For Maria Sharapova it continues bumpy on the way to old glory. In Indian Wells, she lost to Naomi Osaka in two sets in round one.
By Florian Goosmann from Indian Wells
She is looking forward to the match, Maria Sharapova announced in a conversation with tennisnet. com on Monday, saying:”Players like Naomi Osaka are the ones who want to challenge her. But Sharapova also knew:”She is a good player who has won against experienced players.”
Osaka has now extended its list of valuable victories. In a mediocre game with a few highlights, she won 6:4,6:4,6:4 against the five-time major champion after a good hour and a half. The match, however, was on the fence more often than it reveals the result.
The 20-year-old Japanese rider, who made a name for herself with her first-round win over Angelique Kerber at the US Open last year, showed from the outset that she wanted to take the ball into her hands:”Easy Power” can be called what Osaka is all about: the ability to seem effortlessly accelerate the ball, which she presented splendidly in the beginning, plus serves that she regularly fought at around 190 km/h.”Easy Power” is the name of the game. Osaka quickly led 3-0 against Maria Sharapova, who did not find her way into the match. At the 4-1 draw, however, the match seemed to fall over: Sharapova made fewer mistakes and more pressure, caught up to 4-4, but gave up the set with a weak service game.
Sharapova was also quickly trailing 3-1 in the second half of the race, coming back on top again, but again not using her momentum to equalise. With a score of 4-2 and 40-0 for Osaka, almost everything seemed to be over, but she brought Sharapova back into the match with a few minor mistakes,”MaSha” thankfully accepted them and let old determination flare up in the following minutes – 4-4 secured her with the crowbar of energetic forehand recollections and loud moans.
In the next serve game, however, Osaka kept her nerves intact – also because Sharapova played her right in the bat instead of making the easy point. Osaka was back in the game again and occupied Sharapova with their service game well – a double error and a backhand in net sealed the end for the Indian Wells winner of 2006 and 2013.
“I knew she would fight for everything because I’d been following her from childhood. It was an honor to play against them,”Osaka giggled in her slightly confused manner during the on-court interview.
For Sharapova, the road back to the top still does not seem to be a self-propelling one. A semi-final at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart, the last sixteen at the US Open in New York, the tournament victory in Tianjin and a semi-final in Shenzhen at the beginning of this season – the successes for the former world number one since their comeback eleven months ago, which was marked by injuries at the beginning of the season. Sharapova, which is clear after today’s game, still needs a lot of match practice in order to redirect the decisive moments of a game in the future.