WHAT is it with teenage girls and mobile phones? As Maria Sharapova walked across the most famous tennis court in the world to take her place for the biggest moment of her life, the presentation of the Venus Rosewater Dish to the new Wimbledon champion, she was fiddling with her mobile, trying to call her mum, Yelena, in Florida.
She said: "I keep trying to call her but the phone keeps switching itself off." It was the only thing that had gone wrong all afternoon for the 17-year-old from Siberia. Her stunning, nerveless and totally unexpected 6-1, 6-4 win over the power and e
xperience of Serena Williams had enthralled the 14,000 who packed the Centre Court. They had come assuming that they were going to see the American win her third consecutive trophy, but they went away entranced by the skill and resolve of the young Russian.
It was the first time since 2001 that the crowd actually had someone to cheer. As the Williams sisters have dominated the game, the last two finals in SW19 have been contested by Venus and Serena and, faced with a family carve-up, the spectators have been underwhelmed. This time, though, they were right behind the underdog.
The short skirts and the long legs may have added to Sharapova’s appeal with certain quarters of the crowd but after 73 minutes of Russian fire, they were quite impressed with her tennis, too.
Sharapova had been waiting for this moment since she was nine. Packed off to Florida to learn under top trainer Nick Bollettieri, she and her father arrived in the US with no more than a fistful of dollars and a bucketful of dreams.
She was teased by the older girls in the tennis academy dormitory; she was ribbed for being Russian, for having an accent, for everything that young girls give each other grief over. And the experience toughened her up so that faced with the Queen of Wimbledon in the court she claimed as her own, she was able to chew nails and spit rust. And then steal the trophy from the champion’s grasp.
The pumped fist on every winning point gave a slight clue as to her determination while the ever-increasing volume of the squealed grunt gave away the effort it was taking. Only when it was over did she revert to type and become a giggling teenager again.
After the final shot which sealed her victory, she sank to her knees on the baseline and held her head in her hands for a few moments. Then it was off to find her father, Yuri, in the players’ box.
He almost did himself an injury, scrambling over barriers and spectators to embrace his daughter in a bear-hug that nearly squeezed the life out of her. She only just came up for air in time to receive the trophy.
"I want to thank my mum and my dad," Sharapova said through nervous giggles. "You’ve been there my whole career, through the good times and the bad times. I owe you so much. Thank you so much. There are so many people I want to thank. I want to give this trophy to everyone in the whole crowd. I can’t believe this."
She pointed out that her father had had the worst of the deal yesterday afternoon, saying: "Playing is a lot easier than watching". She had a word of sympathy for Williams too. "I have to take this trophy from you for a year, so I‘m sorry," she said. "Thank you for giving me a tough match but I’m sorry I had to win this."
Sharapova, who is set to climb to eighth in the world rankings after securing her first Grand Slam triumph, also thanked her American-based coaches, Bollettieri and Robert Landsdorp, but threw a veil over the mystery inspiration behind her rise to fame.
"Nick and Robert have been a big part of my life. I want to cut this trophy up.
"There is one person I’d like to thank but I’m not going to give the name of that person for inspiring me to win this tournament."
She was not sorry at all and neither was the crowd. And both of them knew that Sharapova will be back many times in the future. Yesterday was just the start of what may become a phenomenal career.
It was Williams, the six-times Grand Slam winner who was seeking a third consecutive Wimbledon title, who looked the novice as Sharapova twice broke the toughest serve in the women’s game in the first set.
The Russian finally clinched the set on her fourth set point when Williams dumped a tame forehand return into the net.
The quality of the tennis on a chill and blustery afternoon in London was impressive and Sharapova never showed the slightest signs of cracking against her more illustrious opponent.
The 17-year-old also became only the second Russian woman to win a grand slam title, less than a month after Anastasia Myskina became the first at the French Open.
Sharapova’s victory is the first for a non-American in the women’s final since Czech Novotna in 1998, which is also the last year neither Venus or Serena held one of the four grand slam titles between them.
Williams, who was hoping to become the first player to complete a hat-trick of women’s titles since Steffi Graf, was a graceful loser but insisted she would be back to attempt a third win.
"It was not my day," she said. "Maria played a really good match. Of course I’ll be back. I love Wimbledon."
Sharapova was born in 1987 in Nyagan, in Siberia, after her family had moved to escape the fall-out from the nuclear plant accident in Chernobyl.
The family then moved from the bitter cold of the tundra to the milder climes of the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi. The town was the perfect place for tennis with its 200 days of sunshine a year and palm trees.
She began playing tennis at the age of four and was spotted playing in an exhibition tournament in Moscow in 1991 at the age of five by tennis legend Martina Navratilova, who recommended Bollettieri’s tennis academy in the United States.
In 1995, the family travelled to Miami and arrived uninvited at the academy in Bradenton, Florida. One of Bollettieri’s coaches agreed to take her on court and with her first stroke she knocked his hat off. "Then I hit a few balls and he called Nick right away," she said.
Visa problems and a lack of money meant that from the age of nine, Sharapova was separated from her mother for two years while she began her intensive training in the academy.
In 2002 she reached the final of the junior event at the Australian Open and in March entered the WTA world rankings at No 532.
In 2003, she was voted one of the "coolest girls" in America, and rapidly rose through the tennis rankings. She made her grand slam debut in the Australian Open and also qualified for the French Open. Then, after reaching the semi-finals at Edgbaston, she made it to the fourth round at Wimbledon, the best-ever performance by a female wild card. She won her first titles on the WTA tour - in Japan and Quebec - and ended the year ranked 32.
The Russian media hailed the triumph of "Masha", claiming that the win confirmed women’s tennis was being gripped by a new Russian revolution.
