Kim Zigfeld over at Russia Blog has written a rather scathing entry on Maria Sharapova entitled Beauty Before Tennis.
Much to disagree with, but it does make for interesting reading and everyone's entitled to his/her opinion as they say.
(Just for fun, you can play spot-the-factual-error. I volunteer where he/she claims that Serena Williams, not Venus, played in the 2005 Wimbledon final against Davenport).
Zigfeld's accusations include:
The usual "She's not really Russian anyway" complaint:
"As for Sharapova, first of all, it is questionable whether it is even appropriate to refer to her as “Russian.” She left the country as a small child, speaks English on the court, lives in Florida, spends virtually no time in Russia, has consistently refused to play for the national team and donates almost none of her vast fortune to the relief of Russian poverty."
She's just lucky:
"The next factor to be considered is luck.The only reason, for instance, that Sharapova reached the finals at Wimbledon in 2004 is that a sudden downpour interrupted her semi-finals match with Lindsey Davenport, not once but several times, while Davenport was in the midst of pulverizing Sharapova, who’d barely managed to win a single game. After the sequence of rain delays, the aging Davenport lost focus and physical edge while the youthful Sharapova rebounded."
