Sharapova’s fortress of solitude

Tennis star admits she is not ‘close’ to many players

According to Maria Sharapova, the locker room at Wimbledon is a lonely place. It is certainly not somewhere she has found many friends.

“I’m not really close to many players,” she said after her firstround 7-6, 6-3 win over Kristina Mladenovic of France. “I think just because you’re in the same sport it doesn’t mean that you have to be friends with everyone, that just because you’re a tennis player you’re going to get along with tennis players.”

There is certainly one tennis player with whom Sharapova does not get along: a card signed by Serena Williams is unlikely to plop onto her doormat this Christmas. The spat between the two women, a verbal squall over past and present love interest conducted via a trail of catty press statements, has added a soap-opera narrative to the women’s draw at this year’s championship. And even if she were unwilling to add further spice — “Wimbledon has started, this is my work: I’d really appreciate it if we move on” — Sharapova arrived on Centre Court evidently determined that the plotline should follow its natural course to a meeting between the pair in the final.

Mind you, her opponent did not make it easy. Sharapova was hustled, bustled and made to squawk by a woman making only her second appearance at Wimbledon. A hard-fought, insistent and unyielding firstround challenge for a player at the top of the women’s draw: who would have thought it? Certainly not Sharapova.

“In the first set we didn’t break each other,” she said. “In women’s tennis that’s kind of rare.”

Wearing etiquette–challenging orange undershorts, Sharapova was unquestionably required to grind. As Mladenovic’s serves had her stretching, as a flurry of double-handed backhands left her flat-footed, Sharapova was more than a little uncomfortable.

you always know when the Russian feels under threat on court: the volume of her yelps increases. From merely challenging the further reaches of the Richter scale they start to threaten the very steel structure of the show court, a hyena wail of military pitch and scale. And for much of the first set, as the Frenchwoman’s serve scorched the turf, the former champion was yelping.

The crowd, sensing that an upset might be on the cards, relished the dynamic effort of the underdog. Bilingual cries of “C’mon Kristina” and “Allez Kristina” were bouncing round the stands almost as soon as it became clear that Mladenovic could serve. And when she won a game with a daring, delicate drop shot midway through the first set, the ovation was almost as loud as that which greeted a brief appearance by the sun.

What made Mladenovic’s resistance all the more compelling was that she seemed to undermine her opponent’s game. A woman who normally applies a sledgehammer to any chink of opportunity, Sharapova failed to convert break point on nine occasions in the first set.

Normally in these early tournament engagements, the pattern runs like this: an early flurry of adrenalin-fuelled resistance by a challenger quickly fizzles out the moment the contender finds a winner. It seems to melt into the turf.

But here, Mladenovic was still in the match to the conclusion of the first set. every time Sharapova seemed poised to seize the momentum, the Frenchwoman bounced back. Blasted forehands and fearsome serves of a kind that normally squeeze all defiance from early opponents were matched and at times bettered.

“I knew she would not be easy,” the former champion said. “She has a good game for the grass courts. She has, as you saw, a very good serve.”

A terrific serve maybe, but ultimately Mladenovic did not have the resources to maintain her defiance. In the second set, Sharapova eased away, her power finally proving irresistible.

It was just the workout she might have wished for. The sort of thing, in short, which might make her almost feel friendly towards her opponent. Almost.