By Darren Walton
January 27th 2008 @ 8:19am
Sharapova back into the spotlight after emotional Open win
Maria Sharapova finally wrestled the spotlight from her oddball father with an emotional Australian Open triumph at Melbourne Park today.
In an awesome display of absolute dominance, Sharapova lifted the Daphne Akhurst trophy for the first time after romping through the season’s first major without dropping a single set – despite facing three of the world’s top four players.
But it wasn’t until the 20-year-old Russian powered past Serbian fourth seed Ana Ivanovic 7-5 6-3 in the aptly-billed “Glam Slam” decider that Sharapova was able to shove the erratic Yuri Sharapov to the side at Rod Laver Arena.
Sharapov’s menacing behaviour, including a controversial throat-slitting gesture and the bizarre decision to wear a camouflaged “hoodie” jacket and sunglasses while watching on from the stands often grabbed more headlines during the championship than his daughter’s dazzling tennis.
Sharapova tonight said she’d been telling her father “even when I was a kid” to put a lid on it and there will be only one member of the family in the papers tomorrow after the fifth seed fought back from 4-5 and 0-30 in the opening set to rout Ivanovic in the second – when the Russian dropped a meagre two points on serve – to collect her third slam.
Inspired by a pre-match text message from Billie-Jean King and desperate to atone for last year’s dismal final loss to Serena Williams and triumph on her mother Yelena’s birthday, Sharapova dedicated her victory to the mother of her American coach Michael Joyce, who died last year.
“This morning I got a text from Billie Jean King saying ‘champions take chances and pressure is a privilege’. I am just glad I could take my chances today,” Sharapova said.
“If you had told me in the middle of last year that I would be standing here on this stage with the big one, I would say ‘forget it’.
“Last year was a very difficult year for me … but I gained a new perspective on life and tennis became very small.”
Sharapova managed only three games against Williams in the 2007 title match also played on her mother’s birthday and she promised to make up for the disappointment today.
The 2004 Wimbledon and 2006 US Open champion felt it was the least she could do for her American-based mother, who has reportedly never seen her daughter play a grand slam match.
Sharapova was famously separated from her mother for two years when Yuri – with a crazy dream and a few hundred dollars in his back pocket – lugged Maria from Russia to Florida as a seven-year-old.
And the newly-crowed Australian Open champion opened up about the difficulties her family faced during their long periods apart.
“It’s strange because my career has obviously brought us amazing things, but there are a lot of downfalls,” Sharapova said.
“You know, my parents don’t get to see each other very often, especially when I’m at tournaments.
“If you play 18 tournaments a year, four of those grand slams – three weeks at a grand slam – it’s a numerous amount of weeks.
“But, you know, those are the sacrifices that I and my family have to make.”
Sharapova said she was just thankful her parents managed to hold their marriage together during the tough times.
“The great thing about my family is that we’re pretty independent people,” she said.
“If I go on a trip that’s six weeks long or even eight weeks long – sometimes from the clay to Wimbledon that’s what it is – by the fourth week, sometimes someone gets homesick or whatever.
“But we’ve been through a much tougher process, with not seeing my mum when I was younger.
“It’s great that my family is able to be so close and so supportive.”
While Ivanovic was hoping to forget about her defeat tonight while attending an Australia Day barbecue with her relatives in Melbourne, Sharapova was hoping to make the Police concert before focusing on her eagerly-awaited Fed Cup debut for Russia against Israel next month.
Ivanovic, who also lost the French Open final last year to Justine Henin, said she could console herself with the fact that she would rise to world No.2 in the rankings after making the second grand slam final of her burgeoning career.
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