Oops, wait a minute, sorry, no she won't!

Oh so conveniently, an "injury" suddenly came up that not only made it possible for Maria to avoid playing team tennis for Russia (where she never spends a second of her time), but also to claim that her humliating loss to the much lower ranked Serena Williams in Miami last week, and the loss of her #1 ranking the week before that to Justine Henin, was not really her fault. Unfortunately for Maria, tennis fans will likely recall how Serena demolished Shamapova in exactly the same fashion at the Australian Open at the start of the year, making her claims of "injury" irrelevant and utterly lame -- to say nothing of the worst kind of poor sportsmanship. Maria has been dusted (and bagled) so many times in her career by much lower-ranked players that her claims of injury are just plain white noise. Apparently, she spent just enough time in Russia to learn how to make excuses and blame others for her own failings.

Maria recently made a point of demanding that women be paid the same as men in Grand Slam events -- but she didn't say a word about their being expected to play the same number of sets as the men, who often play matches that last twice as long as the women (and hence give the audience twice as much value). Once again we see Sharapova as the personification of Russia itself: All style and illusion, no self-sacrifice, no substance. Ever heard of playing with pain, sweetie? The men do it all the time.