It takes all shorts, Maria

Wimbledon today for the fourth time in three years and a first time on Court One.
Last year I sat with Lorraine on soggy Centre Court day without the roof watching bits of Serena Williams against Daniela Hantuchova while 12 months earlier it was seats for the men’s final, the first one between Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal.
Two years ago, just days before that final, I was lucky enough to be on Centre Court for the ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs’ of Maria Sharapova in her quarter-final.
Today, it was Maria again, and not much has changed in two years. It’s now four long years since 17-year-old Maria was on Centre Court stunning Serena Williams by taking the title.
Since then she’s been a bit rubbish at SW19 and today I fear she’s heading the way of Anna Kournikova – there’s just far more style than substance.
Today, after watching Richard Gasquet out-dazzle Mardy Fish, Maria came on court to the usual camera clicks and flashes to take on French outsider Stephanie Foretz in their first round match. Such is Sharapova’s on court aroma that everything stops when she arrives from the locker room and today, she was teasing us with her annual first-match ritual of warming up in her jacket, towelling herself off and then giving us the big reveal.
Just like Federer loves his SW19 fashion, Maria is no different.
From high up on Court One it looked like a normal dress until off came that Nike jacket to reveal, well I’m not quite sure what really.
A sort of see-through buttoned waistcoat, the see-through bits were of course in the wrong (well, right) areas and there were shorts.
Nice fitting, big-button-at-the-top shorts.
I’ve never seen a woman look better in a pair than Maria!
As for the tennis, she did the usual first-clenching after each crucial point, the preening, the ‘vamos’-ing.
All great to watch and let’s be honest, nobody does it better.