UNITED KINGDOM: TENNIS - Maria Sharapova and Sania Mirza play in Birmingham as they prepare for the Wimbledon tournament

Record ID: 394307

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: TENNIS - Maria Sharapova and Sania Mirza play in Birmingham as they prepare for the Wimbledon tournament
  • Date: 13th June 2007
  • Summary: THREE RUSSIAN SOUNDBITES EDITED TOGETHER (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) MARIA SHARAPOVA SAYS: "I'm very glad to train and play on grass again. When I played at Roland Garros I was getting ready for this tournament, I was getting ready for Wimbledon physically. I'm feeling well and I'm very happy to be here." (SOUNDBITE) (Russian) MARIA SHARAPOVA SAYS: "It's hard to switch from clay
  • Embargoed: 28th June 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA2OUO3XL6HEHDGSMETIPRXU6MP
  • Story Text: World number two women's player Maria Sharapova is preparing for the 2007 Wimbledon championships by playing on grass at the DFS Classic championships in Birmingham.
    The Russian, who is recovering from a shoulder injury, was eliminated in the semi-finals of last year's Wimbledon tournament. A regular at the DFS championships, Sharapova won the tournament in 2004 and 2005 but was beaten in the semi-finals by Jamea Jackson last year.
    Sharapova said she was pleased to be returning to Birmingham and to playing on grass.
    "I look forward to the beginning of the grass season from the beginning of the year," she said after practising on Monday (June 11).
    "I took the French Open as the preparation for the grass season because I was injured and out for very long. So, you know, I feel I'm prepared and gotten a lot of matches and looking forward to it."
    Sharapova has been suffering from a long-standing shoulder injury and went out of the French Open, at Roland Garros, last week at the hands of Ana Ivanovic of Serbia at the semi-final stage.
    The Russian saw the French Open as part of her recovery programme and hopes to be fit for Wimbledon.
    "You know I definitely think it is getting better by the week. So, you know, it is good for it to be healthy and not have it in your mind so that will be one important factor here," she said.
    Sharapova plays her first match at Birmingham against Lilia Osterloh of USA on Wednesday (June 13).
    Another player using the DFS Classic to recover from injury is Sania Mirza of India. The unseeded Mirza advanced to the second round on Monday (June 11) by beating Maria Elena Camrin of Italy 6-3 6-3. She goes on to play number eight seed Mara Santangelo, also of Italy.
    Mirza has been suffering from a knee injury but believes she has now recovered.
    She arrived early from Roland Garros to make the change from clay court to grass surface.
    "This is the toughest transition everyone has to make because it's from coming the slowest surface to the fastest surface. So you know I got here early, I got here on Wednesday, so we have been practising a few days, a couple of days before everyone got in, a lot of the girls got in. And obviously on the grass court you have to know how you are serving because you really have to concentrate on the way you are serving because that's the most important part on a grass court because whoever holds or whoever breaks most of the time usually wins the match," the Indian player said.
    Mirza's success, notably in reaching the third round of the 2005 Australian Open, has made her a sports star in India and a role model for young Indian girls.
    "Today I am here and I think Indian girls who are six, seven, eight years old today who are picking up a tennis racquet believe that they can be a professional athlete and they can be a professional tennis player, they don't have to be a doctor or lawyer or get married, you know," Mirza said.
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