Loss of Mental Tennis and Physical Poise Cost Sharapova The Australian Open Wikimedia Commons by Machocarioca (crop), Andrew Huse (original) Wikimedia Commons by Machocarioca (crop), Andrew Huse (original)

As you all probably know by now, Maria Sharapova lost the Australian Open, and of course there are probably many opinions as to how that occured. But I think that in the final analysis it all boils down to the loss of mental tennis and physical poise cost Sharapova the Australian Open. After all if you can’t stand up mentally to an opponent’s game, your game just naturally falls apart; you can mount even less of a defense then you could if your mental game was intact.

Geoff MacDonald writing in the New York Times Tennis Blog gave his thoughts about the contest in a way I never thought of previously.

Loss of Mental Tennis and Physical Poise Cost Sharapova The Australian Open

Victoria Azarenka thoroughly outplayed Maria Sharapova in Saturday’s Australian Open final. The spirited Azarkena had superior hands, better footwork and near-perfect shot selection as she withstood Sharapova’s blistering pace with astonishing ease. How did Azarenka handle Sharapova’s big game? And why did Sharapova struggle when Azarenka attacked?

The answer lies in the different way each player receives the ball on contact. Azarenka hits with her hands and wrists supple and pliant; Sharapova hits with a stiffer point of contact. Azarenka’s flexible hands allow her to accelerate her racket at the approaching ball and create topspin. Sharapova, by contrast, hits a flatter ball that has less margin for error. When she can dictate to a lesser opponent, the Sharapova blitzkrieg is a sight to behold, but she struggles when faced with an opponent who can handle her power. Petra Kvitova in the Wimbledon final and Azarenka in the Australian final exposed the chief problem of Sharapova’s game: she lacks the tactical flexibility to adapt when she is losing.

The difference in their approaches to hitting a tennis ball was described by Bill Tilden in the first paragraph of his timeless classic, “Match Play and the Spin of the Ball.” Tilden begins the chapter with a subtitle, “The ball as a separate entity.”

He writes: “Most tennis players look upon the ball that is used as merely something to hit. It is not an individual, separate factor in their play, like their opponent. They use it as a means to an end. Let me suggest the ball for a moment as an individual. It is a third party in the match. Will this third party be on your side or against you? It is up to you.”

Azarenka broke down Sharapova’s game with her superior reception of the ball, allowing her to apply enough topspin to control it while maintaining pace and length. Sharapova seems to see the ball as an object to hit forcefully. Azarenka’s more resilient, creative approach to hitting the ball allows her more tactical options and gives her the ability to break down Sharapova’s one-dimensional power game.

Azarenka did hit 14 winners, but she won so easily by forcing errors from Sharapova. Again, Azarenka’s use of spin enabled her to hold her ground on the baseline and swing with fast racket head speed as she redirected Sharapova’s pace with enough topspin to control the ball. This overwhelmed Sharapova, as she rarely faces an opponent who can go from neutral to offense with one shot. She looked crestfallen as the errors mounted and a Grand Slam victory slipped way. Azarenka had broken down Sharapova’s powerful game.

In Tilden’s book, that is a player’s main aim in a match.

“I may sound unsporting when I claim that the primary object of tennis is to break up your opponent’s game,” he writes, “but it is my honest belief that no player is defeated until his game is crushed, or at least weakened. Nothing so upsets a player’s mental and physical poise as to be continually led into error.”

“It is with a view not only to your own stroke but to the effect on your opponent,” he continues, “that leads me to say, ‘Never make any stroke without imparting a conscious, deliberate and intentional spin to the ball.’ ”

Being able to have enough presence of mind to control the ball the way Bill Tilden describes in his book requires a lot of mental concentration. For some reason, loss of mental tennis and physical poise cost Sharapova the Australian Open. She lost control of the game. For the rest of the blog post click here. But if you want to learn techniques for maintaining mental control of your game, click here.