Woodbridge: Sharapova holds cards in Bouchard grudge match

Bouchard’s comments ten days ago about Maria Sharapova completely change the perception of today’s match in Madrid. It was one of the reasons why Bouchard was ill-advised to say that about an opponent, and particularly one like Maria.

The amount of pressure that Genie has put on herself makes it almost impossible for her to win. In fact, if she was to come close to beating Maria it would be one of the best matches of her career.

Sharapova is already highly motivated – she is one of the greatest competitors in the history of women’s tennis. After Bouchard’s comments, we know that she will definitely not be laying down in this match.

Within sport, athletes can put huge amounts of pressure on themselves. Bouchard will go onto the court tonight not just thinking about her strategy for beating Sharapova, but also about what people are saying about her and what the media will ask afterwards. Those are distractions, and you cannot play sport with distractions. You have to have a clear focus to let your abilities come through. Great athletes deflect those pressures, and all Genie has done is pile them on herself.

That said, there are certain personalities who are oblivious to that type of pressure. But there are others (and it is generally players who like to give opinions) who are deep thinkers, who will mull things over and become pre-occupied with their own thoughts.

If you could be a fly on the wall, it would be intriguing to follow the build-up of pressure ahead of the match. If they warm up on the same court, at the same time, there will be tension. Some players handle that with ease, but for others it grows and can become a problem. That then transfers to the locker room; will they say hello when they see each other, or will Sharapova eyeball her and then turn her head away? And that is all pre-match.

On the court Sharapova’s natural state of play is to be aggressive. We’ll probably see a lot more verbal ‘C’mons’ and positive body language from her tonight. And I think she will be playing free, because she is the one who has been verbally attacked.

I don’t expect that it will be a very good tennis match, but it will be a great thesis on sports psychology.