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Predict who will win the 2013 head-to-head between Sharapova and Azarenka

41K views 544 replies 121 participants last post by  caroalltheway 
#1 ·
Try to keep this thread as untrollish as possible so that the winning side can bump it and gloat at the end of the season :bigwave:
 
#8 ·
I'm not willing to put a certain number BUT I will say that Azarenka will lead the H2H in Finals.
I actually think it'll be the opposite to 2012 in that respect: I think Maria will win their biggest matches, and Vika will pick up a couple of the less important ones. I'm not going to pretend it's anything more than a gut instinct though.
 
#7 ·
If they have matches in Australian Open and US Open, Vika will beat Maria in 2013 as she did in 2012. It´s a pity that in the Olympics Vika´s opponent in the semifinals wasn´t either Sharapova or Kirilenko. Then we could have seen which one is better on grass.

Both of them will be top seeded players in the beginning of the season, and it requires that both of them will go deep on tournaments that will be any head to head games in the first place. If Maria Sharapova plays with a similar success as Petra Kvitova or Caroline Wozniacki did in 2012, then she won´t have many matches against Azarenka. But as in December 2012, it seems likely that the Unholy Trinity Vika-Maria-Serena will dominate the next season as well.
 
#15 ·
Maria to lead like 3-2
 
#16 ·
I hope for a major power shift to happen in 2013, so the direct match-up between Maria and Vika will not be as important anymore. That's my humble hope...

As to the reality, I think Azarenka is generally stronger physically and technically, but is much, much weaker mentally. And that is impossible to predict. A win in AO may boost Azarenka for the whole year, while her unexpected early loss may put her down for a long time.



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#20 ·
I hope for a major power shift to happen in 2013, so the direct match-up between Maria and Vika will not be as important anymore. That's my humble hope...

As to the reality, I think Azarenka is generally stronger physically and technically, but is much, much weaker mentally. And that is impossible to predict. A win in AO may boost Azarenka for the whole year, while her unexpected early loss may put her down for a long time.
Honestly, I think mental strength is one area where Vika (uncharacteristically) had an edge on Maria in 2012 - that certainly accounted for the result of their US Open match at any rate.

Well, this is a tricky one. I would like them to meet as much, or ideally even more, than they did in 2012 because their matches have this epic feeling about them all the time. I guess I'm in the minority that is fairly certain that quick courts actually favor Azarenka in this match-up (see the Beijing beatdown). So if they meet at Wimbledon and Maria is in claypova mode I would, indeed, expect a thrashing.

On quicker surfaces Azarenka's pace redirection will expose Maria's limited movement even more as she'll need to reach those balls quicker. Also, the court wouldn't take as much pace away from Maria's shots, allowing underpowered Azarenka to make the most of it.
I do agree that in terms of hardcourts, quicker ones favour Vika in this match-up (even though Vika generally is better on slower ones), and so Vika would probably beat Maria on a quick hardcourt (the very few genuinely quick HCs that are left - Stanford, Cincinnati, Beijing, Tokyo etc.) -- but I'm not sure I'd extend this to grass. Vika's footwork and defence is nowhere near as good on grass as it is on hardcourts, and without stellar footwork she becomes less consistent, and without that she's without her main weapon in this match-up. Plus, Maria's serve would get more cheap points / Vika's return would be neutralised a bit.

Also, just to play devil's advocate :devil: , although clay probably favours Maria, I'm not convinced that it's TOTALLY nid. Imo people are reading too much into Azarenka's weak performance at RG this year, she did actually play reasonably well at her other two claycourt tournaments this year and I think she will have decent results on it in her career. Even though clay will probably always be the one where Maria matches up best against Vika, I wouldn't necessarily expect Stuttgart-style matches in all their clay matches.

For me, the most encouraging thing about their YEC match was that Maria managed to win even though she wasn't outstanding, she just played tactically the right way. I was getting a little bit worried that she/her coach hadn't actually figured out how to play her at all, and that the Stuttgart and first set of the US Open match were just because Maria was on fire and that she wasn't actually consciously aware of what she was doing -- but the fact that in the YEC match, she wasn't striking the ball as well as she can, yet still won comfortably because she actually had a good gameplan, does give me some hope that they have figured her out since Stuttgart (and that their Beijing match was hopefully a blip).
 
#17 ·
Well, this is a tricky one. I would like them to meet as much, or ideally even more, than they did in 2012 because their matches have this epic feeling about them all the time. I guess I'm in the minority that is fairly certain that quick courts actually favor Azarenka in this match-up (see the Beijing beatdown). So if they meet at Wimbledon and Maria is in claypova mode I would, indeed, expect a thrashing.

On quicker surfaces Azarenka's pace redirection will expose Maria's limited movement even more as she'll need to reach those balls quicker. Also, the court wouldn't take as much pace away from Maria's shots, allowing underpowered Azarenka to make the most of it.

Slower surfaces are where Maria is at her most dangerous nowadays, particularly on her forehand side. She just has much more time to load up on the shots, as she's the heaviest hitter on tour at the moment, alongside Serena. Though I do have to say that from the USO onwards there was visible progress in Sharapova hitting earlier on the forehand side without losing pace (probably from the training on grass), which hopefully further improves next year as she still is a power player.

Anywho, regarding the topic, I think they'll end up even at 4-4 or 5-4 for one of them. I'm not sure they'll be meeting on clay as Azarenka may not get that far (still pissed off Maria didn't face her in the finals of RG. That would've been a thing of beauty).
 
#22 ·
I think it will be pretty much like this year, with Azarenka winning most of their matches as she is the better, fitter
stronger and more resourceful player. Unlike María, she has a plan B in her game if things doesn´t work for her (USO semis) while Sharapova only tries to hit harder and harder. Like this year, I am afraid she will only loose to Maria on a bad day.
 
#28 ·
Depends how often they meet on clay/hc's..Hc's it seems Maria's figuring that part out, so it should make for fun rivalry.
 
#30 ·
Vika is actually a decent player on clay, I mean she pushed Na extremely in their RG match in the year Na was flourishing on clay :shrug:

Anyway in 2013 I predict:

V - M

Slow HC
2 - 0

Grass
0 - 1

Clay
0- 2

Indoor
0-1

Fast HC
1-1

so thats 3-5 in Maria's favour.
ofc indoor can be combined with any surface so take that into account

i would find it hilarious if they met like once next year after so many final meetings in 2012
 
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