Maria Sharapova withdraws from Sony Ericsson Open
The Sony Ericsson Open lost one of it’s major stars on Saturday morning when Maria Sharapova announced she is withdrawing from the Key Biscayne tournament because of fatigue.
Sharapova, who has dominated the tour since winning the Australian Open in January, had her 18-match win streak broken by Svetlana Kuznetsova Friday night in the Indian Wells semifinals, and Sharapova told reporters afterwards that she was considering taking a break and skipping the Sony Ericsson Open, which begins Wednesday. She advised tournament officials of her decision early Saturday morning.
“I’ve been playing a lot of tennis, flying a lot, and it’s all been work since I took a week off after the championships,” she said. “It’s pretty much been nonstop from the season to all the tournaments I’ve been playing, and Fed Cup as well. It takes a toll on your body and your mind. You feel like you have to go out on the court and, you know, spend a lot of emotion and energy out there, and sometimes you just don’t have it for every match.”
The Sony Ericsson Open is a mandatory event, and Sharapova faces a stiff fine for pulling out, but she said was ready to pay the consequences for her decision.
“I’m sure that there’s a pretty big fine, but the body’s more important than a fine,” she said.
Sharapova explained that it’s too early in the season for her to be feeling this tired.

Maria Sharapova pulls out of Key Biscayne tournament

KEY BISCAYNE - Two-time Sony Ericsson Open runner-up Maria Sharapova, whose troublesome right shoulder bedeviled her tennis most of the 2007 season, pulled out of the Key Biscayne tournament Saturday after a recurrence of the pain.
Her agent, Max Eisenbud, said the injury is not serious but that Sharapova “is trying to learn her lesson from last year when she didn’t take care of the shoulder as soon as the problem happened.
“She’s going to take a week off and not play any tennis,” Eisenbud said. Sharapova is expected to be fit by the time the U.S. clay court season begins on April 7 and, though she is not signed in to either Amelia Island or Charleston, S.C., she might consider requesting wild cards into one or both tournaments.
Giving a wild card to Sharapova wouldn’t take much thought. The decision not to play South Florida comes a day after Sharapova’s 18-match win streak to start the season was ended in a straight-set loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals at Indian Wells.
“She’s pretty disappointed. The Sony Ericsson is one of her favorite tournaments,” Eisenbud said. The tournament won’t lose her altogether, though. Sharapova will be at the tournament site on Tuesday to meet with reporters and do some publicity for the tournament.
Sharapova “tweaked” the shoulder reaching for a wide serve in Tuesday’s Pacific Life Open match against Alona Bondarenko. “It was nothing major, but after everything that happened last year, she was a little scared,” Eisenbud said.
“She has a very loose shoulder, like [New York Mets pitcher] Pedro Martinez. The same guy that worked on his shoulder worked on Maria’s. She has a very loose shoulder joint. It’s just something you’re born with. It helps with the serve because she gets that extra whip, but the problem is that when fluid gets in there it’s very hard to treat and hard to get out.”
Sharapova continually tried to play through the shoulder injury last season, but won only one title (San Diego), retired from one match and gave a walkover in another. She was a disappointment at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, the two Slams she had previously won.
“It hurt her to lift her arm above the shoulder level,” Eisenbud said. “It’s not a sharp pain, but you can feel it. And that’s not going to go away without treatment.” After the U.S. Open, Sharapova had an injection. “It wasn’t cortisone, but something that, when put in the area of the problem, acts as a suction for the fluid,” said Eisenbud.
With her withdrawal, No. 79 Ekaterina Makarova, another Russia, is elevated into the main draw.

Piccolo off topic
Maria sta pensando di non giocare a Miami. Vuole prendersi un break per recuperare. Ma decidererà all’ultimo momento. Miami e’ uno dei 5 tornei obbligatori. Non puo’ essere scarto dai migliori risultati validi per la classifica.

A Barletta, molto lontano da Indian Wells, si stanno giocando le qualificazioni di un challenger da 50.000 dollari, che avrà inizio lunedì.
Matteo Trevisan, uno dei nostri giovani più promettenti, ha fatto il suo rientro agonistico, grazie ad una wild card, dopo il forzato stop per la mononucleosi.

Il ragazzo toscano, classe ‘89, al suo primo anno nel circuito pro, ha sconfitto a sorpresa l’altro azzurro Massimo Dell’Acqua (attualmente solo n. 500 Atp, ma in grado di esprimere un tennis di livello ben superiore) con il punteggio di 75 62. Match mai in discussione, con Trevisan che anche nel primo set era andato in vantaggio per 4 a 1.

E’ una bellissima notizia.

Domani nel secondo turno Matteo se la vedrà con il lombardo Marco Crugnola, che ha sconfitto nettamente il talentuoso ma incostante ucraino Dolgopolov, tds n. 4 del tabellone di qualificazione.

Cero gli anglosassoni hanno un modo totalmente diverso di concepire il tifo rispetto a noi, specie nel tennis.

Se ne accorse John Alexander quando si prese un sasso in testa…da gran signore non battè ciglio, finì di sconfiggere e Panatta e salutò. Forse anche questa è l’essenza dello sport.