Sharapova Blows Match, Settles for Ice Cream

Goodbye Sasha Vujačić and hello Mr. Softee.

 

“I'm looking forward to checking out the ice cream truck that's around the corner from my hotel,” she said. “It's been haunting me. 
 

“I'm telling the driver, like, Get out of here.  I can't look at you anymore.  So I'll have time for that.”
 

Ice cream wasn’t on her mind when she played No. 1 seed Victoria Azarenka today dropping a classic 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 and was broken on the last game of the match to allow the No. 1 seed the privilege of facing Serena Williams. 
 

She played her heart out, and seemed pretty upset at the end. 
 

“It's frustrating, but it's the game of tennis,” she said. “A lot of swings in the match today. You know, certainly had the lead and the advantage. She picked up her game. In the third I think a lot of it had to do with the returns. I didn't do much on her service games. You know, she was winning them pretty easy. 
 

“On mine they were quite long and just making too many errors not putting any pressure on her.”
 

Oh, those errors; that’s what cost her. To her it was the answer to ”Life, the Universe and Everything” with 42 forced errors and 42 unforced errors in the game compared to 33 and 19, respectively for Azarenka.
 

Simply put, Sharapova lost a match she should have easily won.
 

“In the third I wasn't doing anything with it,” she said.  “I think I was making one or two errors and not even making her play, which is, you know, not good.
 

“I thought I was doing a much better job of that in the first and the second, and I think that put a lot of pressure on her service games.”
 

There wasn’t any rain today to save her. Instead she had to act like her own human rain delay, playing at a snail’s pace between serves. She was almost like former New York Met and Chicago Cub Steve Trachsel out there the time she took between serves.
 

Sure it was hot, but the 2-hour, 42-minute match could have been much shorter, especially looking at the final score.
 

But Azarenka deserved it. Even after Sharapova came out to a quick start, the Belarusian beauty took advantage of her opponent’s mistakes and made her pay for each and every one of them. That’s what champions do.
 

Azarenka now has to prove she can do this tomorrow against Williams, who is going to be a tough, tough matchup for up and coming star.
 

“If you look at our record it says it all,” Azarenka, who has a 1-9 head-to-head against Williams in her career.  “ I mean, I haven't won in any last meetings, so I definitely need to find something to surprise her tomorrow, because she's in a great form, you know, feeling really confident right now.
 

“You know, she has everything on her side.”
 

But that’s a story for tomorrow night. Right now, Azarenka is celebrating her win today.
 

And Sharapova can just look back at her comeback year where she became a force again on the tour, winning the French Open, going to the finals in Melbourne and semis here in Flushing Meadows.
 

“I look back in the beginning of the season and I remember going to Australia early and not really sure I was going to play that warmup tournament.  My ankle was still not feeling great,” she said.
 

“So if anyone had told me when I had that uncertainty going into the Australian Open that I would have this type of season and it's still not over; we still have a few more events to play. I would have been pretty happy.”
 

And with that she can visit Mr. Softee and get the vanilla cone with rainbow sprinkles to celebrate.