Porsche Tennis Grand Prix: Sharapova optimistic despite out

Maria Sharapova suffered her fourth defeat in a row in Stuttgart – an increase in performance was nevertheless clearly visible.

By Florian Goosmann from Stuttgart

Tennis is sometimes a strange game. A look at the statistics in the match between Maria Sharapova and Caroline Garcia shows quite clearly why: Sharapova beat 39 winners, Garcia 25. Sharapova made 25 unforced mistakes, Garcia as well. Sharapova won 106 points, Garcia 104, but the match went to the Frenchwoman, 3:6, 7:6 (6), 6:4 after almost three hours of play for the world rankings seventh.

It was Maria Sharapova’s fourth match without a win, but in contrast to her appearance in Indian Wells and her defeat against Naomi Osaka, the positive should stick – and it probably does, “if not now,” as she analysed in the press conference. But: “It was an improvement on the last events I took part in.”

Sharapova is reunited with Thomas Högstedt, the calm Swede who had already looked after her from 2010 to 2013, before Sven Groeneveld took the helm. Sharapova separated from the Dane after the Indian Wells appearance, which she said she should not necessarily have played – Sharapova was already struck on the arm here. “But it helped me make a difficult decision.”

The separation phase had been “a difficult time, especially with a person with whom you have had so many successes, who is an incredible coach and mentor, for whom you have a lot of respect. But we both felt that it was the right time.”

With New/Alt coach Hogstedt she has had a few great training weeks behind her, “he has a great work ethic,” enthused Sharapova, “and I’m fully involved. It is also good that Högstedt has coached against them several times in recent years. “I’m happy about the feedback I’m getting from him.”

Whether it continues permanently with the 54-year-old ex-pro, the former world number one does not know yet. “We don’t have a written contract and we go on week after week. “But I love work – and that’s always an important point in such a process.”