Maria Sharapova Talks About New Coach Jimmy Connors

Your Great Davy demand to get the fact straight. Ever mug know the old man coaches Roddick in the 2006. The strongest era of tennis.

August 13th, 2013 at 10:48 am

Exactly why is Sharapova taking on Jimmy Connors as coach? You can’t help suspecting that being a mega celebrity herself, she feels only someone with an equivalently huge reputation is equipped to give her what she wants. This seems to me a mistake. Sharapova’s celebrity is based on fantasy at least as much as reality. She is, I believe, the highest paid sportswoman in the world. Plus she is photogenic. All this is silly flim flam.

What is the reality? Well, she is the 2nd or 3rd most successful female tennis player on the planet. Not bad. No doubt she dreams of being the best, and Sharapova is the type of whom one might say that to dream is to command. Just throw some loot at the problem.

But actually, it is not really a problem. Serena Williams is just better, much better than Sharapova. That’s how it is.

August 13th, 2013 at 10:51 am

Grendel,

You’re right on the money!

August 13th, 2013 at 12:31 pm

Not that I think it would make a difference, but if Maria was looking at a potential coach, Chris Evert would seem like the logical choice. She faced a very similar foe to Serena in her time. Martina was a much better athlete than Chris and went on a dominating run against her. However, Chris eventually found a way to make the rivalry more compelling again.

The problem in the Maria-Serena rivalry is that they essentially play the exact same game. All of Serena’s strengths are a little better than Maria’s. Chris’ strengths were different than Martina’s so there were things she could do mitigate Martina’s athleticism.

August 13th, 2013 at 12:38 pm

I wonder if, being American, Chris would consider coaching a non-American. She’s always seemed quite patriotic to me.

August 13th, 2013 at 12:40 pm

Well, that’s true for now, but I’m pretty sure Sharapova isn’t planning on hanging up her racquet soon (at age 24), where as Serena most likely will begin to lose ground in another couple years. I believe there’s a 5-6 year age difference, much like Rafa and Roger. As she says above, at this point of her career she doesn’t need anybody to make a lot of changes tennis wise, but someone with the actual knowledge and experience of playing championship tennis to keep her motivated and on point. Who better than Jimmy? On the other hand I wish she had a mind set more like Nadal, that is willing to make changes in her game to better her tennis. I can see Maria being number 1 again though at some point in the future, and I doubt it will cost her much at all in terms of loot.

August 13th, 2013 at 12:54 pm

“On the other hand I wish she had a mind set more like Nadal, that is willing to make changes in her game to better her tennis.”

But Nadal is a great athlete who has the ability, not just the willingness, to adapt. It seems to me that Sharapova has wrung every little bit out of the repertoire which nature has given her. That’s impressive, but it constitutes a natural cul-de-sac.

August 13th, 2013 at 1:25 pm

I think Grendel has it spot on,Maria is a great player against everyone else,its just that when she plays Serena she looks ordinary,trouble is she does the same to every other player,only Vika at her very best,or the Stosur that won the USO in 2010,the Lisicki that beat her at Wimbledon has much of a chance IMO.

August 14th, 2013 at 7:30 am

Not sure of Connors can help her beat Serena. Maria’s got the game, she needs help with her mental toughness against Serena. I guess that’s probably the most important aspect of tennis, you can have the talent, but if you doubt yourself just a bit, you start hitting errors and double guessing yourself. Don’t think Connors can get her over the hump.

August 14th, 2013 at 10:39 am

Apparently Maria has fired Connors.

August 16th, 2013 at 7:46 am