Oz Open: Sharapova Sweeps Bouchard in Twirl-Free Showdown

Published on 27-Jan-2015 by J Square Humboldt

Tennis    Tennis Daily Update

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Oz Open: Sharapova Sweeps Bouchard in Twirl-Free Showdown

Let's get this out of the way from the start:

If anyone truly wanted to get superficial sexism out of tennis once and for all, the sport's poobahs would just demand that women wear the same baggy outfits as men.

But they don't. There's too much money in flashy outfits.

And while they were on display in full force at center court in Melbourne, glamor took a back seat to Maria Sharapova's methodical destruction of latent protegé Eugenie Bouchard. It's that way because the two aren't close, but it's obvious that their games are similar, and even more obvious that the young grasshopper has much to learn:

Getting broken in the match's first game was a killer, and Bouchard acknowledged it set the tone for the entire 78 minutes:

I felt under pressure the whole time, a bit on my back foot,” said Bouchard. “That’s not how I want to play. I feel like I didn’t start well, and it kind of all went downhill from there.

Sounds like Bouchard should pick up the pace in hiring a new coach.

And it's a lock she won't be asking for leads from Neanderthal holdover Ian Cohen. He's probably thick enough to think she was being serious.