Sharapova's delicate balancing act
By Patrick HrubyNEW YORK -- Maria Sharapova needs more money and fame the way Sean Combs needs another self-appointed nickname. Which is to say, not so much.
As the highest-paid -- and arguably most popular -- female athlete in the world, Sharapova could walk away from tennis tomorrow, swap her racket for lip gloss and comfortably sashay into the used-to-be-somebody netherworld of exhibition matches and FHM cover shoots.
Of course, Sharapova has forever insisted she has no interest in emulating Anna Kournikova. As such, her 6-1, 6-1 U.S. Open first-round dismissal of Eleni Daniilidou at Ashe Stadium on Monday night was simply the latest tilt on an increasingly familiar seesaw.
On one side? Sharapova's sport. On the other? Everything else.
"It's very important to have a balance," said the top-seeded Sharapova last Saturday. "I mean, I was on the 'Today Show' at 9 a.m., then at 3 o'clock in the afternoon I was back on the practice court working for three hours and, you know, running on the treadmill and sweating my -- sweating like crazy.
"I'm thinking, 'Jesus, three hours ago I was on the "Today Show" with makeup and I looked amazing. Now I look like crap,'" she said.
For the fans and sponsors who have made the photogenic 18-year-old Russian the WTA's reigning It Girl, the last part is open to argument. Undebatable, however, is the extent to which Sharapova's life has changed since her unexpected Wimbledon triumph last year.
Once one of a half-dozen semi-anonymous Ovas -- toiling in the shadow of the Williams sisters and the Belgian duo of Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne -- Sharapova is now the de facto face of women's tennis, recognized well beyond the grounds of the National Tennis Center.
Sharapova arrived in New York a week early and spent four consecutive mornings making corporate appearances -- afternoon practices followed. She enjoyed a Motorola-sponsored 18th birthday bash featuring Maroon 5, earned $20 million in endorsements last year and was on the cover of Forbes magazine in June. She even has an eponymous perfume scheduled to hit retailers next month.
The surest sign of Sharapova's newfound renown?
Speculation about her love life -- including a rumored relationship with ATP star Andy Roddick -- recently appeared in the Gotham tabloids.
"It's flattering, I guess," Sharapova said. "But I don't -- I'm not the kind of person that says, 'OK, I want to be on this page.' You know, my intentions are [not] to come to New York and be in that newspaper, this newspaper. I go and do my thing."
Sharapova's thing includes a daily conditioning run in Central Park -- so she claimed on Monday night -- with 50 Cent queued up on her iPod.
And against Daniilidou, the additional road work paid off. Recovering from a strained pectoral muscle that forced her to withdraw from a tournament in Carson, Calif, two weeks ago, Sharapova went from shaky to solid, dispatching a dangerous lurker who upset French Open champ Henin-Hardenne in the first round at Wimbledon.
Trailing 0-40 in her second service game, Sharapova hit a pair of aces and a swinging forehand volley to hold serve for a 3-0 first-set lead. Her lunging backhand pass in the next game left Danilidou applauding with her racket -- Sharapova celebrated with a fist pump -- and from there the match was a fait accompli.
"The first few games were a little tough," Sharapova said afterward. "Haven't played a lot of matches, so I'm just trying to get used to the conditions, the stadium, playing under the lights for the first time in a while. I really felt like I missed it. So it was a good feeling to be back on the court."
Whether Sharapova can keep her focus within the lines remains to be seen. In tennis, sudden stardom is nothing new. Nor are inevitable distractions, from Serena Williams' dalliances in acting and fashion design, or to what Andre Agassi once dubbed his "departures" from the sport.
Sharapova already has experienced the downside of heightened scrutiny. In June, a reporter for the London Daily Mail called her father, Yuri, a "greedy, domineering Tennis Father from Hell," claiming he demanded 10,000 pounds for an exclusive interview with Sharapova (and charitably, only 5,000 for a heartfelt one-on-one with dad).
Sharapova's father also was bashed publicly by No. 13 seed Anastasia Myskina, who last year said she would boycott Russia's Fed Cup team if Sharapova was put on the roster. Countrywoman and No. 5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova later echoed Myskina's comments, calling Sharapova "more American than Russian."
On Monday afternoon, Kuznetsova became the first defending women's Open champion to lose in the first round, falling 6-3, 6-2 to fellow Russian Ekaterina Bychkova. Afterward, Kuznetsova downplayed repored tensions among the WTA's Russian contingent.
"I think now it's got[ten] a little bit less," Kuznetsova said. "I feel it less. Last year it was much high for me, I know. It's really been pushing us up. Now, I think everybody's a bit tired."
If Sharapova was fatigued following her victory over Daniilidou, she didn't let it show. Still, her fitness is far from optimal: having grown an inch since March, she struggled with a sore back in the spring and played only two matches during the summer hard court season.
Skipping a mid-August tournament in Toronto, Sharapova spent a week in the Los Angeles area, working twice daily with a physical therapist to regain strength in her aching arm and chest.
Despite the layoff, she became the WTA Tour's top-ranked player on Aug. 22 -- a distinction that lasted all of one week as No. 2 seed Lindsay Davenport assumed the top spot on Monday.
The mental strain of being a marked player, Sharapova admits, has been nearly as trying as the physical strain placed on her still-growing body. During her run to last year's Wimbledon crown, Sharapova looked loose, hungry; in this year's Wimbledon semifinal loss to Venus Williams, her aggression was tempered by bouts of uncharacteristically tight play.
"It's not just a physical sport out there," she said.
"You know, I've gotten a little bit of everything in the last year, being a defending champion at Wimbledon. I thought I got through it pretty well. But it's hard to win when people expect you to win all the time.
"Right after I won Wimbledon, I thought I had to win every single match. It's just a matter of telling yourself that, you know, it's impossible to win everything no matter what people say. You can't control people's actions. You can't let anybody bother you."
If Sharapova is to balance tennis and everything else -- and take advantage of a decimated Open draw that won't have her facing a seeded player until the semifinals -- that much seems obvious. With one notable exception.
Just before Sharapova's match point against Daniilidou, a familiar male refrain rang out from the Ashe Stadium stands. We love you, Maria!
The feeling, Sharapova says, is mutual.
"It would be an amazing achievement [to win the Open]," Sharapova said. "I love coming back to New York. I love playing in front of these fans."
Money and fame? Covered. But a little bit of extra love? Even Sharapova can use that. Especially the tennis kind.
Patrick Hruby is a Page 2 columnist for ESPN.com.
