Maybe it was the pants. Maybe it was competing with Roger Federer and Serena Williams to be Nike’s fashion darling over the fortnight. Or maybe it was the thumb injury to Michael Joyce.
But despite all those possible reasons, immense pressure was the definitive answer for the shocking demise of Maria Sharapova on Court one.
“I was pretty tentative,” said the number three seed after suffering the biggest upset of this tournament, the biggest upset of this tennis year: a comprehensively beating by 154th ranked Alla Kudryavtseva in a 6-2, 6-4 scoreline that will make those who didn’t watch the match question if the right player is on the left side of the letter “D.”
Gone is all the momentum of coming back from a woeful 2007 and winning the Australian Open. Gone is some pundits’ maddeningly belief that she would dominate the game the remainder of the year.
And what happens to all the good feelings about Sharapova coming into to this year’s Wimbldeon tournament?
N’Sync doesn’t even have to sing the word to you.
The signs of this happening weren’t showing at all. Despite her contentious and painful lost to Dinara Safina at the latter preliminary stages of the French Open, Sharapova had improved her form enough at Paris to consolidate all the confidence she had in the early part of the year. She was the oddsmakers favorite even after it was revealed that Venus Williams was in her half of the draw . And that she hadn’t come close to beating Serena Williams since losing three match points against her at the 2005 Grand Slam opener.
No matter to Sports Illustrated’s Jon Wertheim and many other experts however, as they felt somehow someway that the American Russian was going to hoist her second title here. But despite their lack of definitive reasons for picking her to take the tournament, if anyone prognosticated her to egress Wimbledon in the second round, they seriously need severe medication. And even with their “out of this stratosphere” prediction turning out to be an actual truth, they still should get a dose of “What were you smoking?”
Nevertheless, the domination that Kudryavtseva placed on Sharapova was felt in every facet of the game. Kudryavtseva, who failed to take out the elder of the Williams sisters last year when she had her on the ropes in round one, refused to stop laying the blows this time around. At times in the second set, from the first two games to the seventh one when Sharapova survived two break points, it seemed she was going to recapitulate a match against a top player again. Instead, not only did she earn the match by keeping placid and strong, it was also the person on the other side of the net that made this the most jaw dropping result here since Jill Craybas knocked out Serena three years ago. Even bigger than Marion Bartoli dispatching Justine Henin the way she did in the third set of their semifinal last year.
“You think I played great, why thank you so much,” said a humbled and obvious enthralled Kudryavtseva. “For sure beating her is a big moment for me.”
Always against Sharapova, showing her that you have the controlled belief to beat her in the incipient stages of the match is crucial to whether you will do so. Establishing that mental frame and keeping it at the same level is integral against her. And Kudryavtseva displayed that so beautifully that Nadia Petrova should take notes from her 22nd ranked countrywoman on how to close out the 1st ranked one. Even through she failed to convert on break point opportunities in the first two Sharapova serve games, Kudryavtseva didn’t get down on herself. On the contrary, she continued to be clinical and sharp on her serve games, avoiding her own self-destruction and still taking the initiative with her compact strokes that work so well on the grass.
“I didn't say I was confident I'm going to win,” said the improbable winner of this match. “But I just thought I have to put myself in the frame of mind that if I have a chance I have to take it.”
Take it she did.
That mindset lead to the exact opposite on the other side of the net, as Sharapova equaled her holler of a performance at last year’s US Open to Aggie Radwanska to put it in the running of worst match of her career. The serve is of course the said be all of her game. But more essential to success for the IMG client though is what’s in her head. And especially important, the alpha key for whether Sharapova will ever be the consistent champion beating everyone at their best when the expectations are on her to do so will be how her head handles the pressure. The moments when someone challenges her all the way to pushing her on the brink of a crushing defeat, showing the spirit of refusing to submit to the vociferous grunts and intense style of Sharapova’s play.
Today, like her match against Safina in Paris, Radwanska in Flushing Meadow last year, and the beatdowns that Ana Ivanovic and the Williams sisters delivered to her in the recent 12 month epoch, Sharapova crumbled. And any of her fans would contest that she was the epitome of brutal like never before. Even more so than against the Polish teen in Queens last year.
It wasn’t just the fact that she was broken five times in nine serve games. How it unfolded had to be disheartening to her supporters. As Kudryavtseva was consistent and cynical, Sharapova was tense and terrible. The 2004 titlist at a stunning 17 year old stunned herself four years later with how awful she was on the baseline and in the middle of the court. Forehands into the net, backhands into the net and getting wrong footed constantly by her slightly younger, vastly less successful opponent, it was an array of negatives for Yuri Sharapov’s daughter. And though it was an amazing moment to see Kudryavtseva rise to the moment with a brilliant running forehand to seal the famous victory, the main story of the match was the unbelievable departure of Sharapova.
A shocking departure that can’t be attributed to those new garments or her assistant coach’s weird injury. Rather, folding to the expectations expected of her proved to be the reason for an embarrassing victory that most will remember, but that Sharapova will want to forget completely.
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