The Stuttgart era of Maria Sharapova ends… for now… By Global Chick

Written by: Global Chick on 24th April 2015

The Stuttgart era of Maria Sharapova ends… for now... By Global Chick |

There is something about an indoor tournament that when a crowd roars as one voice, it makes the hair on the back of one’s head. We got that. A lot. Angelique Kerber’s come back both over the past month or so has been much needed for the German.

Enjoying sharing a joke regarding compatriot Andrea Petkovic’s bold prediction that she can take the whole tournament, we saw a smattering of that self-belief creep in to her game in the middle of that second set. As a leftie, Kerber does not use that swinging serve out wide anywhere near enough to make people’s life difficult, but she has been working on playing more aggressively and glory-be, she turned things around on a Thursday night in a packed Porsche Arena.

As so often the case, you would normally expect to see Sharapova swing right back at her at the start of the third set, but the momentum stayed with Kerber, prompting us to ask Sharapova after the match if she ever felt like consigning her racquets to a stringy, splintered grave.

She joked: “I’d like to break rackets much more often (laughs). It’s in me, I know it (laughs). I don’t know, I’m just scared for my sponsor (laughter). I think with other players they just have so many rackets and with me, I think they just have twenty for the whole year (laughs). I don’t know what they would do (laughs). No, that is not my way of getting anger out.”

Sharapova was not even sure she would be in a position to play at the tournament, carrying an injury since Miami which ruled her out of representing Russia against Germany in her home town of Sochi.

She explained: “I didn’t know where my condition or my tennis would be. As I said I haven’t spent a lot of time on the court and that’s what I’m lacking. And I have a lot of time in front of me to get that back and to build a good base and start fresh. I’ve always done very well when I set a good block for myself.

“I ran out of time a little bit, definitely for Fed Cup and maybe here. But I really wanted to give myself a chance. I had a Bye and asked for a Thursday start to give myself that extra day. But ultimately it’s okay. The great thing is that I’m healthy and I know once I get that time on the court, in those moments, I feel a little bit better.”

If Kerber goes all the way, she may let Petkovic have a ride in the car (perhaps not necessarily HAVE the car!) but leave it to Sharapova, who was able to see a humorous side to a loss that probably gives her some answers as to where her fitness is ahead of two very important title defences in Madrid and the French Open.

“I’ll let someone have it (laughs). I’m so nice (laughs). I would have loved a fourth [Porsche]. But it’s alright. There is always next year.”

Meanwhile our pick for the rest of the tournament will be the new World No. 2 Simona Halep (who regains the position and this time could well hold on to it for a while) and of course Germany’s new heroine of the hour, Angie Kerber to go head to head with her on Sunday.

EDITORS NOTES:

Maria Sharapova took a really hard fall on the clay yesterday. We saw her smack her shoulder and hip pretty bad. But it looked like her whole right side slammed on the dirt. She wasn’t a diva. She was a solid competitor and good sport. She toweled off a bit and continued. We applaud her spirit and fortitude. (L.J.)

Topics: Andrea Petkovic, Angelique Kerber, Maria Sharapova, Porsche tennis, Sharapova, Simona Halep, Sports, Stuttgart, Tennis News, Women Tennis, Wta

Follow 10SBALLS.COM on:

Facebook:

Twitter:

10sBalls_com says:

April 24, 2015 at 10:31 am

The #Stuttgart era of @MariaSharapova ends… for now… http://t.co/HqrdUCLaHU #PTGP #PorscheTennis @AngeliqueKerber @WTA @sharapovafeedr