Sprem gets Davenport rematch

Myskina ponders early retirement but wants No. 1 first
Sharapova’s back: ‘I’m always hungry to win’

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

Myskina looking for number one.

FROM THE ACURA CLASSIC IN CARLSBAD, CALIF. – Being in Moscow with friends and family for the past two weeks has given Roland Garros champion Anastasia Myskina a new perspective – she wants to be home more.

The third-ranked Russian has grown weary of being a world traveler and sees herself retiring in four years. She’s downright homesick.

"It will be too much by then," the 23-year-old said. "I don’t want to play all my life. I may [retire] even earlier. Life goes on. I want to study design and do other stuff. I don’t want to play tennis all my life. I know it will finish sooner or later. You have to find something else for yourself."

Even though Myskina would rather be kicking back with her boyfriend at home, she says that she’ll put her game face on the rest of the summer. She knows she has a terrific shot at the Olympic gold, the US Open and the year-end number one, given that the Belgians are till on the sidelines, the Williamses are struggling and Lindsay Davenport is unlikely to grind thorough the fall Euro swing.

"I'll do my best the next couple of years. I don’t want to leave just as a top 10 player. I really want to be No. 1," Myskina said.

The good-natured brunette says that the Davenport is the player to watch on tour right now and seemed to imply that Wimby champ Maria Sharapova has an uphill climb in proving herself on hard courts. "Lindsay’s number one in the race and she’s the hardest to beat now," Myskina said. "Wimbledon is a great surface for Maria because she plays really fast. It’s going to be tough, but if she stays focused like she did at Wimbledon, she’s going to be great."

One thing is for sure: Myskina’s coach, the ambitious Jens Erlach, won’t let her rest on her laurels. He knows she has enough game to make a huge impression on US cement.
"That what he keeps telling me and that’s what I want to do," said Myskina, who will face Barbara Schett on Tuesday. "I have goals and until I reach them, I'm not going to quit. Right now I have to believe in myself. If I am physically and mentally strong, I think I can do really good at the US Open."

Sharapova’s summer of confirmation

Susan Mullane/ Camerawork USA

Maria says she has staying power.

Maria Sharapova will return to regular tour play on Tuesday and face qualifier Lilia Osterloh at the Acura. Sharapova is a very difficult quarter. She could meet Venus Williams in the third round (if Williams doesn’t pull out with a wrist injury) and Myskina, whom she has never beaten, in the quarters.

"It will be a challenge and I like challenges,’ Sharapova said. "It’s my first tournament since Wimbledon and everyone is expecting me to do well. But I didn’t have any expectations going into Wimbledon and it worked out well. I need to keep winning. I knew what it took to win Wimbledon and I will try to achieve a lot more."

The cameras are still mobbing Sharapova. How she will deal with the attention over the summer will largely determine whether she can seriously compete for the US Open title. She’s now a marked 17-year-old who’s more vulnerable on hard courts than she is on grass. She’s no longer an unknown, but could care less. "I know the players better as well," she said. "I’m sure a lot more people want to beat me now, but to me, it doesn’t make a difference.

Whether Sharapova has the physical staying power to impose her relentless game on the elite payers is a question only she and her trainers can answer. But mentally, she’s already there.

"I have confidence I can compete with top players," she said. "But if I go out and it’s not my day there’s not much I can do. Hopefully, it will be my day. For the two weeks at Wimbledon, all the days were my days.…I’m always hungry to win. Now I know I can do it and if you have the confidence and the will, you can."

Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport are the only top players who won’t be at the Olympics. Sharapova didn’t make the Russian team due to her lower ranking at the time. The Russian is playing this week and will have three weeks off before New Haven, which should put her in prime condition for a run in NY.

"It’s important to make sure my body holds up leading up to the US Open," she said. "I need to get some matches in, but the training will be tough and will build me up going into the US Open."
This is without question the deepest draw that the Acura has had in the past decade. How are these for round two match-ups: Serena v. Jankovic; Venus v. Dulko, Mauresmo v. Molik and Kuznetsova v. Hantuchova. But the best one of all is the revenge match between Croatian teenager Karolina Sprem and Lindsay Davenport. Davenport knocked the 20th-ranked Sprem out of the Wimbledon quarter-finals 6-2, 6-2.

"There was nothing I could do that day," said Sprem, who moved ahead with a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Spain’s’ Marta Marrero. "She was just too good for me. But I’m not scared because I have nothing to lose."

Of note: Svetlana Kuznetsova says that had she grabbed her match point against Myskina in the fourth round of Roland Garros, she could have gone on to twin the title.