Week in, week out, Maria Sharapova makes it through to the final stages of tournaments. You have to go back to last year’s Wimbledon last 16 for the last time she was beaten before the semi-finals of a tournament. More often that not though, Maria, who is not ranked number two for nothing, has come second best. Kvitova beat her at Wimbledon ’11, Azarenka in Australia ’12, Beijing ’12, Miami ’11 Indian Wells ’12, to name a few, Serena at the Olympics ’12 and the WTA finals ’12. But these losses have not dented Maria’s spirit. If anything, they have strengthened it. Time and time again she has turned to her opponent on the podium and congratulated them for being the better player on the day with nothing less than a smile on her face. And, courtesy of her finding strength in her defeats, of coming back the week after and contesting the final stages, she has been, now and then, the recipient of the same acknowledgements; when Azarenka and Williams have been absent from the finals, it has been the ever-present Maria, bar the odd blip here and there (Miami 2012, cough), who has lifted the trophy.
In 2011, Maria beat Stosur in Rome and Jankovic in Cincinnati. In 2012, she beat Li Na in Rome, even got a win over Azarenka in Stuttgart and beat Errani in the French Open final. Four of those titles have come on clay, one on hard. And that run of clay court wins in 2012 saw her reclaim the number one spot for a few weeks. But only a few. The rest of the season saw her resuming her now familiar place of posing beside the winner, smiling sweetly with the runner’s up trophy in hand.
So,while, being the competitor that she is, Maria would not have wished for Serena to continue her boycott of Indian Wells or for Azarenka to withdraw from her last eight match, the draw would not have displeased her. The prospects of Errani, Kirilenko, and Wozniacki would have made sleeping somewhat easier than a Li Na, Azarenka or Williams encounter looming. Maria’s fans, and there are millions of them, would have slept easier, too. Spoiled by her earlier career victories from 2004-2008 at Wimbledon, the WTA finals, the US Open, Indian Wells, the Australian Open, the relatively lean times of the past few seasons have been at times frustrating, like having been allowed free reign in the chocolate factory and then being restricted to quarterly supervised visits. And while they, like Maria, would have liked to have gotten their fingers sticky with candy on the back of beating a Williams or an Azarenka, beating Wozniacki in the final was far more preferable than losing to her, which had this match occurred pre 2011, might have happened.
But the 2013 Maria is closer to the 2008 model than ever. Her final display against Wozniacki who had wins over her in Indian Wells ’11 and the US Open ’10, was laden with the hard hitting ground strokes that were missing in those wilderness years when she was susceptible to being beaten by anyone who could keep the ball in play, a practitioner of which Caroline is one of the world’s best. But Maria is out of the wilderness now and those groundstrokes can be unleashed at will and find the lines once more. And while with her high risk games comes errors, she keeps the winner to error margin big enough to keep herself out of the danger zone. Hitting 33 winners to 25 errors, while her opponent hit 2 to 19, Maria Sharapova did not hang around in her quest to add another elite trophy to the cabinet as she beat Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2.
No doubt Maria will be there in the final stages next week. The question is what role will she be playing should she meet Williams in the final? Will it be the smiling bouquet holding bridesmaid or will she and her fans have the keys to the chocolate factory once more?
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