Sharapova's ugly side gets NYT coverage

I watched this match on TV, and I think it would have been great to be there - plus the stadium looked so empty! I would have definitely been booing right along with everyone else.

And yes, I am a pretty big Tatiana Golovin fan - I watched her on court while I was at the NASDAQ, mostly in doubles, and I hope she can pick up her game and fitness in the near future.

But Thursday against Tatiana Golovin — a Frenchwoman ranked 20 places below her in the world standings — the fourth-ranked Sharapova won the first set, 6-3. She then squandered a 5-1 lead and four match points at 5-3 in the second set, at which point she took a bathroom break.

It was a curious time for nature to call, what with the 18-year-old Golovin putting together points as if she were a master craftsman and not a player who is Sharapova's peer in age only. The crowd at Crandon Park, sensing that Sharapova was stooping to gamesmanship, booed as she left the court, and again as she returned.

The fans had reason to be suspicious. In her second-round match against Li Na of China, Sharapova took a bathroom break in the second set after Li jumped to a 4-1 lead. Sharapova returned and reeled off five consecutive games to dispatch Li, 6-2, 6-4.

After Golovin won the second set in a tie breaker, Sharapova again repaired to the restroom. If her plan was to rattle Golovin, it did not work. The two dueled on nearly equal terms in the third and decisive set of their semifinal. Sharapova was serving at deuce, up by 4-3, when Golovin rolled her left ankle while running down one of Sharapova's laser strokes. Golovin whiffed on the shot, then crumpled to the court.

As a trainer attended to Golovin, who was writhing in pain and wiping away tears, Sharapova practiced her serving motion and hit a ball against the padded wall near the baseline. A hush fell over the crowd, which could sense what seemed to escape Sharapova, that Golovin was badly hurt.

Golovin's ankle was already starting to swell as the trainer taped it. She tried to continue, but retired after playing only one more point, with Sharapova leading, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 4-3, ad in. Golovin spent the night in a local hospital and had a magnetic resonance imaging test Friday; it revealed that she had torn ligaments. She will probably be sidelined for a month.

Sharapova was asked afterward why she did not leave her side of the net to check on Golovin's condition, as is customarily done in tennis when an opponent is injured.

"Well, I did not know what happened until the ankle was being taped," she said.

She added: "I honestly thought it was cramps. That's why I was kind of getting ready, trying to get myself going, because I know after a three- or four-minute layoff, you can get down and very sloppy. I wanted to make sure that didn't happen."

Sharapova also had an explanation for her trips to the bathroom. "Well, I had to go to the bathroom from the beginning of the set, and that was the longest game," she said. "I really had to go."

After the second set, she had to change into a dry top, she said, "which is absolutely normal."

So much for Nike's Dri-Fit technology on that shirt.