Let’s start with that moment at the Foro Italico today, since it will be splashed across the Internet over the next few hours.
It happened just as Caroline Wozniacki broke to go up 2-0 in the second set of her semifinal with Maria Sharapova. Wozniacki, on the run throughout the rally, got to yet another ball, but this time hit it for a winner. Right then Sharapova, a self-described “cow on ice,” perhaps turning too quickly or stepping incorrectly, fell hard and fast and completely. She lay there for a few seconds, all 6’2” of her sprawled out on the red clay. Then she got up and went on to win—and did both without as much fuss as you’d expect. She beat Wozniacki 7-5, 6-3 and now leads the head-to-head 3-2.
Sharapova won today because she played as aggressively as usual but also more responsibly. (She hit 36 winners but only 27 errors.) She served well, especially on some key points, and generally better than Woznaicki throughout. (Sharapova’s first serve percentage was 74 percent, while Wozniacki’s was 68 percent.)
Sharapova also won because—and this reason is less important—Wozniacki wasn’t at her best; even Sharapova’s coach commented that Wozniacki seemed tight. She moved well enough but made more errors than usual. (She hit 15 winners and 20 errors.) It’s partly that she felt the need to go for more—like the rest of us, Wozniacki knows Sharapova can bring it, and saw that she brought it today.
If 24-year-old former No. 1 Sharapova has this win—as well as a few years and a few Grand Slam titles—on 20-year-old current No. 1 Wozniacki, the latter continues to have something less measurable and rather powerful on her side: Momentum, that significant but inexplicable thing a player just has until she just doesn’t. Since 2008, Wozniacki has won a whopping 15 singles titles and is already leading the tour again this year. (She’s won three this season, tied with Petra Kvitova, who’s projected to reach a career-high No. 9 ranking next week.) Surely this can’t go on forever?
Consider Sharapova, who by the way was again cheered on by her fist-pumping fiance, Sasha Vujacic. (Asked yesterday whether having him there makes her nervous, Sharapova said, “I’ve played too many matches to get nervous about that.”) Did you think she’d ever lose again after the 2008 Australian Open, when she beat four former or future No. 1s as she stormed her way to the title? While Sharapova’s now back in the Top 10, it’s been nearly a year since she won a singles title (2010 Strasbourg).
Tomorrow, when she takes on Sam Stosur in the final, Sharapova has another chance to ensure that this drought, too, will pass.
—Bobby Chintapalli