Australian Open 2011: Maria Sharapova must prove she's not otherwise engaged

Australian Open 2011: Maria Sharapova must prove she's not otherwise engaged
One of the reasons for Anna Kournikova’s success was the illusion of availability she created in the minds of the deluded.
It meant that if she was ever married to ice hockey player Sergei
Fedorov it was only in secret and, towards the end of her playing days,
she never took the pout off her face for long enough to confirm the
gossip-sheet rumours that she was Mrs Enrique Iglesias.

To her sponsors, Kournikova would have been worth double as a supposed
single woman than she would have been as somebody else’s wife.

So it is going to be intriguing to see how the teenage boys of Melbourne
feel about Maria Sharapova – who has not become the world’s richest
sportswoman on tennis talent alone – as she arrives to play in the
Australian Open with a rock on her engagement finger. This might just be
the year that the posters start to come down from the walls.

What we can say for certain is that this year will be of great
importance to Sharapova the tennis player, as it promises to show
whether the Siberian should still be regarded as a force at the majors,
and whether she can ever win another grand slam trophy to go with the
2004 Wimbledon title she acquired at the age of 17, and her victories at
the 2006 US Open and 2008 Australian Open.

The pattern used to be that Sharapova would win one of the big prizes every couple of years, but that was broken last season.
Ever since she had pain in her shoulder, and was forced to invite the
surgeon’s blade in late 2008, and then to remodel her service action,
she has not been the same player. But it would be wrong to start
suggesting, after she disclosed during her off season that she had
accepted an offer of marriage from Sasha Vujacic of the New Jersey Jets,
that the former world No1 is now a basketball WAG.

As Kim Clijsters has demonstrated over the past year or so, by winning a
couple of US Open titles, there is no reason why going from Miss to Mrs
should in any way diminish your ability to win trophies; there is no
choice to be made between the altar and the podium.

The decline in Sharapova’s results came after she left Melbourne as the
champion. Since then, she has featured in just one slam quarter-final,
at the 2009 French Open. At last season’s majors, she went no further
than the fourth round, though she was unfortunate with her draws. She
lost in the third round of the French Open to Justine Henin, in the last
16 of the Wimbledon Championships to Serena Williams, and in the fourth
round of the US Open to Caroline Wozniacki, though you are going to get
unlucky when you drop out of the top 10 as that gives you no protection
against meeting the top seeds so early in the fortnight.

The earliest defeat of her grand slam season was in the first round in Melbourne against Maria Kirilenko.

And since she missed the 2009 Australian Open because of her shoulder
troubles, that meant that Sharapova has not won a match by the Yarra
River since she defeated Ana Ivanovic in the 2008 ‘glam slam’ final.

With Williams unable to attempt a defence of her title this month, after
injuring a foot when she stepped on broken glass in a Munich restaurant
last July, there are opportunities for players such as Sharapova, the
world No  16.

With regard to her tennis life, the most important decision that
Sharapova took during her winter break was not who she would marry, but
which racket she would swing. Players only tend to swap racket
manufacturers after a great deal of thought, and only if the new frames
feel right. So it is worth noting that Sharapova, who had previously
agreed what was described as a ‘lifetime deal’ with Prince, now has a
bag full of Head frames. After a decade with Prince, that looked like a
ballsy move, a sign of intent. As did Sharapova choosing to employ a
second coach in Swede Thomas Hogstedt, who will work alongside her
long-term companion, the American Michael Joyce.

And then there was her decision to arrive in this part of the world
earlier than usual, opting to play in last week’s tournament in New
Zealand. Unfortunately for Sharapova, she lost in the quarter-finals to
Hungary’s Greta Arn, and it was reported that she cheered herself up by
buying a ticket for ’a chick flick’.

The key scene in her own romance came when Vujacic is said to have
proposed to her a year to the day after they met at a barbecue.

Sharapova’s Slovenian husband-to-be is nicknamed ’The Machine’ by those
who follow the NBA. You can imagine that the future Mrs Vujacic would
not mind again becoming known for the consistency and ruthlessness of
her performances.