The other day, Maria Sharapova’s agent unexpectedly “spoke” a lot of interesting things. In particular, that the famous Russian is “the worst of the champions.” Let’s try breaking this attack down into atoms.
“She Can’t Handle the Ball”
Maria Sharapova is undoubtedly one of the brightest tennis players of her generation, as well as the strongest Russian representative in this form in history. At least, no one has come close to him in terms of achievement. Sharapova is a five-time Grand Slam champion and managed to win all four majors, becoming the only Russian woman and the 10th tennis player in history to win the Career Slam. Among those who did this before Maria were such legends as Margaret Court, Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and perhaps Sharapova’s main rival in her career, who became a stumbling block for her, Serena Williams. In total, the Russian woman won 36 titles in singles, and was also the first racket in the world (outside of the Russians, besides her, only Dinara Safina also achieved this) and became the silver medalist of the Olympic Games in 2012, losing without a chance. her in the final she alone before Serena. Maria also has a victory in the Team Federation Cup for the Russian team.
Maria Sharapova
Photo: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images
And suddenly, according to the already ex-tennis player, or rather, about the technical aspects of her game, the former agent Sharapova and vice president of the IMG agency, Max Eisenbad, decided to leave. “When I first saw her, she was 11 years old and she was already an incredible player. But she, too, was already very professional and she knew what she wanted. I think everyone saw this throughout her career: she spared no time or energy to maximize her potential.
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I tell everyone all the time, and I would tell you if you were here right now, that you’re probably the worst athlete to win the Slam. She doesn’t have a shot, she can’t dribble, she can’t handle the ball. But she took it as she pleased, and I consider her one of the mentally strongest players in tennis history,” Eisenbud said on The Tennis Podcast.
Eisenbud should be grateful to Sharapova
Of course, the will to win, character, psychology are wonderful, and Maria really had all of that. However, to call her the worst tennis player to win the Slam is to say the least very strange and definitely disrespectful, especially considering, among other things, Sharapova’s influence on Eisenbad’s own career. The Russian woman was one of the most important representatives of IMG, her image before the scandal with meldonium and the disqualification was practically flawless, and her team, including the agent, who simply missed the information about the inclusion of meldonium in the prohibited list of WADA. New Year’s drugs are largely to blame for that scandal.
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If Eisenbud slipped up on this podcast and meant the worst among those who picked up the “Career Helmet,” then such a statement may still have some right to life; after all, compare Sharapova to Williams Jr., Graf, Navratilova, Evert and so on and the truth is too presumptuous. However, since Max has yet to make any clarifying statements on this, it seems he meant exactly what he said.
Cardinal changes in the game of Maria and the conquest of the ground
In this case, the agent raises many questions from a purely tennis point of view. Seriously consider that Sharapova was worse at shooting the ball, dribbling, etc., than TBS champions (take just a relatively recent story from the 2010s) like Marion Bartoli, Flavia Pennetta, Samantha Stosur, Sloan Stevens, Barbora Kreichikova, or the Eisenbud’s current client Emma Radukanu, it is impossible when you at least know more or less about tennis. Of course, in some individual elements, Maria is weaker, but her game was much more solid and stable than these girls.
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We add that in the course of her career, Sharapova also decently changed her technique and style of play. The Russian started out as an offensive player with an excellent serve for women’s tennis, and it was this style that earned her her first victories, including Wimbledon 2004 and the US Open 2006. However, this style turned out to be traumatic. She had serious problems with her right shoulder, and a second injury, received shortly after the 2008 Australian Open title, required surgery. As a result, Maria missed almost a year without playing, including at the triumphant Olympic Games for the Russians in Beijing. And the 2012 Olympic Games in London finally became the only one in her career for her. For Athens 2004, she failed to move up in time in the ranking, and Rio 2016 she fell into the period of her disqualification.
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Shortly after returning to tour, ahead of the 2011 season, Sharapova began working with Thomas Hogstedt, and it was with this coach that she radically changed the game. Maria simply could not hit hard to the forehand, as well as serve hard, and the bet was placed on a more stable and reliable game from the baseline with a gradual seizure of the initiative. Sharapova also changed her footwork, and thanks to this, the tennis player, who at the beginning of her career felt on the ground, in her own words, “like a cow on ice”, became an excellent ground player. . Maria has collected all the significant trophies on this surface, starting at Rome 2011 and ending with two titles at Roland Garros (2012 and 2014).
“A true athlete through and through”
A tennis player who “doesn’t know how to handle the ball” is unlikely to be capable of such changes and successes. The only shot that Sharapova never really learned to perform at a high level is the smash. Therefore, even in situations where it was clearly more comfortable and profitable to hit overhead, Maria preferred to attack with a direct volley, that is, hitting from the fly, but from the side. But, in general, to emphasize only the willpower of the Russian woman, while denying her purely tennis skills, is very strange and stupid.
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Finally, we give the opinion of one of Sharapova’s former coaches: Rick McKee. “Maria Sharapova was a great athlete. Agents make deals and most of them have limited knowledge in talent evaluation. When we talk about sports skills, we often mean running and jumping. But Maria has an amazing eye, she is a true athlete from head to toe. Five won “Helmets”, the world’s first racket. I don’t think you can doubt his athletic abilities,” McKee wrote on his social media page. And it’s hard to say anything here.
