Maria Sharapova is more used to watching her fiancé play sports than having him in the stands to support her.
With the roles reversed at Wimbledon - where NBA player Sasha Vujacic has watched the Russian get through the first week without dropping a set - Sharapova thinks he, for once, has the tougher task of the two.
“I think it’s a lot easier to play. That’s what I’ve learned. It’s a lot tougher to be on the sidelines, or (watching) on TV,” Sharapova said. “I mean, there’s no doubt that I’ve watched more basketball in the last couple of years than I have in all of my life, (and been) a lot more nervous in my life in those games that I’ve watched than I have been in my life.”
The two are making up for lost time this summer, having been forced to spend more time apart after Vujacic was traded from the Los Angeles Lakers to the New Jersey Nets last season. But with the Nets having missed the NBA playoffs, Vujacic was able to come to Paris for the French Open last month as well.
On Saturday, he punctuated several of Sharapova’s winners with shouts of “Bravo” and “Come on Maria.”
While many players have their significant others travelling with them on tour throughout the year, Sharapova said being engaged to another world-class athlete has a different set of benefits.
“It’s a different sport because (basketball) is a team sport, but at the end of the day, we’re still athletes,” she said. “We still have to put that amount of work in. There is that level of understanding of what it takes. ... Like that preparation of having a warm-up in the morning, coming back for lunch, then taking a nap, I think anyone else would be, ‘You’re going to take a nap in the afternoon?’ It’s really nice in the beginning. It’s like, ‘Oh that’s the way things work.’ I don’t even need to explain it.”
