Originally Posted by
Moryachka Here's my attempt. Translations that I'm either not sure of, or which are not direct, are bracketed. By the way, why do you need an article about Maria Sharapova translated? I don't follow tennis at all, but I imagine that there would be plenty of articles in English news already. Just curious.
TENNIS
Maria Sharapova: “I WILL BE FIRST RACKET, IF IT IS FATED”
Special correspondent “SE” met with Maria Sharapova at the match of the commercial league Word Team Tennis in the California resort town of Newport-Beach.
Aleksey TOLKACHEV
From Newport-Beach
“Fans and the press have long been occupied by this question: when will you become first racket in the world, will you become it at all and what are you doing for [i.e. to achieve] this. And how much does this thought occupy you yourself?”
“You know, between the first and second place there is a very thin border. If I were to win the match against Patty Schneider (in May in Rome, Prim AT), then I would be number one. And even now the difference between Davenport and I is small, I don’t know exactly how big it is.”
“And you probably have a chance to pass her..”
“That’s the whole thing. One week you’re a thousand points behind first racket, another – maybe you won a round, maybe she left a round, and you can become first. It seems to me that there will always be a chance. So this hasn’t happened for me so far, so I didn’t even win Wimbledon, where I needed to have guarded more goals, but nothing ever happens how you want it to all the time. Of course, it would be great to be first [racket], and I know that if I will work on the court, that it will all come.”
“Everything has its own time?”
“Yes. And if not – everything that you do [hasn’t been a waste]. Number two is also not bad, I’m telling you!”
“In other words, if you don’t become first racket, it still won’t be the end of the world?”
“It means that that’s how its meant to be.”
“I must admit, you’ve surprised me. But, surely, it’s good that you look at it so philosophically. Tell me, are there any key tournaments, at which, in your [calculations], your dream could come true?”
“Now I’m preparing for the US Open. For two or three weeks already I haven’t been playing tennis, I’m only training (we talked with Sharapova before her only match in the World Team Tennis – Prim, A.T.). But before that for half a month I was on the road. Morale-wise and physically I was so so tired that only one thing remained [which I wanted] – to go home and rest. And I did just that. This year seven months have gone by already, but things have been so that I haven’t found four good weeks yet to train as I need to. Without tournaments.
When you’re playing in tournaments and you make it to the quarter-final, half-final, final, then there is already no time at the end of the week for yourself, you can’t physically renew. But now imagine that this is continuing for two and a half months. Last year I lost to Roland Garros in the third or fourth round, but [this year], for example, reached the half-final in Rome. This takes sapps even more energy, and less time remains to train and be physically prepared. For me this is a new feeling. It seems to me that this year I’ve already played a whole lot!
So now I’m taking a break from appearing in the WTA Tour – four weeks. I’ve rested and begun to work out, I’ve been running constantly to keep up my form, and now it’s important for me to work entirely without tournaments.”
The entire interview with Maria Sharapova will be on Monday