June 17, 2011
London: The recently-engaged Maria Sharapova will always have a place in her heart for Wimbledon, where she aims to win the title again.
Asked whether she would rather win the French Open which eluded her again this year to complete a career set of grand slam titles or triumph on the grass for a second time, the Russian did not hesitate one bit. "I'd win Wimbledon again, absolutely," she said.
Sharapova's love affair with tennis began when she beat Serena Williams to win Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004.
"It's just that feeling that I have, a feeling when I go on the court there," the 24-year-old says. "Winning it obviously helps and I'd love to repeat that. Nothing will take your name away from that trophy but I want to add it on there again."
Sporting an enormous diamond engagement ring after she announced her engagement to the NBA star Sasha Vujacic last October, Sharapova cuts a relaxed figure as she discusses Wimbledon in a brief respite from the rigours of the tour. It was as a 15-year-old that she first stepped on to the grass, losing in the final of the juniors to another Russian, Vera Dushevina.
When she won the 2008 Australian Open, to add to her 2006 US Open triumph, it seemed that Sharapova might go on to dominate the sport for the years to come. Able to handle the power and the mental strength of Serena and Venus Williams, she was a match for anyone when she was confident and fully fit. But just as it looked like she was peaking, late in 2008 she was hit by a serious shoulder injury which required surgery and kept her off the tour for 10 months.
There were times then when she felt like giving up, worried that she would never get back to the player she had been. But anyone who has seen Sharapova play knows that there is not a weak bone in her body and by the end of 2009, despite an altered service action, she was back in the world's top 15. And though 2010 was a largely frustrating year, there was something to build on.
This January she changed her racket and her coach, bringing in Thomas Hogstedt, the Swede who had worked wonders with China's Li Na, who won this year's French Open. Something inside Sharapova seemed to click and she has barely looked back, winning her biggest clay-court title in Rome last month and reaching the semi-finals in Paris.
Chris Evert, the former world No1 and three-times Wimbledon champion, puts Sharapova in her top three for the title and a number of bookmakers make her the favourite.
Tour officials will tell you they have never seen Sharapova happier and it is surely no coincidence that her resurgence has come since she announced her engagement.
Happier frame of mind
Vujacic has been courtside throughout the build-up to Wimbledon and Sharapova has been smiling her way through tournaments, perhaps for the first time in her career.
She has found time to indulge her love for fashion, designing the top-selling shoe with the American chain Cole Haan and it is not uncommon for Sharapova to wander into a local store to see who is buying her shoes. For a multimillion-pound earning sports star, she is unusually fascinated by the regular selling reports. "I love that shit," she says, bursting into laughter. "I really, really do. It's fun for me. I feel like it's an achievement."
Content off the court, the results have been flowing on it and she will be seeded No 5 for Wimbledon. But ever the perfectionist, her appetite has not been sated simply by a return to the top 10. "When you've won grand slams before, when you've been No 1, you see yourself better, higher than that," she says. "I have bigger goals. I have bigger goals than that."
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