Maria Sharapova kicks off title defence and talks scheduling with Live-Tennis
by Ros Satar
Posted 4 May 2015
Sharapova got off to a flying start against Bacsinszky, who has been enjoying a resurgence this year after years of injury, but once she was on her way, there was no shift of momentum to rescue the Swiss, as Sharapova closed out a 6-2 6-3 victory.
After the match, she said: “I think the conditions coming as defending champion, you relive those moments where I have to come back from behind in many matches last year and obviously facing an opponent that I’ve lost to previously in Wuhan in two sets, and someone that’s been playing really good tennis as well this year, I knew this would be a tough match, there’s no doubt about it and I had to be ready.
“It’s been good to have a bit of a practice week uninterrupted in many ways and just to work on a few things, get used to the clay, the movement is still something I’ll be working on as hopefully I’ll be playing more matches.”
Bacsinszky is enjoying the best year of her career, just outside the Top 20 already this year, and Sharapova spoke to us about her admiration for her comeback after her career looked in doubt.
“I have a lot of respect for athletes that come back after injury. When you’re going through a period of injury, you’re working so hard just to get healthy again while everyone else is working to become winners or to win championships, that you sometimes forget that your work is so minimal because then you have to go out and you have to work to try to be one of the best, so I really admire that., I respect people that can come back from being behind and feel that maybe wouldn’t have a chance before.”
The thorny issue of scheduling came to the fore, the week before Sharapova was attempting to win the Stuttgart title for the fourth straight time, and she had been set to play for Russia in the Fed Cup semi-final against Germany, in her home town of Sochi. A injury picked up in Miami meant she had to withdraw, and the scheduling proved problematic for others, including Germany’s Andrea Petkovic, who also picked up an injury during that tie.
Sharapova explained how she has learned from sometimes painful experience to put herself first.
“I think it’s one of the things I’ve really tried to focus on from the very beginning of my career is to try to have a minimal but the correct schedule and if that means having to skip a tournament maybe that you want to play, or people want you to play, or what might be beneficial for you, sometimes it’s good just to give yourself an extra week.
"You know I’ve made sometimes tough decisions in my career, maybe sometimes wrong decisions playing the wrong tournament at the wrong times that have hurt me not in a couple of weeks but have hurt me some months down the line, where I look back and I think ‘you know what, that week wasn’t the right week for me to [have] played.”
Scheduling continues to be contentious issue, certainly on the men’s tour, but Sharapova offered us her insight on the challenges she has faced in terms of when and where to play.
“That all comes down to the tennis player is always the one making the decisions. They have a team that gives them advice and obviously their opinions but obviously at the end of the day it’s that individual that has to drive their career and know what’s best for them. I know that if I practice well, if I’m physically fit, I’m giving myself the best chance.
“I’ve never been a player that feels like I need to play 5 tournaments in order to get to my best so it’s kind of a mental outlook as well, you know. I know that maybe in the beginning I’ll have to dig out a few matches because someone’s already played a few matches behind their back and I haven’t but that’s what you have give up sometimes.”
Sharapova acknowledged that her strength, both mentally and physically has been very much part of a champion’s mentality.
“When you get to that point of the match, so many things can happen, so many momentum changes, and if you’re just a little bit tougher, it’s not all about physical even though it’s a big part of it. If you can just hold on to your concentration and your focus, everything else will fall into place. You have t have the belief in yourself that it will, which is much easier to say than [do], but you know how it is [laughing].”
Sharapova will play Mariana Duque-Marino in the second round.
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