Sharapova Has Regrets Hiring Coach Connors

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 18th December 2013

Sharapova Has Regrets Hiring Coach Connors

epa03761541 Maria Sharapova of Russia gives a press conference following defeat at the hands of Michelle Larcher De Brito of Portugal in their second round match for the Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club, in London, Britain, 26 June 2013. EPA/AELTC / Chris Raphael |

Maria Sharapova has confessed that her ill-conceived experiment with Jimmy Connors as a coach over the summer was a lesson in bad timing. The odd-couple plan lasted for the duration of one WTA match, with the high-profile pair ending their professional arrangement after Sharapova lost early in Cincinnati and Connors hit the road back to California.

“Jimmy came in at the wrong time and in the wrong place,” Sharapova told the New York Times in a pre-season interview. “”When he came in post-Wimbledon, I don’t think any coach could have succeeded in the frame of mind I had at that time. Because I was going to practice, and I knew I couldn’t serve, and I knew that there was a good chance I might not play the US Open.

“As an athlete, that’s tough to digest. I was not fun to be around, and it was a tough position for him.”

The Cincinnati setback marked the end of Sharapova’s season with a shoulder injury, which she will test for the first time since August at the Brisbane tournament starting in just over a week.

Most observers were shocked to hear that the Russian tennis diva was combining forces with the ageing hothead who shook up the court during his time on them three decades ago and underwent an 18-month coaching arrangement with Andy Roddick which eventually ended.

Sharapova may have even admitted that she made a poor choice by picking Connors. “Even though he did commit to more weeks than I thought he could, it still wasn’t a full-time schedule. And when I started looking at the options I had, which in the tennis world are not so large, and what I wanted to do moving forward, I thought Sven was going to be a good option.”

She added that she had “a tremendous amount of respect” for Connors, but added: “You have to believe in your thinking and what you feel,” she said. “If you don’t believe in what you’re doing, time goes quickly in the tennis world.”

Topics: 10sballs, Andy Roddick, Jimmy Connors, Maria Sharapova, Sports, Tennis, Tennis News, US Open, Wimbledon, Wta