Posted on 06/18/2005 2:29:46 AM PDT by beyond the sea
Maria Sharapova is sitting on her own watching the rain fall on the All England Club's Aorangi Park practice courts, her ever-present mobile phone in hand. There is no entourage, no security guards, and no reminders that this is one of the world's most famous and photographed sportswomen about to begin the defence of her Wimbledon title.
Instead, with her long blonde hair tied back and with a T-shirt and sweatpants on, she looks like any other willowy 18-year-old, idly texting her friends and sighing heavily at the dreary English weather. Of course, as anyone who watched Sharapova bulldozing Serena Williams in last year's Wimbledon final knows, as a player and as a marketable asset, she is anything but ordinary.
Since the Wimbledon victory that launched a thousand magazine covers, Sharapova has picked up a $6m (£3.3m) sponsorship deal with Motorola, is regularly seen on our TV screens touting deodorant and, from September, will add to the ever-expanding range of products she endorses by bringing out her own perfume. Yet, for all that, the enduring image of that day was watching her desperately trying to ring her mum from Centre Court to tell her that she had just achieved a lifetime's ambition at the age of just 17.
"I forgot she was on a plane to New York, which is why I couldn't get through," Sharapova remembers. "At the end of the match, she saw on the TV in the plane that I was trying to call her. She went up to the stewardess to ask if she could turn her phone on and talk to me but my mum is not the kind of lady to jump up and down."
(Excerpt) Read more at sport.guardian.co.uk ...
*****
Good luck
Maria Sharapova ping ......
Here are two great pictures that I do not know how to post. ;-)
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1168079/posts -- post # 9
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1164827/posts -- post # 23
MMMMMaria! I'll watch Wimbledon as long as Maria is in the tournament! She's a blonde with a brain, a hottie who loves her family, a Russian who's more like an American.
Get thee to an editor.
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I like the fact that she wears a gold cross and can be seen silently praying on the court between points. Some interviewer asked her this question about her cross.
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Q. Is there anything significant about the necklace? Is it a good luck?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No. I always wear a cross.
Q. Will you wear that all the time? Do you do anything with superstition? Is there something you always do?
MARIA SHARAPOVA: No, no, no. This I wore all my life. I just always wear a cross.
Quite refreshing! No beads in the hair, and she doesn't look like a man or have a sister that does either!
Wow, an actual hot, girl-looking girl on the court. May have to start watching women's tennis again. Hopefully she doesn't grunt everytime she hits the ball.
You're in luck! She doesn't grunt. She screams. I wish they had put a stop to it when Seles started it. It's too late now so I have to watch with the sound down.
She reminds me of Amber, from CBS's Survivor & Amazing Race.
Aren't those two pictures excellent!?
Now, if only Maria plays well at Wimbledon. She is said to have a relatively easy draw into the quarter finals, but I know anyone at that level can beat anyone else. As they say in the NFL ...... "on any given Sunday".
We'll see.
Sure!
And, as a male, she is SO FINE!!!
As a tennis player, she still has to learn a couple of things (like throwing in a few drop shots every once in a while to disrupt her opponents tempo), but as a fine young girl, she is perfect for today's jaded sports world and the world at large. I pray she is kept well by God.
Sometimes she makes a noise, but it's certainly NOT a grunt. It's more like a sound you may hear from a woman at a more "private" moment, so to speak.
I wish she would be silent, but that is the way she was taught years ago.
Tennis was much better before all the "sounds".
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miele man -- (from another thread) -- You're right, Martina Hingis was great. She was a smart player, but those powerful players bugged her. She should have never quit! She should have stayed, she could have been the best for a long time.
BTTT
Cute picture. (I'm talking about the top photo...)
Sometimes????? Every time I watch her (which is every time I can) she makes a screeching sound at every strike of the ball. It's too bad they didn't stop this when Seles started it. They tried but the powers that be in tennis decided that Seles' talent overtook convention and just ignored the pleas of her opponents.
I love Sharapova as a tennis player and a young woman who seems to have a very positive outlook on her life. She possesses humility, grace and poise whether winning or losing. Something tennis hasn't seen in long, long time.
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