Last week in Toronto, at the Rogers Cup, Maria Sharapova was satisfied with her performance during her three-set loss to Anett Kontaveit. Sharing the reasons behind it, following her first-round win in Cincinnati over Alison Riske, the Russian said: “I don’t know if I was positive because I lost the match, but I felt like, you know, I went there to compete and play a match and, you know, it was a matter of a few points.
So certainly could have gone either way but didn’t go my way. Yeah, I mean, I think I, as I said on the court, I think I persevered through the second set. I think that was really important. Could have been in a very similar situation in the third.
I think she’s a really tough opponent deep in the third sets. And I think she’s had some of her best results this summer and she’s dangerous, especially in early rounds when you haven’t played a lot of matches and she has. Yeah, I was excited about it, and I took on the challenge and I found a way.” On how it felt not to compete from February to June, Sharapova concluded: “I missed it for many reasons.
I think just rehab on the shoulder was really tough, and I took that time to work on my strength on my legs. Actually spent a lot more time in the gym than I have throughout my career. But off the court, I think I was really involved in a lot of the things I do off the court, and I think within those four or five months, I, with my own hands, took the candy brand to another level, which was personally very gratifying for me.
I think when you’re involved with something and it’s your company, it’s very different when you’re involved every single day, like calls and meetings, and I was there in the design process Monday through Friday, like with the team and at the office. That was really fun.”
