Sharapova dreams without sleep
Having come close to achieving dreams without sleep, Maria Sharapova
is resting Friday in the knowledge that a perfect end to a fairytale
year is within her grasp. The game's greatest survivor overcame constant
deficits in a three-hour match with Agnieszka Radwanska which finished
in the early hours of Friday morning, carrying Sharapova exhausted to
her bed and to a place in the semi-finals of the WTA Championships on
Saturday.It means the tenacious Russian can still finish a
character-defining season in which she completed a career Grand Slam by
capturing the season-end title she last won in her breakthrough season
eight years ago.
For a player who was warned she might never be the same after a
shoulder operation four years ago, and who has had to compensate for a
reduction in the effectiveness of her service ever since, it is all a
massive achievement.
"It was such a physical match," said Sharapova after a 5-7, 7-5, 7-5
win which equalled the longest in number of games of any match in the
40-year history of the WTA Championships.
"It just came down just to a few points in the end. It was an example
of not playing my best tennis at all, fighting through it, hanging in
there, and getting it done.
"No matter if it's, you know, a hard shot or a lower slice that has
no pace, she makes you work for it," Sharapova said of the world number
four from Poland whose intelligent, varied game dominated many periods
of the match.
"But I found a way to get through those points against her which is
not always easy, especially on a slower court like this. I fought and I
won, so I'm happy." Sharapova covered so many acres of ground that at
one point, when she managed to get Radwanska to do more of the running
for a change, she appeared to give a celebratory yell of, "run, run,
run!" And the struggle was so uphill that there were times when she
seemed to be disagreeing with coach Thomas Hogstedt.
"I was just aggravated because I was making errors and wasn't doing
the right things," Sharapova explained.
"In the heat of the moment you've got to blame it on someone, right?
It's never on yourself," she added.
"But I'm not frustrated. I'm just wondering when I'm going to sleep.
Aren't we all?" With Victoria Azarenka's earlier win over Angelique
Kerber lasting a similar length of time and an identical number of
record-equalling games, the day's schedule of only three matches lasted
more than nine hours, ending at 2.10 am. AFP
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