SHARAPOVA'S LESSONS

SHARAPOVA’S  LESSONS…
How could be translated into English this very popular Spanish saying: La suerte de la fea la bonita la desea?

Well, a perfect example of this common situation could be the case of Maria Sharapova: one of the most spoiled girl in the tennis world (by federations, sponsors, media-market, commercial branches, international organizations, commentators… you name it), but – at the same time - one of the most hated tennis player in the history of the white-game.These two premises could be the ellipsis of the ‘Sharapova’s Tragedy’. It is a tragedy because after her ‘set-down’ are two or more truths in contradiction. It’s a tragedy because Maria Sharapova is a Russian woman who, in order to achieve all the things she has achieved, had to learn quickly not only how to play tennis but also - and maybe most important -, how to think and to act as a man. Because the sport business is a “macho man-world”, dominated by powerful and obscure forces who make the players look like a kind of ‘gladiators’. Who can deny these facts after all the big scandals within the sport’s world?      If Sharapova was able to be the best-tennis-player and also a successful business ‘tennis-player-star’ was not only because she was the most beautiful one, it was because she decided to play the game as a best and to win her matches as a man. She knew that to do so she had to pay a price: to be alone, meanwhile all kind of people were going and coming around her …like in the Lena’s song… asking for something! A truth that many successful people knows very well, but…
…A big price merely a few are able to pay. A quick look around give us good examples. Perhaps the most obvious ones would be the cases of Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki - as good tennis-players as beauty-queens-, which couldn’t cope with the pressure to be both: the best players and the media-stars. The difference between them is that Ivanovic at least won one Grand Slam, meanwhile the spoiled Wozniacki was #1 for almost one year without win any big tournament.

Contradicted truths which have helped to make Sharapova the most hated player, but also good start-points that let us free to go further and to admire her. You really need intelligence, character and personality to be able to leave your coach-mother and then your coach-father in order to get your game-set and match-points. You also need resilience to close all the possibilities to be and to get friends meanwhile the world is at your feet and everyone wants to be your ‘best friend’. Because, even if the most of them are not capable to admitted, to get enemies is a big part of the game and not the opposite. If Serena Williams of America today is the best friend of Caroline Wozniacki is not because Serena is the most loving-nice girl in the park or because Caroline is kindlier and nicer than her; it’s just because the beauty and the talent of Caroline is not and will not be a real stone in the sneakers of Serena.Who - in any case - does deserve more respect: the person who felt down and is able to admitted in front of all the cameras or all the organizations, sponsors, federations, big branches, drugs-control-posts and so, who let a girl goes on-and-on pushing her to the limit - even if the limit was the sky -, and then let her falling down alone? We all are not more than human beings, and nobody can say that never makes a mistake or never will be? What a shame that organizations that you suppose exist to help people and make the world a better place are magnanimous at their discretion. What is the difference between all of these big organizations and the North Korea’s dictator who sentenced the American student Otto Warmbier only because he tried to steal a poster of Kim Jong-un? No, Sharapova is not another Lance Armstrong who was cheating for years and - in order to do it well - was able to created a kind of ‘doping-corporation’, meanwhile all the organizations in charge were looking through their fingers letting him free not only to corrupt others but also to win 10 times the Tour-de-France. Only to let behind FIFA’s corruption scandals.

As a fan of the tennis I feel shame for all the powerful organizations and people after the players, and for the ‘Game-Set and Mats’, even for Mats Wilander: the sacred cow. No, it was not Maria the one who felt down, are you all together the ones who let the sport came down. Maria Sharapova has given to all of you her best years, her health, her life and now… because she is 28 years old and doesn’t have to much fresh blood to give to you, and because she is Russian and at the moment the political relationships with Russia are in cold-crisis, and because is better to take advantage to the situation now than later… you let her alone trying to make us to believe that “she is a big ‘cheater’ on the tour”.Like in the big Greek tragedies  - because they were made to let you confront yourself with your fate -, Sharapova will come out of her own tragedy richer and - we hope- happier. Within the same grandeur and elegance impress on her own branch. So hard it was her Set-Down so great it will be her Set-Up!
“Dare now to be tragic men, for ye shall be redeemed!”.  Nietzsche

Author: C.S Ariza-Olarte