Maria Sharapova takes a new feeling about her future into her first WTA Tour tournament since winning the Australian Open in spectacular fashion last month.
Sharapova aims to win more titles after her Australian Open successDOHA: Maria Sharapova takes a new feeling about her future into her first WTA Tour tournament since winning the Australian Open in spectacular fashion last month.
Sharapova’s third Grand Slam title brought predictions that the 20-year-old can take over as world number one again this year. It will certainly be a different Sharapova who contests the Qatar Open starting on Monday.
After enduring an injury-blighted 2007 in which she suffered many disappointments, Sharapova appears at least to have contained her long-lasting fitness problems and to have regained confidence in her ability to win more big titles.
“After having so many setbacks last year, visiting so many doctors, and MRI offices, winning this just felt so right,” Sharapova said with intense feeling about her Melbourne success. The coming week, in which the Doha tournament is elevated to tier one status on the WTA Tour for the first time, should provide a test of the long-term significance of Sharapova’s remarkable Australian Open form.
While winning her first title for five months, and her first Grand Slam for 16 months, she dropped a mere 32 games in seven matches and 14 sets, and served more imposingly than at any time in her career.
The sense of Sharapova having reached a watershed increased when she followed it with a long-awaited and successful Fed Cup debut in Israel. It confirmed the long-time Florida resident as “Russian in my heart,” as she has always claimed, and helped dispel some of the hurtful sceptical gossip about her real identity.
“There were two things I wanted most after winning the Australian Open. One was a hug from my mum and the other was a burger,” Sharapova said with pleasantly wry humour. “Instead I got a ticket to Israel.”
One is to the long-lasting trouble with her shoulder and the other is to her immune system, a weakness in which afflicted her after every previous Grand Slam she played. This time she suffered no virus and less physical let-down.
Nevertheless Sharapova remains only at number five in the world, and climbing higher may again require further success over the next few days against players like Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic. Including these two, there should be 17 of the world’s top 20 in Doha, making it one of the best women’s tournaments ever held in the Middle East.
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