Steady Sharapova a smashing success
LONDON -- Who knows from Siberia?
Salt mines. Cold. Desolate. Penal colonies in czarist and Soviet times. Wolves. The Trans-Siberian Railway. Towns named Omsk and Tomsk. Emptiness amounting to 2.9 million square miles.
But now, 17-year-old Maria Sharapova, the Siberian Siren, has appeared on a rectangular section of the world stage, and maybe the folks back home will name a city Mariamsk.
The Trans-Siberian Railway doesn't have a stop in southwest London, but Sharapova has arrived at Centre Court, nonetheless. With bells on -- out of Nyagan, Siberia, via Sochi on the Black Sea and Bradenton, Fla., on the Gulf of Mexico, shaking a gut-strung cudgel, and menacingly shaking up a tennis tournament called Wimbledon.
Five years ago on the same worn patch of grass, Lindsay Davenport couldn't quite believe she was ushering the splendiferous Steffi Graf out of town, beating "Fraulein Forehand" in Graf's last Wimbledon match.
Now it was happening to her. Davenport peered across the net at Sharapova, 78 feet away, a Russian who was "in shock" that she was about to send the champion of 1999 home for good. In doing so, she became an occupant of tomorrow's final. Davenport raised her racket, served the final point, and misplayed the shot that returned to her.
It was the old revolving door effect: Champion departs, championship prospect arrives. And Sharapova, the rebounding semifinal victor, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, is certainly that prospect even though she may not yet have enough game to spoil another title round party for Her Serena Highness.
Are there any men in this tournament? A lot of them have been bad-mouthing the women in the local press, griping that the ladies aren't worth watching. Nevertheless, semifinalists Andy Roddick and Mario Ancic, Roger Federer and Sebastien Grosjean, will have to go some distance to surpass the feminine fireworks of yesterday.
The champ, Serena Williams, was teetering in the nightcap as she and Amelie Mauresmo hammered away at each other. The decision, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-4, installed Williams in her third successive final here, and prompted her to appraise it as "my toughest battle on Centre Court."
Wasting two set points on her serve in the first set, she found herself lagging, 1-3, 0-30, in the second, although: "I don't remember that, just the fighting that pulled me through."
Williams -- "I'm never the underdog" -- doesn't pooh-pooh the relatively inexperienced Sharapova's chances. "Remember, I was 17 when I won at Flushing Meadow" -- her first major, the US Open of 1999 over Martina Hingis.
Nor does Davenport, holder of three majors (US, Wimbledon, Australia) and destined for the Hall of Fame.
"I had control of the match and Maria took it away from me." Simple and eloquent from Lindsay, looking forward to retirement at season's close. She knew what it was like that time, she the younger woman, 23, shoving aside the aging Graf, 30.
Rain may have rescued Sharapova, providing a one-hour intermission in the two-act performance. Davenport carried the first act with precise groundies and oppressive serving (5 aces, 7 service winners), leading, 6-2, 2-1, with a break of serve. It might well have been 3-0 if Sharapova hadn't slipped out of a three-deuce game and two break points, the first with a ripping crosscourt backhand to the far corner, the second on a Davenport error.
"Yeah, that was a big game for me, kept me in it," said the kid, only the second Russian to make the Wimbledon women's final. She follows Olga Morozova, beaten by Chris Evert in 1974.
Davenport's serve faded, and Sharapova's toughened. She was moving sensationally, and began making Davenport move too much. Few players look down on 6-foot Sharapova, but 6-3 Davenport does. However, her footwork suffered as the kid's accuracy improved and she made Davenport hit more shots.
Errors, regardless of how obtuse, didn't bother Sharapova. She just kept banging, and her winners eventually outnumbered the mistakes. Her double-barreled backhand and zippy forehand are flat and forceful. On the two particularly critical points, breakers that would have allowed Davenport to serve for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the second, Sharapova's serve was her salvation: an ace at 107 miles per hour and a winner at 101.
"I didn't think about it, just hit, played the points. But, yeah, if I lost one of them, the way Lindsay was serving, then, it's basically over."
Nerves? This teen doesn't have nerves. Nick Bollettieri, the coach, remembers well Sharapova's father, Yuri, showing up at his tennis assembly line in Bradenton.
"She was 8, scrawny, didn't talk much," Bollettieri said over the phone. "Not like Anna Kournikova, who announced grandly, `I'm here!' when she checked in.
"What I like about Maria is her work ethic, and how she hits the ball so hard. All the time. She goes at it like Monica Seles did."
Sharapova said she plays "by instinct and I always fight. That's the way I am. I don't know how to react. It's amazing. I looked at my dad -- [and said]: `Am I really in the final?' I expected good results, but not to do so well at such an early age.
"Is somebody scouting Mauresmo and Serena for me?" the Siberian Siren, whose outpourings range from squeaks to growls and shrieks, was answering a question. "No, it doesn't really matter who I play. I've just been going out and believing in myself. So I'll keep it up, and I want to just have fun." She lost to Serena, 6-4, 6-3, in March at Key Biscayne, Fla. But the way No. 15 Sharapova has been going, that seems years ago.
Though Anastasia Myskina took over as the czarina of Russian tennis on winning the French Open, Sharapova is in determined pursuit. The greatest player in the history of Siberia (can anybody name another?) will settle for just being a Wimbledon champ. Someday sure, if not tomorrow.
