Opting to wear none of her two Nike Maria London Dresses, Maria Sharapova opened her Wimbledon 2019 campaign against France’s world No.88 Pauline Parmentier and even though the Russian looked to be en route to an albeit tough victory, her opponent recovered from being a set and a break down and eventually progressed into the second round as Sharapova retired while trailing 0-5 in the decider.
Despite serving at only 43% in the first set and having a -6 winners-to-unforced-errors differential compared to Parmentier’s 0, Sharapova edged out the first set.
In the 64-minute second set, Sharapova fought hard to earn a 5-2 lead and just as it looked like the Russian would victoriously finish the job, Parmentier won four games in a row to lead 6-5. Sharapova didn’t give up easily, she broke back and forced a tiebreak, in which the five-time Grand Slam champion quickly faced a 1-5 deficit, then recovered to 4-5, but eventually lost and the match was taken into a decider.
After the second set, Sharapova took a medical timeout and as the third set progressed she seemed to be in pain, wearing a taping on her left arm. As you know, this was only the third match Sharapova has played since January and some health problem must have resurfaced, as the former world No.1 lost five games in a row, eventually not even being able to finish and give her opponent a decent victory. The match was stopped at 4-6 7-6(4) 5-0.
When it comes to dresses, even though Sharapova had two options available for Wimbledon — the the Nike Fall Maria London Seamless Dress and the Nike Fall Maria London Knotted Dress, the tennis fashionista surprised us by launching a never-before-seen racerback design that features cutouts at back and below chest.
It’s painful to watch Sharapova matches nowadays, she is very stiff, she cant create winners as many as she did before. Her serve is unreliable. Her groundstrokes accuracy is just off.
As for her dress, its like a modified version of her this year’s French Open, without the knot.
Don’t you agree?
Ian, I find it to be very different. The Wimbledon one is not asymmetrical and includes those two cutouts that the French Open one doesn’t have.
“Sharapova didn’t give up easily.” Even more reason why she should not have retired at 5-0 with only one game to go (ridiculously suspect). Her retiring didn’t do her any good anyway because she still got the bagel, the “L” and the boot. Now folks are slaughtering her on Facebook, You Tube, etc. with their harsh, yet truthful comments. By the way, those passive TV commentators should be courageous and candid enough to mention Maria’s not been the same since her doping scandal. Folks can’t keep blaming her injuries for her demise when so many others have had just as many or even more injuries than she. Get some guts and call it what it is, because the truth is the light. Parmentier played great tennis, so give her credit for earning the win. Next…
The Real Deal, check Maria’s Twitter, I didn’t notice it when I watched the match, but Parmentier apparently celebrated that her opponent retired. She was heavily criticized for that: https://twitter.com/MariaSharapova/status/1146456079137693696