are Maria Sharapova you are well aware that you just don’t have the grasp of playing on clay, at least not yet, and you don’t feel particularly comfortable on the dirt either.
After her loss Sharapova said that on clay things happen in a hurry. That sure was the case for the top-ranked Russian who won five consecutive games in the second set to go ahead 5-2. She then held a match point serving in the next game. She also led 5-2 in the second tiebreaker before losing five consecutive points. Then the wheels went flying off her game down the stretch as she dropped the final four games and 10 of the last 12 points.
So for Sharapova it is another failed attempt to make hay on clay and win the only Grand Slam title she has yet to capture. It’s been known for a few days now – ever since the loss on Friday by Serena Williams, who was the only woman in the draw who has won a title at Roland Garros – that there would be a new French Open champion. The fact that it won’t be the top ranked Sharapova is surprising to at least some and it’s also surprising that she didn’t close out the match against Safina, the younger sister of two-time Grand Slam champion Marat Safin.
But I’m not all that shocked by the sudden turn of fortunes on Court Suzanne Lenglen as I really didn’t see Sharapova winning here because clay is simply not her most beloved surface. Give her a hard court, give her a grass court, fine, but a clay court she would likely say “no, thank you” to if she could.
Though Russian Sharapova is pretty much the All-American young lady. She has lived the large majority of her life in the United States so it comes as no news flash that like the other American players she turns out to have an allergy to clay.
And she certainly isn’t alone as a top player who hasn’t figured out the dirt. Roger Federer, who is at this point and time far beyond Sharapova in putting together a weighty resume has an incomplete set of trophies from the majors too. Neither Sharapova or Federer has authored a Roland Garros success story yet, but both keep going at such a goal like true great players should.
It is also worth noting that Sharapova is not exactly part of the “in” crowd in terms of the other Russian women on the tour. The entire top quarter of the women’s draw was a Russian dynasty with Sharapova playing the 13th seed Safina and the seventh seed Elena Dementieva outlasting compatriot and No. 11 seed Vera Zvonareva in three sets to put Safina and Dementieva in the quarterfinals.
I’m just guessing but believe it’s on the mark when I write that the other Russian players tend to gun for Sharapova when given the opportunity. They don’t really see her as part of the clan and that could very well be the view that Safina took into today’s match. She really stepped up her relentless pummeling from the baseline in the final set, which enabled her to sail from 2-2 to win the final four games.
Sharapova’s only 21 and there’s plenty of time for her to give thought to how she can achieve a Roland Garros title. She made progress in understanding the clay this year by winning her first clay-court title at Amelia Island, but I have to point out the obvious -- green clay in the U.S. is not anything like the red clay here in Europe. In my mind, Sharapova needs to make a commitment to putting together a better clay-court preparation strategy. She needs to come over to Europe, play at all the clay-court events and find her comfort level in the sandbox.
The future remains very bright for Sharapova. She’s an excellent talent and she truly has a chance to win anywhere she plays. And as she becomes more accomplished she will mature and her ability to fight will only get better and better.
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So 2008 is not her year at Roland Garros there’s no cause for her to be concerned. She is still very young, she’s won the title at all three of the other majors and she’ll have many more opportunities to be crowned the queen of clay in Paris.
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