June 27, 2011
Maria Sharapova dominates matches with her big first serve and her fearless return. She excels in the first two shots of each point, putting enormous pressure on her opponent with her unbridled aggression. On Monday she gave Shuai Peng a lesson in power tennis on grass, winning, 6-4, 6-2, to advance to the Wimbledon quarterfinals.
Peng competed well in the first set but faltered at 4-4. Sensing Sharapova moving in to take a second serve return early, Peng went for a bigger serve and double-faulted. It was all Sharapova needed. She broke Peng, held serve to win the set and then accelerated past Peng to win the match.
Sharapova takes a simple but ruthless approach to tennis tactics. She focuses with laser-beam intensity on her first serve, trying to win the point with an ace. If the ball comes back, she laces into the first ball with vicious intent. She seeks to dominate and control the point, and against Peng she won an astonishing 86 percent of points on her first serve. Peng, who plays with two hands on of both sides, is known as a pretty good returner, but Sharapova went right after her. Peng managed to get to break point only twice, and failed to capitalize on either chance.
The other area of emphasis for Sharapova is her return of serve, and in particular on the second serve. She is an intimidating presence as she gets ready to return serve, and if her opponent misses the first serve, her intensity rises as she moves inside the baseline to dominate with strong court positioning. She focuses with a concentration that resembles a hunter stalking. She goes after the return with a huge cut at the ball, and seeks to win the point outright or get a weak return. It’s textbook power tennis. It’s all about putting the opponent under pressure with a lethal one-two punch.
Although she has struggled with her second serve, on Monday Sharapova had only four double faults. Her movement and ability to hit on the run has improved, as has her net rushing skills. She won 7 of 8 net approaches against Peng. Her weakness, however, is her lack of tactical flexibility. If she is off her game and spraying shots or double-faulting, she has no Plan B. This hurt her against Li Na at Roland Garros. Sharapova got the yips on her serve and self-destructed.
But grass suits Sharapova’s game, and with Monday’s string of upsets, she moved closer to the title she covets most. Her next opponent is Dominica Cibulkova, who upset top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki in three sets Monday.
Resources : http://straightsets.blogs.nytimes.com/
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