One from the Archives

As Maria is playing in the upcoming tournaments in Tokyo and Beijing we thought we would share this video of Maria taking part in a special event in Tokyo in 2006.

Maria featured in new AW77 Nike Campaign.

Maria has taken part in a campaign to promote the AW77 hoodie from Nike SportsWear, one of the brand's most iconic pieces.

The campaign was shot over four months in three different cities and featured 7 of Nike's most promenent athletes, shot by world renowned photographer David Sims and  styled and directed by Karl Templer. Each athlete brought their own style, personality and attitude to the shoot to tell the story. 


Maria Sharapova: "My sport involves fashion. So I get to express my individuality through what I wear on court. But, I also must feel comfortable for competition. This also transmits to off the court." "Compared to what we have to do on the tennis court, photo shoots might be considered an easier task. I think at these photo shoots and being around many people, it's all about just focusing on yourself and just being comfortable. It's actually a little similar to tennis games. When you go inside the court, there are so many people around and talking and having opinions, but it's just you and the opponent and that's it." 


Watch the Video for the AW77 Hoodie here:





Thanks to Freshness Mag for the video.

With the amount of errors I made from both my groundstrokes and my serve, to be able to get it to three sets is not bad.

Unfortunately, by Maria's own admission, the amount of errors she made in her 3rd round match against Melanie Oudin cost her the match. Maria claiming "So if I didn't make those errors, those double faults, I certainly would have won the match." 


Both players had a nervy start to the match on serve and it was difficult for either player to hold. However Maria managed to hold at the key moments and her return game was much stronger, allowing her to take the first set 6-3. 

However Oudin lifted her game and with Maria's level decreasing and serving becoming increasingly more difficult for her, Melanie soon raced to a 5-1 lead. Although Sharapova rallied and got it back to 5-4 Oudin managed to serve out the second set, taking it 6-4.

The third set was full of drama and momentum shifts and both players were having difficulty holding their serve. However Maria, playing at well below her best and at times looking frustrated and uncomfortable was unable to fight off the feisty American and with a mounting error and double fault count surrendered the set 5-7 to Melanie Oudin.

Melanie Oudin is having a breakthrough US Open this year, having all ready defeated Dementieva and now thwarting Sharapova's chances of her first Grand Slam since her return to the tour.

Sharapova's is scheduled to play only two more WTA tournaments this year in Tokyo (end of September) and Beijing (start of October) and after which will have time to recover and sort out any issues with the serve and her new abbreviated motion. Having had a relatively short time to work on her new serving motion it is understandable that there has been relative problems and inconsistency with it.

Nevertheless Maria is going to have to sort out those problems in order to allow the confidence in her serving to grow. If she can't find some sort of happy medium with the serve then the question may be asked; will Maria ever return to the kind of form that saw her capture her 3rd Grand Slam in Australia early 2008. Only time will tell if Maria has the answer.

Maria's Round 3 Match preview!

After Maria thwarted the chances of an all-american round 3 meeting by defeating Christina McHale under the lights on Thursday evening, 6-2 6-1, she progressed to meet Melanie Oudin. Oudin being the surprise winner who took out #4 ranked Elena Dementieva in what was arguably the shock of the women's draw so far.

The upset proving Melanie Oudin of the USA is a big stage player (she also defeated Jankovic at Wimbledon this year) and could be a dangerous opponent given the fact she runs everything down, and makes her opponents play alot of balls. Oudin's game is solid with no obvious weakness and she can mix it up relatively well.

Maria will need to focus in order to come through this match up unscathed. Maria will need to adjust quickly not only to the different conditions of playing a Day match compared to a Night match, but also to the varying pace of shot Oudin will present her with. Look for Melanie to play alot of sliced backhands to try and throw Maria off her rhythm and open the court. She can also move the ball around the court well which could prove a problem for Maria if she's unable to get time on the ball. Melanie is definitely a step up from Maria's previous opponents and she will be full of confidence after putting out the #4 seed.

Nevertheless, Maria having won the US Open title in 2006 and having a wealth of experience on the Grand Slam stage should be able to pull through the match, her groundstrokes proving the deciding factor wearing down Oudin in both pace and consistency. However it will no doubt be less straightforward than her first two matches and Maria will need to serve well to keep the pressure on Melanie Oudin.

Maria talking to Jimmy Connors

Maria talking before this year's US Open



Video courtesy of tennis-channel.tv

Maria's 2nd Round Preview

Maria has been improving with each match and each tournament since she exited Wimbledon in the 2nd round. She reached the quarters in Stanford, progressed to the LA Semi's and arrived in her first final since her comeback in Toronto. Don't be looking for Maria to repeat her early 2nd round exit here at the US Open.

Maria's back under the lights to face young American Christina McHale, and if Sharapova can build on her punishing groundstrokes and fierce returning from the first round she should have a relatively easy passage through to the 3rd round.

However McHale can hustle, and should keep the match interesting enough to provide a challenge for Maria but nothing more substantial. Maria will need to use this as an opportunity to fine- tune her serve ahead of her tustle with 4th seed Elena Dementieva, assuming Elena can overcome the challenge of Melanie Oudin.

Look for Maria to produce more schorching groundstrokes and try attacking anything short from Mchale. We should also expect Maria to be approaching the net more behind her powerful forehand and backhand.

Maria starts her US Open Campaign with a Win!

After just 1 hour and 13 minutes Maria Sharapova pummels Tsvetana Pironka into submission with a 6-3 6-0 win, and looked every bit the fierce competitor, both in her tennis and in debuting her US Open night match outfit.

To give you an idea of the story of the match there was 2 long deuces on Maria's serve, she broke Pironkova's serve 6 times, served 52% first serves in and had only 4 double faults.

Definitely a feature of the match was how well Maria started both sets, establishing herself as the driving force in the match. She played a little in-and-out in the middle of both sets with her serve being tested in two long deuce games, but came through successfully, playing the crucial points better than her opponent.

Sharapova was never really pushed by Pironkova, tested more by her own ability to find consistency and to find the execution needed to apply her attacking gameplan.

If there was one thing Sharapova would aim to work on as she progresses, other than hitting more first-serves, it would be her play at the net. Although, according to the match statistics she won 15/20 net points her volleys and overheads could definitely have been better played. Maria seemed at times reluctant to close the net, electing to back off after many of her first volleys.

Nevertheless Maria can only improve as she continues through the draw at New York and you never want to play your best tennis in the first round, you want to gain momentum and improve with each round. Her next opponent should be relatively straight forward, facing Christina McHale of the USA in the second round.

Interestingly Maria dropped only 3 games in progressing, the same amount of games as her possible third round opponent, Dementieva, and at the moment there's nothing to pick between them.

Maria is undoubtedly one to watch at this year at Flushing Meadows.