Aside from her early round exit at Rome she hasn't played any sort of clay court tennis since that Fed Cup Tie against Italy three weeks ago, and even then it was only a single match.
That makes her 2-1 in clay court matches this year. A total of three matches going into RG, now that a knee injury has put paid to her ambitions at Madrid. Poor timing, no?
Keeping that in mind, this article from the The Times made interesting reading, giving her own thoughts on why it's proven to be such a struggle to remain competitive since picking up a Slam almost a full year ago. It also touches briefly on the work she's been putting in with Kardon and her physical trainer Scott Byrnes.
The message that seems to be coming out is that it's Ana's own intensity that has been her undoing. We have her all wrong apparently: far from being the deer in the headlights devoid of the kind of sustained intensity the #1 spot demands, she's actually an exacting perfectionist intolerant of anything other than her very best.
“Because I am a perfectionist, I had just assumed I would play perfectly all the time, but I have learnt that in those times I have to find a way to win and I am much more OK with that. I am very excited about what is around the corner, but I do need to stay in the moment.”
...
“I am a very emotional person in general and I get really fired up, especially in a competitive situation. I didn't know how to handle things before but it is important to realise that you are not going to be at the top of your game all the time. There are going to be setbacks and real champions adjust to that. You might lose, but you must never lose the belief in yourself. I have won the French, I have won big tournaments and I know I can do it again.”
(Source: The Times)
It's pretty clear that Ana hasn't yet learnt to come through matches where she's not playing her best tennis, and I'm not at all surprised to learn that she finds it difficult to deal with that. But I'm not sure I'd characterise that as being the product of an over exacting nature. That's the kind of charge I'd level against someone like Azarenka, who as you probably know isn't my favourite person right now. Ana's problems seem to have more to do with simply not knowing what to do when plan A fails.
The thing about Ana's game is it's actually quite simple. And sometimes a good old-fashioned return to simplicity serves you best. Net rushes and agility were never her strengths though it is encouraging to see how much work she's put in there.
But if those groundstrokes -- which really are exacting -- are firing off both wings (particularly that very classic looking forehand that can do so much damage) and she manages to start tossing the ball properly again (she did actually have quite a good serve if you can remember that far back), a semi final run at RG would, I'd have thought, be an attainable target.
I'm not suggesting that the interview was contrived to present her in a more positive light; I'm actually thinking that this is one of those over zealous mind-bending exercises in positivity - an attempt on the part of Kardon to turn her weaknesses into strengths, her 'problems' as they say, into 'opportunities'. You see where I'm headed with this? If Ana continues to talk this way in public as well as private, she may actually start to believe it. And some of that might rub off on her on-court performances.
Nothing wrong with this type of mental coaching of course, if that's what it is, and if it brings about the desired result. I, for one, wouldn't mind seeing her return to some sort of form.
***
Sharapova's return to action at Warsaw next week is on the face of it a good thing. Good for the tour, and good I imagine for her own confidence too, to get back out there in the cut and thrust of it all.
(Photo: AFP)No matter, you might think - after all, she needn't push herself to the brink of injury, the objective at this stage must surely only be to get back on court in a live match situation. Well yes, but I wonder how competitive she can really be playing at around 65-70% with a partially recovered shoulder on her least convincing surface.
More importantly though what's an early loss in a situation like that going to do for her confidence ahead of the grass court season?
I'd have preferred a return to action at one of the lower end grass court events. But I'm looking forward to being both surprised and proved wrong. What could be a better curative for the tour right now than something as improbable as a good run from Sharapova at RG?
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