Maria Sharapova: Why Women's Wimbledon Final Performance Is Worst of Career

Maria Sharapova's run to the women's final at Wimbledon has been extremely impressive and a bit shocking to many.  Sharapova entered Wimbledon as the No. 5 seed, but with her recent struggles at the All England Club, many did not consider her a serious threat.

She first won the event in 2004 at the age of 17 and went on to win three Grand Slam titles between 2004 and 2008. She claimed the No. 1 ranking in the world in 2005, and again for a brief stint in 2008 after the retirement of Justine Henin.

However, Sharapova has not been much of a factor since her win at the 2008 Australian Open, having suffered a torn rotator cuff and subsequently having undergone shoulder surgery. She missed nearly an entire year of tournaments and found herself struggling mightily upon her return to the courts.

In fact, since 2008, she had failed to reach a final at any Grand Slam event. Her career appeared to fall apart in shambles.

It truly appeared that even at only 24 years of age, Sharapova had passed her prime. Many wondered if we would ever see her advance to another final.

Well, Sharapova has played an absolutely terrific tournament at Wimbledon, and no matter what would happen to her against Petra Kvitova in the final, she appeared to have proven that she is still a threat in the tennis world.

She entered the final without having dropped a set in the entire tournament, and started off the match by breaking Kvitova.  However, things went sour from there.  Sharapova was broken in the next game and she later double-faulted to give Kvitova another break.

She dropped the first set 3-6 and was outplayed after the first game.  She had no answer for Kvitova's serve and seemed to be fighting off break points on every serve.

Sharapova was the clear favorite to win the match considering how well she had played coming in, but Kvitova proved that she was just as worthy of a Wimbledon title.

The beginning of the second set looked strikingly similar to the end of the first set, as Kvitova broke Sharapova's first serve in the second set.  Sharapova's first serve was not the factor that it had been in previous tournaments, even when she was able to drop it in.

There were multiple times when Sharapova appeared to have lost her swagger; she didn't appear to be putting in 100 percent and appeared extremely frustrated with herself.  She was not displaying the body language of a champion and looked like a player that was already defeated.

Then, she broke Kvitova to get back on serve in the second set and it looked like she was going to make the run that everyone had expected.  She began to show the enthusiasm that she is known for, but again and again she failed to hold her serve.

The players exchanged breaks for the better part of the second set while Sharapova continued to commit unforced errors and struggled to win points on her second serve.

Sharapova is known for her exceptional serve and solid ground game, but it appeared that Kvitova was in control of every point.  It was an incredibly poor performance from Sharapova, who broke Kvitova three times in two sets but could not do enough to win a set and found herself leaving the court in dismay.

There is no doubt that the 2011 Wimbledon Championships were a great run for the Russian star, but the final was not her best performance and may have been one of the worst in her career.