Originally Posted by: Philli 
Hehehehehe, Dartagnan, what do you mean 'take a rest'? She takes too many rests as it is...that's the problem. The girl doesn't like hard work since she's only a part time tennis player these days. As Number 2 in the World, she should be as fit as the rest of them and able to defend her position at any time, not 'take a rest' after playing one tough match in a tournament. She cant dispose of qualifiers all the time, sooner or later she has to work for her ranking. Just you wait and see, she will take a break after Maimi. You can bet your boots that she will duck out of Stuttgart again because that is only top players from the first round on. She will sit on her butt and do nothing until Rome, which she has to defend.
Dont worry, she'll get enough rest. Lazy bitch.
I've been a long time lurker here. I signed up to ask you one question LOL - Are you a FAN of Maria? I really don't understand why you constantly bash her. She obviously has her flaws, but seriously? If you do not like her then why are you here? Anyway, would you please just tell me if you are a fan or not. It's like you're angry at her. It makes no sense. If you are the big time hater of Maria that you seem to be, then why are you here? I'm not trying to be rude, I know this comes across as a slightly obnoxious first post, but I just find it interesting. Are you a fan? Please don't get defensive. I'm not trying to attack you, just trying to understand why you speak so harshly of her.
Anyway Miami! Maria can definitely beat Vika. Petra looked like a continuous nightmare, but she managed to beat her back in Melbourne. Maria just needs to come up with a new plan in defeating Azarenka. She keeps giving her the same look time and time again. I think Joyce n’ Yuri would be a better coaching team, at the stage of her career also. Thomas has done a great job of shedding the errors, and double faults. But she seems to have lost the intensity, and aggression off her ground strokes with him. I think he’s tried to make her into a more of a defensive player. He needs to maximize her natural weapons. To me she was playing better at Wimbledon 2010, and Rolland Garros. She really pushed both Serena, and Henin with aggressive tennis. She had better results in 2011 because the field was weaker, and she was making fewer errors. However her aggressive best was better in 010.
I asked a question on her coaching situation on another site, and I completely agree with this answer.
"I don't know. I think Yuri was a great member of her team, but she doesn't have to bring him back if she doesn't want. What she's missing is a coach like Michael Joyce. They obviously had a great relationship and he's worked with her for at least 10 years, they were really close, but she fired him for all the wrong reasons. She won all her Slams during this partnership and he always knew how to cheer her up and give her good advice. He always told her to get pumped up or to just let loose and hit winners as strong as she can. That maybe sounds like a bad strategy, but for a player like Maria, it isn't. That's her natural game, a strong offensive baseliner. And it worked fine honestly. And with the way things were going in 2008, if it hadn't been for the shoulder injury I'm sure she would have had at least 6-7 Slams by now.Something happened in her head though, in 2010 and she really lost it. She looked pretty helpless and was a mess all year long. The thing that struck me the most was her lack of motivation and heart that she always had. Then in early 2011, she had some horrible losses and she seemed to be fading away. But then it all changed in Indian Wells last year, I think, when she started playing like an elite player again.
Her new coach, Thomas Hogstedt(now 100% sure on the spelling) is coaching Maria totally wrong. I admit that I'm very surprised(in a positive way) that she has regained her consistency from 2005-2008, she is playing the Quarters or higher at almost every tournament she enters, so result and ranking wise very nice improvement from the last few years. Game wise, her gameplay has suffered greatly under the influence of Hogstedt. She is making her a grinder or an aggressive counter-puncher(a game style of Murray, or Li Na, after all he did work with Na) and it's working surprisingly well most of the time, despite her bad footwork. She's running a lot more now and returning a lot more balls. Her serve has improved a lot in terms of consistency as well. But I feel like her shots have lost their former power. She used to hit unreal fast forehand winners, they were just flying around the court. Hogstedt has made her into a completely consistent, reliable player who knows how to defend too, which is absolutely great, but he's forcing it too much. I think Maria should go with her instinct and hit big in important points, rather than defend. She also can't defend against players like Azarenka, Wozniacki or Kvtiova, because her movement isn't that good. Especially against Azarenka. They literally hit at almost the same pace, despite Maria being the vastly stronger player. She's hitting in the middle of the court and she's staying in the long rallies against Azarenka, but that always ends up with her hitting an error.
So basically, what I think her and Hogstedt should work on is adding the aggressiveness she once had and she will be fine. She has some things to improve, but she's getting better with each tournament.I completely disagree with *Person X* when she says the motivation is gone. Have you seen her matches lately? She's so pumped up and fired up, it's crazy how much she wants to win. She lost her motivation a few years ago, but last year it's back, i think she's matured a lot as a player."
