Looking Pretty, Playing Gritty, Sharapova Takes New York
by Brian Cleary Saturday, September 9, 2006
One thing became exceedingly clear during this year’s US Open -- Maria Sharapova has embraced New York. The 19-year-old Bradenton, Fla., resident, by way of Siberia, Russia, likes the contrast between Times Square and the Upper East Side. She likes that there’s always something going on in the Big Apple. Even the Audrey Hepburn-inspired black tennis dress she’s been wearing this tournament looks like something you could just as easily put on to hit a club in SoHo.
That's why, in many ways, it's not surprising how much Sharapova glittered under the spotlight of prime-time tennis tonight. Looking comfortable, playing aggressive, attacking tennis, she dominated the US Open women's singles final, beating Justine Henin-Hardenne in straight sets, 6-4, 6-4.
"I didn't really feel nervous,'' Sharapova said after the match, coming across tough and confident. "I woke up, I was excited to be in a Grand Slam. I just thought I'd enjoy the moment.''
Sharapova, who at 6-foot-2 is seven inches taller than the 5-foot-5 Henin-Hardenne, hit five aces to Henin-Hardenne’s two and 20 winners to the Belgian’s 15. The victory allowed Sharapova to snap what had been dubbed a semifinal jinx. Since winning Wimbledon in 2004 at just 17 years old, she had not been to another final of a Grand Slam, losing in the semifinals five different times. By beating the No. 2 player in the world in Henin-Hardenne, she also became just the eighth player since 1975 and the inception of the computer rankings to beat the No. 1 and No. 2 players in the world at the same Grand Slam. She beat the world’s No. 1 player, Amelie Mauresmo, in the semifinals.
Sharapova won a cool $1.2 million, and got a $500,000 bonus for a second place finish in the US Open Series this summer, for a total of $1.7 million.
Sharapova hasn't spent that much time in New York, but she sure seems to have adopted some New York toughness. Even her Nike advertising campaign has the kind of irreverant slogan, "I feel pretty when I grunt.'' She was virtually defiant in the interview room after the match when asked about the controversy that brewed this tournament about whether or not she was receiving coaching from her father, Yuri Sharapov. Yuri was seen at least once holding up a banana when he wanted his daughter to eat one on court, and one of Sharapova's other coaches was seen once signaling to her by raising up a few fingers.
When asked about it after the match, she fired back, "I just won a Grand Slam, the last thing I'm gonna talk about is some fingers or a banana, alright? I hope you got that one, thanks.''
But on court, you have to say that the New York attitude is paying off. She seems to love playing at night, and is able to feed off the energy of the New York crowd. She also genuinely seems to love being here, calling New York her "favorite city," a stark contrast to Henin-Hardenne, who isn't thrilled with how "busy'' New York is.
After the match, Sharapova's first thoughts were of how many years went into that one moment on court when she fell to the ground a Grand Slam champ.
"The first thing that comes to mind when you go down in the ground, you think of everything you put into the moment,'' Sharapova said. "Not just preparation that happened two weeks before the tournament. [I'm talking about] preparatioin that goes back to when I was a little girl.''
For all the talk of Sharapova's windfall in the endorsement game, she proved once again that her game is for real. She is the highest-earning female athlete in the world, with an estimated $20 million a year in endorsements alone. But she deflected the importance of all that, and the satisfaction of her success on court.
"You can't buy a Grand Slam title, you know,'' she said after the match. "There are people around the world that have billions of dollars, but no matter how much they want a US Open title, the only thing they can do is buy some good tennis racquets, get the best trainers out there, and work their butt off.
"Yeah, this beats any sort of money, any sort of paper.''
Henin-Hardenne will go home with extremely mixed emotions. By reaching the final she did become just the eighth woman to reach the final of all four Grand Slams in a year, a list of legends that includes Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Martina Navratilova, Margaret Court and Chris Evert. On the other hand, Henin-Hardenne lost three of those finals matches, and she wasn't coy about how much that hurts.
"I think the second place is always the most difficult one,'' said Henin-Hardenne, who would have reached the No. 1 ranking had she won tonight. "It's not a nice feeling.''
It was a curious strategy for Henin-Hardenne. The Belgian said she knew early on in this tournament exactly what she had to do to beat a player like Sharapova. “I never beat the powerful players [staying] on my baseline,’’ said Henin-Hardenne, one the fastest, but also one of the shortest players on tour. “I have to take my opportunities on court, move forward and take my chances."
She had been working with her coach on coming in, and at the Open this year, the work had clearly paid off. Coming into tonight’s match she had won 41 of 51 points she approached the net on. In her fourth-round match against Shahar Peer she won 19 of 20 net approaches.
But tonight, Henin-Hardenne stayed back the majority of the time and settled for trying to slug it from the baseline. She attacked the net only seven times, winning six of those points.
"She did come to the net, and I didn't,'' Henin-Hardenne said afterwards. "Even when you know you have to do it, it's not always easy.''
Sharapova was determined to attack herself, to take chances. Most of those chances paid off tonight.
"There's nothing like winning your first Grand Slam,'' Sharapova said, referring to her Wimbledon title that put her on the map. "But winning your second is pretty sweet. It's kind of like a cherry on the cake.''
