“Dagger in my Heart”: Maria Sharapova Reveals Brutal Advice She Received After Crushing Loss

Being a five-time Major champion and a former World No. 1 does not make you immune to your team’s criticisms, just ask Maria Sharapova. The Russian was at her candid best with Alexandra Eala during an interview, where she disclosed that a blunt assessment from one of her team members jolted her after the former World No. 1 had let go of a winning opportunity.

“I remember a moment after a match in Cincinnati, and I come off the court and I was up a break, I served for the match. I lose the match,” said Sharapova during her Pretty Tough podcast. “And my physio, not even my coach, my physio, the first thing he tells me is, ‘You were soft when you had to be strong.’ That was like someone put a dagger in my heart, because heart and fight and being strong was like, that’s my character. And all of a sudden, someone said I’m soft. I looked back at that match and I’m like, I was passive. And he’s absolutely 100% correct.”

While Sharapova has not made an exact match reference, the Russian has had her heart broken a couple of times in Cincinnati. During the 2010 final against Kim Clijsters, Sharapova had won the first set and raced off to a 5-3 lead in the second set. The Russian even had a match point but could not convert, and, as luck would have it, the match was stopped due to rain. Once it resumed, Clijsters won the second set in the tiebreak and raced through a 6-2 set win in the third.

The second heartbreak in Cincinnati came for Sharapova in the 2014 edition during the semifinal against Anna Ivanovic. The five-time Major champion looked on the brink when she was 2-6, 0-4 down in the match. In a tremendous turnaround, Sharapova won the second set and had an opportunity to serve it out at 5-4 in the third set. Both match points came and went, and it was Ivanovic who staged her own mini-comeback and won the match.

Listening to what Sharapova said on the podcast, one might feel that harsh comments after such losses could be counterproductive to the player’s development. Tennis players, on the other hand, have welcomed tough scrutiny of their performances, even after close losses. Someone like Novak Djokovic thrived on the intense criticism from his team back during the Goran Ivanisevic days, something that helped the Serb reel off Grand Slam titles.

Even Sharapova’s younger compatriot, Mirra Andreeva, is cut from the same cloth. Working with Conchita Martinez, the young Russian has made huge leaps in her game, which saw her win the French Open this year. During one of the interviews on Andy Roddick’s podcast, the current World No. 5 confessed that the Martinez hire was based on the Spaniard’s ability to tell what the player needed to hear instead of what they wanted to.

Talking with Sharapova, Alexandra Eala could have related well to some of the close losses. In her young career, the Filipino player has already had some close losses, with the most recent coming at the US Open, where she could not close out the victory despite holding a 4-2 lead in the final set against Iva Jovic in the third round.

While Eala is just making a name for herself on the Tour, one could find a few similarities in how she and Sharapova have built their tennis careers.

Maria Sharapova and Alexandra Eala Have Some Similar Career Trajectories

While there is a huge difference in on-court achievements between Sharapova and Eala, there are a few off-court similarities in their tennis journeys. Both players were declared as child prodigies by the tennis community, with Sharapova doing well at Junior Slams and winning Wimbledon at 17. While Eala has yet to win a Major, she won the junior US Open in 2022, which brought attention on her.

Both Sharapova and Eala had to leave their familiar surroundings at an early age, with the Russian moving to the IMG Academy in the US, while Eala moved to the Rafael Nadal Tennis Academy at an early age. Both players had to deal with instant popularity, as Sharapova was one of the faces of the sport in the 2000s and 2010s, and Eala’s popularity has already seen Grand Slams allocate show courts for her matches.

Sharapova is understandably a role model for many current players, including Eala. The former World No. 1 was recently at the Sao Paolo Open as a guest, where she made the day for many of the current stars and was a big draw for the fans.

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