will never feel sorry for pova because she is very cold.I remember the way she behaved when she was playing Golovina and this girl had broken her ankle,she never showed concern and continued practicing her serve......
2015 Wimbledon SF: Sharapova Vs. Williams
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Federberg, I also remember reading that after 2004, Maria continued to grow at least 1-2 more inches and that growth "spurt" affected her center of gravity and started to influence her serving motion. If we couple that with the surgery, I could see how her serving mechanics might have gone off kilter.federberg said:
Federberg
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colleen66 said:
It's possible I guess. But I'm still trying to understand how even a growth spurt could ruin her ball tossing technique. One of the graphics at Wimbledon this year showed the variation of her ball toss now in comparison to the early 2000s. Then it was a very tight bundle. Now it's all over the place. Because of this she is constantly having to adjust her contact point mid-serve. It can't be easy, but the root cause of the problem is the erratic ball toss
jhar26 said:
I think if anything the surgery helped her game. Sure you could argue that the shoulder surgery hurt her serve. You could also argue that the problems she had with her serve in the few years following her surgery forced her to finally develop other aspects of her game. From 2004-2008 when Maria was at pre-surgery peak the real dominant force in tennis was Henin. Sharapova was 3-7 against Henin. A player like Henin didn't rely on or have brute force but could expose Sharapova's weakness in movement and stamina. Her game plan was always to hit as hard as she could and end points quickly with as little movement as possible.
While Serena may be the hardest hitter in tennis she's also got the kind of tactical game and excellent movement that Henin had.
I think it's a little misleading to say that Sharapova ever really had an extended period of dominance in tennis as many commentators suggest.
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Yes, good point. I saw that as well. I'm perfectly willing to accept that the shoulder has had an impact on her serving arm. But there's no reason why it should affect her ball toss. Let's hope that she (or "her team") has seen that graphic as well, because that's definitely something she should and can work on.federberg said:
Truth be told, her toss has been all over the place for years (even before the surgery). I think she had the yips back then. Seems like it all started early in the 2007 season. She was DF pretty regularly that year and sustained some fairly large beatdowns. During the off-season she worked on it because in Jan 08, she ran through the field at AO winning that one w/o dropping a set. But the DF numbers continued to plague her 08-09 and when she came back on the tour everyone assumed the DF's were because of the shoulder surgery, but that didn't affect the toss pre or post op.
Pam Shriver said once you get the yips on your serve it's mental, and very hard to shake off.
Maria still relies on her first strike ability but Serena's defensive skills (still underrated by others IMO) negates that.
In a sense, it's the perfect storm for the head2head between Serena and Maria.
Maria has been so beatdown that it's almost a mental hurdle, her body language is not the most positive at all, and who can blame her? However, you can't discount that for whatever reasons, Serena is always "up" for playing Maria, and doesn't have the ocassional ugly meltdowns of downright patchy tennis in losses with other lower ranked players.
Whenever I see Maria in the draw verus Serena, it's almost guaranteed that Serena will be sharp and mentally alert for the matchup.
Maria still relies on her first strike ability but Serena's defensive skills (still underrated by others IMO) negates that.
In a sense, it's the perfect storm for the head2head between Serena and Maria.
Maria has been so beatdown that it's almost a mental hurdle, her body language is not the most positive at all, and who can blame her? However, you can't discount that for whatever reasons, Serena is always "up" for playing Maria, and doesn't have the ocassional ugly meltdowns of downright patchy tennis in losses with other lower ranked players.
Whenever I see Maria in the draw verus Serena, it's almost guaranteed that Serena will be sharp and mentally alert for the matchup.
kskate2 said:
OMG, Jelena's victory was so sweet. Yes it was vintage Jelena and it was glorious!! On grass to boost!
Jelenafan said:
that statement is so not true. Serena did not even play her best in that semi final and Maria still loss so your statement is so wrong
I am sure Pova's team knows about the toss problem. There is not much that can be done about it. I might bet that her toss is perfectly fine during practice, but when she plays tournaments, it goes off.
Tennis is all about match ups. Whenever you get two players who have similar styles of play with one player slightly better in every department, scores can easily be lopsided. Serena and Pova are aggressive baseliners. Serena hits heavier balls (more spin and thus more margin) and has better movement and serves. Pova can't win unless Serena plays her C game.
The more interesting question is what should Pova do about her situation? Play a different style a la Cornet in an attempt to beat Serena and risk losing to many more players, or stick to her game and stay top five for a couple more years? So far, she is choosing the latter (probably to the frustration of Sven). He likely told her to drop shot at every chance. She hit one and sliced once in the entire match.
Tennis is all about match ups. Whenever you get two players who have similar styles of play with one player slightly better in every department, scores can easily be lopsided. Serena and Pova are aggressive baseliners. Serena hits heavier balls (more spin and thus more margin) and has better movement and serves. Pova can't win unless Serena plays her C game.
The more interesting question is what should Pova do about her situation? Play a different style a la Cornet in an attempt to beat Serena and risk losing to many more players, or stick to her game and stay top five for a couple more years? So far, she is choosing the latter (probably to the frustration of Sven). He likely told her to drop shot at every chance. She hit one and sliced once in the entire match.
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special700 said:
Serena is always up for Maria. I think it's pretty obvious. Despite the now lopsided record between the two, Serena is always up for a Sharapova beatdown. Just because she didn't play her best doesn't mean she wasn't up for it. Those are two different things. Gonna have to disagree with you there special700.
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federberg said:
Perhaps, WTA should consider allowing the coach or the hitting partner to toss the ball. :snicker
The thing that also stood out to me is that Maria was guessing way too much on Serena's serve and did absolutely nothing to change up her game to give Serena at least a different look.
More than anything, Maria looks resigned that she will lose if Serena is playing well, but one would think that Maria would be willing to try something different. I mean, drop shot, slice, hit more in the middle of the court, come to net, ANYTHING, to shake things up. She's lost 17 straight matches in 11 years and counting and is not closing the gap, the status quo is not helping her at all. If she's going to lose, at least lose with some variety.
It goes back that for all her gifts, Maria can't really change up her game, she simply doesn't possess genuine variety.
More than anything, Maria looks resigned that she will lose if Serena is playing well, but one would think that Maria would be willing to try something different. I mean, drop shot, slice, hit more in the middle of the court, come to net, ANYTHING, to shake things up. She's lost 17 straight matches in 11 years and counting and is not closing the gap, the status quo is not helping her at all. If she's going to lose, at least lose with some variety.
It goes back that for all her gifts, Maria can't really change up her game, she simply doesn't possess genuine variety.
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Jelenafan said:
That really stood out for me too. She had absolutely no idea where Serena's serve was coming. So many time we saw her stepping in the wrong way. And she did have that resigned look on her face.