Sharapova talks retirement in Hamptons mag
The former No. 1 admits to having retirement thoughts, before her
"The easy way out was never in the cards!"
Maria Sharapova opens up in a new cover feature with Hamptons magazine – about her suspension due to meldonium, her original desire to retire after the 2016 Olympics in Rio and more.
Sharapova sidesteps the question of coming back to a Serena-less WTA Tour, but she also makes a great point about the grueling nature of week-in, week-out tennis tournaments:
"It takes a lot to get that feeling back of the repetitiveness, the match play, of playing five matches in seven days. The physicality of it is very intense, and that’s one of the things a lot of people overlook, the amount of physical strain the body goes through in a week. To be able to do it week in, week out is an adjustment for someone who hasn’t played for a while. So that’s where my mind and my focus is, rather than who I’m going to be playing against."
Sharapova speaks candidly of her feelings in the face of suspension and losing the battle in the court of public opinion after her 15-month removal from tour play due to testing positive for meldonium (known to her as mildronate).
"Everything I worked for since I was 4 years old, that whole crazy struggle, was suddenly cast in a new, terrible, unfair light," she writes in her new autobiography, Unstoppable, set to release next month. "What followed were days of despair."
It's difficult to feel bad for Sharapova's so-called plight. In truth, she and her team were sloppy at best in ignoring the updated banned-substances list for 2016. Still, she has supporters in lofty places and in the media as she seeks to return to sanctioned play, after a few false starts due to injury.
"It's perfectly reasonable for the USTA to want to include Sharapova at the expense of another long-shot," Tom Perrotta writes for The Weekly Standard.
Sharapova has grown up a lot in the past two years. She has turned 30, relished in that "normal" birthday celebration in which friends flew in from around the world to fete her. (Okay, so it was as "normal" as such a milestone could be for her.)
What remains to be seen is whether she can truly grow into her game again and come out on top after two weeks' time in New York–or anywhere–moving forward.
Follow Jon on Twitter @jonscott9.