-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- June 29, 2004 SPORTS OF THE TIMES With Game Before Beauty, the Anti-Anna Emerges By HARVEY ARATON Wimbledon, England MARIA SHARAPOVA was roaming the Wimbledon media center yesterday afternoon like a teenager at an all-American mall when she stopped by the open window of a photography office to admire wall-mounted player stills. Her agent, Max Eisenbud, checked his watch and reminded her that she had an appointment for a massage. "Look at this one," she said, tugging at his arm. Eisenbud, of the global powerhouse International Management Group, indulged his very important client's gentle demand. Few people in tennis are as photogenic as Sharapova, the 6-foot blonde with the murderous ground strokes and model's legs. But that is beside the point for Sharapova, a 17-year-old Russian who apparently prefers action photos to magazine poses. "She wants to force the press to talk about her tennis, not about her looks," Eisenbud said. Even at first glance, it is obvious that Sharapova sees herself as all athlete, and not Anna. And that's not great news for tennis's merchants and mythmakers, who only wished that Anna Kournikova could have matched the sexed-up hype with her once-promising game. After Sharapova charged into her first Wimbledon quarterfinal by defeating the American veteran Amy Frazier, 6-4, 7-5, Eisenbud suggested that we cut the often-injured and now-invisible Kournikova a break and remember that she did make the Wimbledon semifinals at 16. "She was a great young tennis player, and that's why people noticed her," Eisenbud said of Kournikova, a former I.M.G. client. Well, at least partly. In a relatively short time, female athletes have come a long way, baby, but there may be peace on earth before pure performance drives their popularity engine on par with men. Superficiality still reigns in women's sports the way rain falls at Wimbledon, and that helps explain why Court 1 was packed - news-media section included - for Sharapova's fourth-round meeting yesterday afternoon with Frazier. Nearby, plenty of good seats were available as another of the many talented Russian women, Vera Zvonareva, challenged Lindsay Davenport. Davenport, recently turned 28 and married, could write a book on life in the shadows of tennis's It Girls, and she may soon be able to include a chapter on Sharapova if they play each other here in the semifinals. The feeling is that Sharapova, the teenager who was taken to Nick Bollettieri's tennis factory in South Florida a decade ago by her father, Yuri, is nearing a Grand Slam breakthrough. After reaching this year's French Open quarterfinals, she now has a ranking of 15 to go with her three tournament victories, or three more than Kournikova ever won. As long as we're comparing Russian bombshells, we'll take Eisenbud's advice and give Kournikova her due: her game was more coordinated, much prettier, than Sharapova's all-appendages-and-power approach, with a contact point that makes the ball look almost behind her as she connects. But unlike Kournikova, Sharapova does have a serve she can crank up to 110 miles an hour, and that should improve. Unlike Kournikova, she wants to be known for her body of work, not for her body. "She's in total control of her career and she wants to win Grand Slams," Eisenbud said. "Maybe Anna didn't say no enough. We've learned to keep saying no." Count her father among the "we." After Frazier's stubborn challenge was ruined by a couple of ill-timed double faults, Yuri Sharapova made eye contact with his daughter, clenched his fists, exited the family box and brushed off an interview request without breaking stride. The story goes that Yuri took Maria to the United States on the advice of Martina Navratilova, who had seen her hit at a clinic in Moscow. Maria was separated from her mother for two years. Huge family investments were made, both financial and emotional. "I know my parents have made a lot of sacrifices in my life," Sharapova said. "But I know that at moments like these, I can return them with favors. That's what they wanted me to do in life." The so-called Next Anna sounds more like the Anti-Anna. She rarely smiles during interviews. She prefaces most answers with a sigh. She bristles at the suggestion that she must succeed to justify her family's grand plan. But on the scale of teenage behavioral extremes, the aura she exudes is closer to Jennifer Capriati's joylessness than to the continuous role Serena Williams plays in It's a Wonderful Life. That may be a superficial and unfair judgment, but in the dysfunctional, pick-your-poison world of women's tennis, the Anna model is probably the least respected persona of all. In this case, better to be like anyone but Anna. "I don't think anyone really necessarily wants to be the next her - that would really be annoying," Davenport said after dispatching Zvonareva, 6-4, 6-4. "I think Maria's career will be more successful." The snapshot at 17 - including those three tournament victories with a body language that suggests more to come - reveals that it already is. http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/29/sports/tennis/29araton.html?pagewanted=print&position=
This French chick (Tatiana Golovin) is playing Serena right now. I wonder why the WNBA isn't as popular as women's tennis..?
Oh snap, she's smoking...I'd hit it...BTW, the other Russian hotties, in my opinion are Dinara Safina and Anna Bastrikova...
Yeah, she's hot, but I think Kam will agree with me here when I say she's no Anna. Sharp.'s got a nice bod, but a face that's kind of 'ehhh'. For instance: (Damnit moes, get that thing out of her! She's trying to win a match!) But of course I'd serve that a million times over, at least in doubles. Now, here is the other end of the spectrum for Russian tennis players: Tatiana Panova I hope that's not a camel toe. And she looks slim in these pics compared to when she lost to Davenport last Friday.
