Avoiding wipeouts and self-torture

	Mal Taam/MALTphoto Maria Sharapova may be facing off with Venus Williams again.

She has never heard the word "wipeout," before, but when it was defined for her, she was quite familiar with the act.

"[I do that] way more than catching waves," the Manhattan Beach resident said. "I'm mediocre, but I love it. It's my favorite activity."

The defending champ appears to be back in form again and demolished Sania Mirza 6-2, 6-1, an all-together shocking result given Mirza's high level during the past two weeks.

But Sharapova knew exactly what she had to do: Win the serve-and-return battle and make sure that India's finest player had no chance to dictate. She did that and then some and Mirza folded quickly.

Sharapova fooled her with her service locations and feasted on Mirza's second serve. Mirza's big forehand was nowhere to be found.

"I stepped inside the court and played my game," Sharapova said. "The two most important things were my serves and returns because she's pretty solid from the baseline. I wasn't going to make the points go long. I don't return passively and I want to be the first one to get a hit on the first ball. Her second serve was in the 80s and I wanted to make sure I stepped in and hit it."

Interestingly, Sharapova never feared Mirza's fearsome forehands and went straight at any corner that was available to her. No other player save for Anna Chakvetadze has done that during the past two-and-a-half weeks.

"I play with instinct and if I can get a good stroke and hit a laser beam, it doesn't matter if it's to her forehand or backhand," Sharapova said.

Sharapova is in the most critical part of her season. She has put aside the last seven months, where she was sporadic, notching some tremendous wins but also taking some eye-opening losses, especially at the Slams.

But outside of Venus and Chakvetadze, if you look at the rest of the elite US Open contenders, none of them are in great shape. Justine Henin is AWOL; Serena Williams and Svetlana Kuznetsova are hurt; Ana Ivanovic has been hurt; Jelena Jankovic looks a little tired; Amelie Mauresmo may not play the rest of the summer.

Sure, Venus stomped on Sharapova at Wimbledon, but Sharapova did take her down in Miami. It's obvious that Chakvetadze is improving every week, but Sharapova has beaten her at two Slams this year.

While Venus has to be called the early US Open favorite, a second title for a healthy Sharapova cannot be discounted.

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