the wise citizens who run the US Open risked public outcry by giving Maria Sharapova a free pass into their 2017 tournament, they can hardly have anticipated the Russian would be thrown in against the world No2, Simona Halep, in the first round. In a way the gamble paid off, because this is the sort of first-up match that makes TV executives drool: the drug-busted villain up against the volatile Romanian, who blew her shot at being the world No1 in Cincinnati last week when she lost to the tournament favourite Garbi?e Muguruza. Sharapova is 6-0 against Halep. What could possibly go wrong? ?? Well, she could lose, and that would take the air out of their audacity in a twinkling. Or she could win and a tournament slotted into one of the few downside gaps in the American sporting calendar – the McGregor-Mayweatherboxing extravaganza this weekend notwithstanding – would receive a significant buzz. Not that anyone seriously expects Sharapova, a 2006 champion here, to win her second US Open title. She is 30. She has done nothing since returning from a 15-month ban in April to suggest she can revive a career that had already shown signs of creaking before drug testers found the banned meldonium in her system at the 2016 Australian Open. Andy Murray pulls out of US Open because of ‘too sore’ hip injury Read more She did not get into the French Open this summer. Wimbledon refused her a wildcard. Her stock has been falling with slightly less impact than that of Donald Trump’s. But Sharapova is a bundle of paradoxes. This is a player who exudes glowing health and beauty, while selling sugar sweets to kids. She moves like a puppet on a string, looks like a ballerina and fights on court like a heavyweight boxer. The former world No1, with five majors to her name since her stunning debut at Wimbledon 13 years ago, holds a world ranking of 147. In Stanford before the US Open, she took three sets to beat the American world No93, Jennifer Brady, then pulled out of the second round when a left-arm injury flared. It had not healed sufficiently for her to play in Cincinnati, a crucial warm-up tournament. As she admitted on the tournament’s Periscope channel: “I haven’t had the best preparation, if I am honest. The tournaments I was supposed to play, I had to withdraw with injury, which was quite disappointing.” Advertisement True to her penchant for massaging uncomfortable realities, she says she “skipped” Wimbledon, although rarely has there been a more mutually beneficial ‘skip’ after
http://www.officialnikejetshop.com/nick-mangold-jersey-for-sale-c-24.html the All England Club slotted her into the qualifying tournament and she pulled out injured at the last minute. The last time she played at Flushing Meadows, in 2014, Caroline Wozniacki beat her 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 in the fourth round. Yet they gave Sharapova a wildcard into the final slam of the season. There is no escaping it: she matters. At least at the turnstiles. Local tennis fans already have plenty to cheer about: 23 American women in the draw, the most in 12 years, and some sort of compensation for the absence of Serena Williams. With 19 Americans in the men’s draw, this US Open should hit a lot of TV buttons, at least in the opening week. Sharapova is the sugar on their cake. For Johanna Konta, she is a potential roadblock. Britain’s best player in a generation came out of Friday’s draw in good shape and should have few problems with the 77th-ranked Aleksandra Krunic, a 24-year-old Russian based in Serbia. Konta’s rise of 140 places in two years has been stratospheric by any standards but she takes it in her measured stride, housing her emotions in an hermetically sealed bubble. It has served her well, and it may pay a serious dividend in a tournament that throws up this odd bauble: any one of eight players could finish the fortnight as the world No1, a position currently held by Karolina Pliskova. Konta will never be as famous as Sharapova – nor is that an ambition – but she has grown used to rolling acclaim for her methodical and precise tennis. She relishes the openness of this Open, and regards herself as good “a contender” as any of the other aspirants. “I think it’s a great thing,” she said. “From the very first rounds of tournaments there are great matches. I think that was showcased at Wimbledon. In the women’s draw, every round there were incredible battles. So I think that’s quite exciting, knowing that when you go to watch
Artemi Panarin Jersey an event, from the get go, it will be exciting. You don’t have to wait until the semis.” Advertisement Nor does Konta believe the absence of her sport’s outstanding champion, Serena Williams, will figure in the equation. “I don’t think so. You have to remember these players were around alongside Serena. Garbi?e won alongside Serena [beating Williams in the 2016 French Open final], Flavia [Pennetta] won here. There have been champions alongside her. “Obviously Serena has been a massive presence in our sport. And what she achieved in our sport might not happen again, certainly not in my lifetime. Going from where she started, her career as a teenager, it’s just incredible. But I think it’s like being in the men’s game and living in the time of [Roger] Federer. It’s just one of those anomalies. Will it ever happen again? But Serena is away making a baby; there’s more attention on who’s around now and the quality of players who can come up alongside her.” Konta had an unexpected and unwanted brush with notoriety when John Humphrys brought his acerbic interviewing style to bear in a weird interview with her on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme shortly after Wimbledon, although she left it more amused than bruised. Maria Sharapova
http://www.authenticchicagoblackhawks.com/authentic-bobby-hull-jersey?gender=Youth to face No2 seed Simona Halep in US Open first round Read more “He maybe forgot I wasn’t a politician. He maybe never really interviewed an athlete,” she said. “I think I basically didn’t answer like a politician does to him [to questions about her Hungarian and Australian background]. The interview ended and I looked across to Vicky [her agent] and thought: ‘That was a bit bizarre, a little bit of a strong interview.’ Going through this career with all the experiences, it won’t be the last strong interview I will have. “A few people [from the show] did come up to me to apologise, because it did go down an angle that probably was not intended, but it happened. I was very keen to move on as well.” And she has done that in a most satisfactory manner. This could be the tournament that makes her – whatever the hype about Sharapova
