Russians rocking and rusty in Russia

Mal Taam/MALTphoto Maria Sharapova is on the dark side of dealing with her shoulder, her lack of confidence and a sub-par 2007.

If you look at her three major losses at the Slams to elite players (Serena, Ana Ivanovic and Venus), you'll see just how much trouble she has getting her foes' first serves back in play. She wasn't very good returning their second serves, either. It's her failure to adjust her positions while returning, and not to learn what her opponent's tendencies are that really hurts her. She's simply not getting enough decent balls back in play, which both Williams sisters and Justine Henin are able to do. Plus, because she's not that fast, she cannot scrape her way back into enough points a la the three aforementioned, the two Serbians and Kuznetsova. If you can get Sharapova running hard from the first ball and don't push your ground strokes, you stand a good chance of winning points.

I haven't mentioned the Agnieszka Radwanska loss at the US Open because little mattered there other than Sharapova not keeping a ball in play with any stroke. But that match was a clear indication that's it not just serving woes that ail her, it's a serious lack of confidence in her ground game. She needs a few weeks of uninterrupted play to get her groove back and needs to learn to contend with the pain in her shoulder. What was interesting in Drucker's piece for ESPN was Sharapova's former coach, Robert Lansdorp, claimed that he was the person responsible for telling Yuri to have her abbreviate her service motion post Wimbledon, when it was actually Sharapova's touring coach, Michael Joyce (a Lansdorp student himself), who made the call.

Here's an unpublished comment by Stubbs that she made when I was talking to her for a column that I wrote for foxsports.com last week. I asked what might occur if Sharapova shoulder never really healed and if she had to develop other parts of her game (like a standard volley) to compensate for the loss of the weapon. "That would be very interesting. She doesn't move well. Wow. That's going to be tough." Here's the link for the fox piece: http://msn.foxsports.com/tennis/story/7296390

BTW: Drucker and I discussed Sharapova on a taping of "Crosscourt" yesterday from the misty hills of Berkeley, Calif. (What happened to Indian summer this year?) The show will appears on Tennisone.com sometime prior to the year-end championships in Madrid.

Cynthia Lum/WireImage.com Andy Murray lets on that gambling is a known commodity in some tennis circles.

FISH, NADAL CRITICIZE MURRAY
I spoke with Mardy Fish from Vienna on Wednesday for a piece I did on the 25-year-old and the rest of the US men for foxsports.com, which should appear on your screens any moment now. I asked him about his thoughts on the gambling scandal and he went right at young Andy Murray, who is in a lot of hot water after telling BBC radio, "Yeah, I speak to a lot of guys, especially the experienced ones that have been around a long time and, you know, they obviously know that it happens, a lot of guys have been approached about it. I've seen some articles saying guys even at Wimbledon and stuff are doing it. So yeah, everybody knows that it goes on but it's difficult obviously with some sports, you know, boxing, snooker, tennis, squash, whatever. It's really difficult to prove someone's not trying and I don't know how you stop it, but it's obviously not good for the sport."

Then Murray was taken to task by Rafael Nadal, who said, "I doubt Murray knows more than anyone else. He's gone overboard and there are no fixed games," he said.

Then remarkably, he was smacked by Davydenko, who himself is under investigation for match fixing.

"If Murray says that he knows, that means that he gambles himself," Davydenko said. "Because people who start talking out loud have their fears disappear. And they know that if they speak out loud, it means that they are free, they have not done it. Since Murray was describing in detail how it goes on, it means he went deep into it, as if he was never involved, but he knows how it works in detail. It was folly of him to say this."

A day later, Murray explained his take, "The comments that I made with regards to betting in tennis have been taken out of context and I would like to clarify them," Murray said. "When I said 'Everyone knows that it's going on,' I meant that everyone has probably heard that three or four players have spoken out about being offered money to lose matches - which they refuse. I am glad that the tennis governing bodies are coming together to set up an anti-corruption unit to address this and I stand fully behind this effort."

Here's what Fish told me, "I read Murray's quotes – that guys are getting approached or are tanking – and I've never thought that one time. You hear rumors of guys on tour in the past who are at tournaments, not playing in the tournament, but betting just because they want to watch a match, but not knowing whether someone will tank or going up to one of the players and saying, 'I'm going to give you this if you lose.' I've never seen that. You used to hear about it, but that's it. I've never been approached, I never heard of anyone who has been approached. You hate to see when someone like Murray says that. It's bad for the sport. I don't see it that way. I had a conversation with Leander Paes the other day and asked him if he ever heard it, and he said, 'I don't know where he gets it.' It's frustrating to see quotes like that. I think Andy is great kid but it doesn't make sense."

Martina Hingis ended her season, saying her sore hip is still bothering her. I'm fairly sure she'll return next year, but I'm not convinced she'll play a full season because she told me at least three times this year that if she can't compete at the top level, she's gone - again. If she not 100 percent fit, she has no chance of another Top-10 stint. Even at 100 percent, she might not get back there.

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