Maria Sharapova tries to defend her place in the Open.
Russian favourite Maria Sharapova was making the headlines for all the wrong reasons yesterday.
The winner of the 2008 Australian Open strode onto the tennis court in a rather unusual dress that prompted thousands of twitters from fans and critics alike, with one twitterer saying that she looked as though she crashed into a peacock and another, some curtains.
The creation is by Nike with whom Sharapova has a contract that has seen her in a variety of different outfits over the years, each of which has proved to be a talking point among observers.
She debuted the Australian Open in what was meant to be her big comeback, but unfortunately her match with fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko didn’t bring her the victory she was after. The results of the sets were a disappointing – 7-6, 3-6, 6-4. It was the Russian’s earliest grand slam defeat in seven years and must have been a huge setback for her team.
Perhaps trying to make a fashion statement on the tennis court didn’t prove to be such a good idea after all, for if it wasn’t Maria Sharapova’s dress that distracted her, what was it?
Well the Australian media believe that she simply didn’t want to be there. They claim that she much prefers the “rain-soaked” streets of London than Melbourne’s sunny climate. The Herald Sun, one of Melbourne’s premier newspapers, claimed that she only spent three minutes mingling with guests at a pre-tennis party on Sunday night and that she seems “completely uninterested.”
They quoted her thoughts written some weeks earlier on her official website where she told fans: “Wimbledon is always the most special, the most important, and the one I look forward to playing to the most,”
However Sharapova herself remained philosophical about her defeat, telling ABC Sport that perhaps her confidence got the better of her. She also did justice to the remarkable playing talent of her opponent, praising her tennis skills.
“I could be disappointed or I could just take it as it is and just go back on the court and just keep working.” She stated. “There are many worse situations in life. There are people who don’t even know what a tennis match is in the world.”
Well, criticisms about her dress aside, we think that’s a remarkably level-headed approach to take and one that is surely worthy of some respect. No excuses, no blaming the umpire, giving your opponent credit, taking the loss in your stride – Maria Sharapova, we take our hat off to you! And I thought her dress quite nice anyway!
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