TR.Net final Maria analysis

I don't know if this has been posted already. If so, please forgive. I was simply curious as to what you Masha die hards thought of the analysis of where her game needs to improve?


"...A few things that Sharapova must improve on: Her serve is very good, but it’s not great and she has to take more risks with it when her foe is zoning, like Serena did. Why she didn’t go more down the T befuddled me, as anyone who has watched Serena play over the years knows she loves to gun returns down the line when she is stretched out on her forehand side in the deuce court, and in the backhand side in the ad court. You have to take that option away from her. Sharapova also has to add more bounce to her kick serve and get her slice biting more. None of that is impossible for a still developing player, especially if she hits the weight room. On her return of serve: studying tape might help when she’s confronting an elite player. Sure, Serena sort of served out of her head, but she’s capable of doing that in big matches. Sharapova had to anticipate better as to where Serena was going. She didn’t and was way too passive with her feet. Another option is to do what Serena does so well and toe the baseline, cutting off the angles. Exactly what did Yuri and Mike Joyce tell her before the match? Whatever the case, Yuri was furious after the defeat and didn’t hang around for the trophy presentation."

Maria wasn't serving well throughout the tournament, consistency wise. She got through to the final on guts more than anything.

She does need to improve the serve more so that she loses her serve less often. A top server should rarely lose more than one serve break per set. All through the AO she regularly lost more than this. her top 1st serve has improved, but the 2nd needs work, and she needs to get 70% or more first serves in, more like she was doing at the USO.

If she can count on her serve then she can be more confident when facing a hot player, or when leading 5-2

I thought it was an interesting point he was making about serving down the T. But, I think it's far more common to see Serena crushing crosscourt winners even when stretched on the deuce or ad side. Quite clearly, it was the cross court returns that did the most damage.

I do think he's right about Maria needing to be more willing to go for big serves, live on the edge so to speak. It seemed to me, she didn't really begin going for the big bombs until things got desperate late in the second. Yes, her percentage would dip, but she'd have an early advantage in the point, something she rarely had in this match.

Actually, it seems, to me Maria used to serve bigger until she had that shoulder(?) injury. Since then has she purposefully backed off in order to avoid re-injury?