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Who will win, Peak Sharapova vs. Peak Azarenka?

11K views 103 replies 61 participants last post by  RobinT83 
#1 ·
I know the current Sharapova is completely hopeless against Peak Azarenka and has become her bitch :sobbing:

I'm wondering who is going to win a match between the peak pre-injury Sharapova and the peak current 2012 Azarenka?

Peak Sharapova: 2008 Australian Open or Sharapova in 2006 (2006 US Open)
Peak Azarenka: Azarenka in 2012

Do you think it's simply just a matchup issue and Peak Azarenka of 2012 would still beat Peak Sharapova back in 2006 or 2008?
 
#39 ·
Peak Sharapova had an incredibly good serve to backup her vicious ROS and groundstrokes. Azarenka has never faced a peak Sharapova and if she had she would have lost more often than won in my opinion. We will soon see someone totally eat Azarenka's serve for breakfast (not sure who but it is simply a matter of time) and when we do it will highlight the biggest weakness in her game.

The bright side in all of this is that Sharapova is honestly trying to figure Azarenka out... I finally saw that at Indian Wells. Normally for the past few seasons Sharapova has had a high DF number which gave too many free points to Victoria (along with being too inconsistent). At Indian Wells, however, she had very few DFs but had poor serving box placement as well as being too predictable. So we have seen her go from one extreme to the other... First too aggressive and recently too passive.

Now she just needs to find the balance between the two again. Although Sharapova lost IW I think it was a tactical step in the right direction for her.
 
#41 ·
Peak Sharapova had an incredibly good serve to backup her vicious ROS and groundstrokes. Azarenka has never faced a peak Sharapova and if she had she would have lost more often than won in my opinion. We will soon see someone totally eat Azarenka's serve for breakfast (not sure who but it is simply a matter of time) and when we do it will highlight the biggest weakness in her game.

The bright side in all of this is that Sharapova is honestly trying to figure Azarenka out... I finally saw that at Indian Wells. Normally for the past few seasons Sharapova has had a high DF number which gave too many free points to Victoria (along with being too inconsistent). At Indian Wells, however, she had very few DFs but had poor serving box placement as well as being too predictable. So we have seen her go from one extreme to the other... First too aggressive and recently too passive.

Now she just needs to find the balance between the two again. Although Sharapova lost IW I think it was a tactical step in the right direction for her.
This it was just piss poor execution, also Vika reminds me of a less aggressive Golovin and despite pushing Masha to the limit at times - Masha always won.
 
#45 ·
:help: peak Sharapova groundstrokes have so much more depth and angle than what she has displayed over the years, and had one of the best backhand crosscourts on the tour (which was MIA in the Indian Wells final). She had a much bigger and much more consistent serve to boot (which was MIA in basically all her matches vs. Vika including those she won). She might not have the variety majority the other players on the tour had, but who needs it when you're hitting winners effortlessly or hitting unplayable shots, and even the best movers/counterpunchers couldn't deal with it?

Maria was also fearless, calm, composed and nothing could break her concentration (other than Serena), something we cannot say about the current Sharapova; mentality takes you a long way.
 
#46 ·
Maria with a serve that can be a x-factor? Yep..that probably beats Victoria more often than not.
 
#47 ·
I think peak Sharapova only loses to Serena ( just a totally bad match-up for her..there's nothing she does better than Serena), Juju, Vee ( on grass) and perhaps Kim..from the players she has played against.
 
#48 ·
There is no need to answer to this thread. Pova fans are just frustrated because of Vika ATM :lol: we all know Peak Maria can only be bothered by Peak Rena(everywhere) and Vee, Clijsters and Henin (on certain surfaces).
But that's not what matter today she needs to find more consistency in her game and find her old serve, I know she doesn't feel confident to use the flat one right now but w/o it, it's really gonna be difficult to beat some top players.
 
#54 ·
There's no doubt that Azarenka has Maria's number right now. But strength vs strength, Sharapova would beat Azarenka on any surface. And her results show that as she's achieved more on every surface in spite of missing a year with a terrible injury. Maria really needs to work on her serve placement, improve her footwork, and move forward to knock off swinging volleys. Basically she needs to play like she did at the 2008 AO, where she came to net more often than anyone else. Her 2004 form is long gone, and she's such a different form, and in 2006 her serve was dynamite, and her groundstrokes were insane. Players like Wozniacki and Azarenka are different than those she's faced in the past-- power grinding and some junking around the court. Her footwork is so poor right now that Azarenka can use her own pace against her. I think she can definitely turn that around.
 
#55 · (Edited)
The Australian Open loss vs Maria in 2008 was probably one of the only good matches Henin played all year. Definitely far better than her other matches at the Australian, her matches at the warm up, her matches in Miami. Henin had trouble with Maria while she was dominating the game, she had more trouble with Maria than Serena or anyone else in fact. While the Azarenka-Sharapova and Sharpova-Henin matches are all totally different, that is still noteable, as I am sure Henin in her anywhere near prime days would easily beat even the current Azarenka on all surfaces. I cant think of even one thing Azarenka did better than a prime Henin. There are things Maria at her best can do better than Henin, and things Azarenka can do better than even a prime Maria, which gives either party a chance in the matchup, but 2004-2008 Maria would still be far too powerful, potent in shotmaking ability, and sheer hungry for Azarenka more often than not, even if she doesnt like Azarenka's game much.

That said I doubt we will see a prime Sharapova again. Some areas of her game, like the serve especialy, will never be all the way back, nor consistency off the ground. It is a question of how close she can get, and if she can compensate with some of the things she might have improved with age such as point construction to compensate.
 
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#60 ·
She kills her. Azarenka would have been a good match up for non-Crapova. Simple truth is you can't beat non-Crapova unless you hit through her and dominate her from the start, or you have athleticism of Venus/Clijsters to hang in rallies with her. PID has neither.
 
#63 ·
I don't really think it would be an easy score for Pova, when she was making all the semis during her "peak" she would often struggle with players like Golovin & Chakvetadze, Azarenka is clearly a more skilled players than both & has more weapons.
 
#72 ·
I think if Peak Sharapova is in action, Vika has no chance to beat her :lol:
 
#76 ·
Светльо;21341503 said:
Julian., you little кънт, why did you feel the need to bump this?
Because I finally is convinced with the answer of this question, which I wasn't sure before :lol:
 
#84 ·
she was in AO 2008 when it was clear that" no matter who is her opponent in the final or semifinal she will smash her from the court"

I feel something close to "it" in Stuttgart after Pova's match vs Stosur , but then started to worry about her physical form , because both second sets vs Kvitova and Azarenka were played by "not so fresh" Sharapova
 
#88 ·
Vika is more about consistency than a peak. Now she's been in 8 finals in her last 9 events.
Maria's peak is like a great player, which is where she probably was headed, until the injury in 2008
 
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