With an uncertain WTA, Sharapova may be back at just the right time 莎娃或许在对的时间回归 by: Steve Tignor | April 27, 2017 http://bit.ly/2ppEF5x The ramrod-straight strut into the arena. The clenched fist as she waited to return serve. The clean ground-stroke winners to the corners. The high-pitched grunt that accompanied each swing. The pre-serve stare down. The unrelenting focus punctuated by the wild double faults. Maria Sharapova has brought them all back, perfectly intact, to Stuttgart this week. This is the first time we’ve seen Sharapova on a tennis court in 15 months, and the first time we’ve seen her play as a 30-year-old. But in her two victories on Wednesday and Thursday, she could have been 25, or 20 or 15. Her playing style, and her rigid adherence to her rituals between points, has never altered in her decade and a half on tour. As she has shown again this week, the wisdom of that approach is apparent in her results. 在十五个月後第一次看到莎娃在场上打球，她已30岁。 Sharapova has hit a rusty ground stroke or two in Stuttgart, and she has looked half a step slower than normal on the red clay. But that hasn’t kept her from beating two quality players, Roberta Vinci and Ekaterina Makarova, in straight sets to reach the quarterfinals. Judging by her joyous post-match reactions, Sharapova hasn’t lost any of her competitive drive or desire. Did anyone think she would? 莎娃击败Vinci 和 Makarova， 两种不同类型的选手。 看赛後表现， 莎娃并未失去任何竞争欲望。 有谁觉得她会？ Sharapova is happy to be back in the tennis world again, but is the tennis world happy to have her? She has won Stuttgart three times, but the crowd’s reaction to her return on Wednesday was lukewarm. The response from her fellow players has been about 50 degrees cooler. The consensus among those asked is that Sharapova shouldn’t be helped into main draws at big events with wild cards. Eugenie Bouchard, who once followed in Sharapova’s career footsteps, has gone so far as to say she shouldn’t be allowed to play at all. 莎娃很高兴回归打球， 但大家对她回来这件事很开心吗？ 她是三届的冠军， 但观众不冷不热。其他选手反应并不热烈。 一致的意见是她不该藉由外卡帮助进入大赛事的会内赛。 曾经跟随莎娃脚步的Bouchard，说莎娃不该再打职业赛。 If you were one of her competitors, you probably wouldn’t want to see her get a leg up after being suspended, either. In a sport where bans can theoretically last as long as four years, you might even believe that Sharapova got off lightly. 如果你作为她的对手， 你可能也不想再看到她。 禁赛令理论上最长可达四年， 你甚至觉得对莎娃轻判。 After her positive test at last year’s Australian Open, Sharapova said that she had been taking meldonium, a substance that was banned in January 2016, for medical reasons for many years. Maybe that’s true; from what I’ve heard this week, Sharapova hasn’t directly answered questions about what she’s doing for those same medical conditions now. It’s also possible that she was taking the drug because she believed it enhanced her performance on court, and was still taking it for that reason in January 2016, after it became illegal. If so, her suspension could have been longer. 2016澳网验出米屈阳性， 莎娃说服用米屈多年。 或许那是真的； 就这星期我听到的， 莎娃并未正面回答在同样情况下如何用药。 也许她用药是为了加强表现， 在2016一月份列为禁药仍服用。 如真的为了加强表现而继续服用， 禁赛令应该更长。 As it is, Sharapova was banned for negligence. The responsibility for knowing what substances are banned from one year to the next falls on her and her team. I thought 18 months was appropriate, but missing 15–more than a season —is still a substantial punishment for a first-time offender who is turning 30. I don’t fault the women who have criticized Sharapova, and I don’t think any rules should be broken or bent to get her into tournaments, but when it comes to the wild-card question, I agree with the assessment of another of her peers, Venus Williams. 莎娃被禁赛是因为疏忽。 那是她和她团队的责任（厘清哪些明年列为禁药）。 我认为18个月是合理的， 但15个月（多过一赛季）， 对於即将年满三十的初犯者， 有达到惩罚。 我并不怪那些批评莎娃的女选手， 也不认为规则是为她改变或破坏， 但关於外卡问题，我认同大威的看法。 “I think the bodies have made their decision, and she has the opportunity to come back and continue her career,” Venus said of Sharapova in March. “ ...If people want to give her wild cards, I guess that’s the tournaments’ decision as they weigh other wild cards.” “It will be nice to have her back in the game.” 「我认为赛会做出他们的决定， 她有机会回来继续她的职业生涯。 如果他们想要给她外卡， 我猜那是赛会做出与其他外卡发放一样的抉择。」 「有她回来是好的。」 The ambivalent reaction to Sharapova’s return isn’t a surprise. While she has always been a star, and a favorite of sponsors and social media, this ice-cold competitor has never been a darling of the sport’s most devoted fans. She also admits that she doesn’t go out of her way to make friends on tour, a fact that isn’t making her return any smoother. 对於莎娃回归的反应并不令人感到意外。 她是明星、赞助商及社交软体的最爱， 但非大多网球迷们会喜欢。 她承认她不在巡回赛中跟其他人做朋友， 这让她的回归不是很顺利。 The players deserve to have their say, but tournaments and their directors are also part of the game, and the industry. If they want another famous name on the marquee, they have that right. Sharapova has done her time, and as a five-time major champion and former No. 1, she’s earned her status. 选手们都有话要说， 但是赛事和主办决策者也是比赛的一环。 如果他们要一个明星，他们有权这麽做。 莎娃是五届大满贯得主和前世界第一， 她是明星当然是他们所选。 In 2016, Sharapova wasn’t happy with the length of her ban; now she might feel as if it ended at exactly the right moment. Last week Serena Williams, Sharapova’s career-long nemesis, announced that she’s pregnant and will miss the rest of the season. Then, on Thursday, Sharapova came on court right after one of the tour’s hottest players, Johanna Konta, was upset by Anastasija Sevastova, and right before the top seed, Angelique Kerber, was upset by Kiki Mladenovic. The WTA has been intermittently chaotic for years, but suddenly everything seems up for grabs. 莎娃在2016对於禁赛期不满意而上诉； 现在她可能觉得禁赛结束的时间刚好。 小威上礼拜宣布怀孕且今年其余时间会缺席。 Kerber was the two-time defending champion and the home-crowd favorite in Stuttgart. Despite that, clay has never been her best surface; she’s had more success on grass and hard courts, which helps her shots pick up speed. Kerber’s last tournament was on hard courts in Monterrey, and she looked like she was still finding her clay feet on Thursday. But Mladenovic didn’t give her any time to get settled. The hard-hitting Frenchwoman pushed Kerber around in the first set, saved four break points to start the second, and navigated her nerves to close it out with two big forehand winners. Even after all of her success, when things begin to turn against Kerber, she tends to think the worst. Kerber是斯图加特两届卫冕冠军和地主喜爱的选手。 尽管如此，土场并非她表现最好的场地； 草地和硬地赛事她表现较佳。 上一站她参加的赛事为Moterrey（硬地）， 她还在习惯红土。 但Mladenovic并不给她时间适应， 第一盘救了四个破发点拿下第一盘， 靠赛末两个正拍致胜球赢得比赛。 Last year Kerber won this event, then failed to win another match during the clay swing. Considering that she went on to reach the Wimbledon final and win the U.S. Open, another spring slump wouldn’t be the end of the world for her. But it could be the beginning of one for Sharapova, a two-time French Open champ. If Serena is out and Kerber is sub-par, Maria will quickly ascend the list of favorites at the big clay events coming up. Love it or hate it, wild cards or not, we’ll probably be seeing a lot more of that clenched fist over the next few months. 去年Kerber在此夺冠， 於後在红土赛季未获一胜。 考量她温网亚军、美网冠军 ， 春季的表现并非世界末日。 如果小威不在，Kerber表现欠佳， 莎娃可能变成红土赛事的热门夺冠人选。 喜欢或讨厌，外卡发或不发， 未来几个月我们都会常看到莎娃。 ------------------------------------------------ 动手稍微翻了一下 请各位笑纳 差点忘记补网址 抱歉 > < ※ 编辑: larrytaurus (114.35.186.189), 04/29/2017 00:57:25