Sharapova shoulders drama like a true diva

Maria Sharapova has become so famous that she has a celebrity shoulder.

The shoulder, her right, turns up steadfastly in conversation this spring, and casts a light on her utterly glamorous existence.

“Ice, massage, strength, needle work,” she said Saturday, adding to her earlier pronouncements of “tube exercises, more protection stuff, rehab stuff.” These appalling procedures require “a couple hours a day,” she said, then self-corrected: “Two and a half hours a day.”

The shoulder starred especially in Paris, when Sharapova reached the French Open semifinals but reported dogged ache. It has played less of a role at this soaked Wimbledon, and whined so little Saturday that Sharapova rocketed in 38 of 47 first serves.

Her results through three rounds: 6-1, 7-5; 6-0, 6-3; 6-3, 6-3.

Those last two sets finished off Ai Sugiyama of Japan in the third round Saturday and helped clear brush for a possible fourth-round match between Sharapova and Venus Williams that would conjure Williams’ mulching of Sharapova in a 2005 semifinal.

That fourth-round match may transpire Tuesday, or possibly Wednesday, or possibly August. With rain savaging the Saturday schedule of 16 third-round matches, only Sharapova and defending champion Amelie Mauresmo got done and won.

Rain, already having blighted the schedule at least somewhat for four of the tournament’s first six days, might have another heyday Monday (forecast: rain and thunder), and another Tuesday (rain and thunder) and another Wednesday (mere “showers”), as the public address at the All England Club keeps apologizing to the fans for the “British weather.”

For Williams-Sharapova to occur, Williams would have to withstand her bout with Akiko Morigami of Japan. On Court No. 2 on Saturday, Williams tore off to a lead of 6-2, 1-0, then lost the next four games before drizzle turned to steady drizzle turned to broadcasted apology.

Williams, a three-time champion ranked No. 31 in the world, walked off over the tarp looking peeved.

If tennis does occur at Wimbledon sometime soon, the women’s draw remains loaded with the 2006 champion (Mauresmo), the 2005 champion (Williams), the 2004 champion (Sharapova), the 2003 champion (Serena Williams) and then merely the No. 1-ranked player (Justine Henin).

Mauresmo, winning 6-1, 6-2, over Mara Santangelo, felt exhilarated with her “really forward-going kind of tennis.” If, out of that phalanx of contenders, Sharapova and her shoulder actually stand last when the tournament finishes sometime in late summer or early fall, it will cement further her status as a champion whose will outshines even her fashion shoots.

She won here so suddenly at 17 in 2004 that she sometimes forgets by now at an aged 20.

“When I do see my name, it’s a bit of a reality check because I’m like, yes, that really did happen,” she said. “Every year I get my member’s badge, I’m like, ‘Ha ha.’ It’s really special because you don’t think about it on a daily basis: Wow, I’m a Wimbledon champion. You’re a tennis player. You know you’ve achieved things. When those little things come up, you see your name as a past champion, you get your little badge, then you’re like, ‘Wow.’ ”

She said, “I was looking through a pamphlet that they gave us, to all the players, with all the information. There’s this one picture of the trophy. There was my name with all the others around it. I was just staring. I’m going to tear it, frame it, put it on my black-and-white wall in my house.”

If she winds up framing two after next year’s pamphlet, it also will come as somewhat odd, for somebody who has fielded so many questions about a shoulder. Already she withdrew from four events in the spring, with some tennis intellectuals suggesting reasonably a further hiatus, while the doctors say a hiatus won’t necessarily help.

“After I took the MRI after the Miami tournament” in March, she said, “they said, ‘You have a pretty serious injury. Would you rather take a shot or rest for eight weeks, because you’ll be able to recover faster with the shot.’ The shot was clearly the better option.”

She’s hoping to avoid more shots out of common needle hatred and because, “I don’t think cortisone is the best thing for your body, especially when you’re 20 years old.” To the fourth round goes this glamorous life.