Tennis: Maria Suffers Blues After Wimbledon Fairy Tale

You may have thought Wimbledon was over for this year; in fact it is about to arrive at a screen near you. The American-made Wimbledon , starring British actor Paul Bettany, will hope to end tennis's dismal record at the cinema box office, previous turkeys having included the 1979 film Players , which struggled to gross $100,000 in the US.

The scriptwriters of this latest film set in SW19 - some of the scenes were shot during the 2003 championships - may already be worried that the story they've dreamt up pales alongside the fantastical tale that actually took place at Wimbledon this year. A quick recap: 17-year-old Russian Maria Sharapova, who was separated from her mother when her penniless father took her to Florida 10 years ago, thrashes the scorching-hot favourite Serena Williams to become the lowliest-ranked player ever to win the women's title.

Like many sequels, Sharapova taking on the US Open this week is looking horribly as though it will turn into another feathered non-flyer. Since Wimbledon, Sharapova has played in three tournaments. She lost in the quarter-finals in San Diego, the third round in Montreal and then last Tuesday went down to the American Mashona Washington, ranked 81 in the world, in the second round in New Haven.

What's up with Maria? No one is suggesting she is already a spent force, burnt out by the mega-watt publicity that turned itself on her after that crushing win over Williams. She does appear, though, to be suffering from some sort of reaction to the day that changed her life, which is understandable. Who wouldn't be affected by being converted in little over an hour from promising tennis player to fully fledged superstar with an earning potential, some reckon, of up to £100 million in the next 12 months alone. You would need a neck-brace made of tungsten for that not to turn your head a little.

She may also have been distracted by an unseemly feud that appears to be developing between her and the other Russians on the women's tour. Elena Dementieva has disparaged her by saying she is 'not really Russian', while Anastasia Myskina, who pipped Sharapova to becoming the first Russian female to win a grand slam singles title when she won the French Open in June, joined the debate by suggesting the Wimbledon winner's mentality was American. Myskina has also cast doubt on Sharapova's Russian-ness by questioning whether she has ever been back to her homeland since moving to the US when she was seven.

For someone who has always said that she is proud of the fact that she comes from Russia, these comments have been hard to take. 'Even though I train in America, I'm still Russian. That's where I come from,' she said recently. 'No one is going to tell me where I'm from because I know where I'm from. I don't feel American at all, I feel this is part of my job.'

The upshot is likely to be that Sharapova will struggle to add a second grand slam to her CV quite yet. The big prize in the women's event looks far more likely to be between the title holder, Justine Henin-Hardenne, the impressively in-form Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams and, for those with an eye for an outsider, the feistily competitive Croatian Karolina Sprem.

Those who doubted Henin could mount a challenge after a year dominated by debilitating illness were made to think again by the Belgian's victory in the Olympic final last weekend, when she overwhelmed Amélie Mauresmo 6-3 6-3.

Whether she is as strong as she was when she played so well in 2003 is another matter, which is why Davenport, who has won four titles in an unbeaten run since Wimbledon, may be poised to close out her career with a fourth grand-slam title. Davenport, 28, said after losing to Sharapova at Wimbledon: 'I'll be surprised if I come back.'

Tim Henman will start the US Open as a twentysomething and if he survives until Monday week will depart it as a thirtysomething, which for a tennis player is a fairly bleak prospect given how little success they achieve on the wrong side of 30. He had a stinker of a draw when he was paired with the 6ft 10in Ivo Karlovic in the first round. Karlovic beat Lleyton Hewitt when the Australian started the defence of his Wimbledon title last year and is sure to test Henman, who has never done particularly well in New York. If he does win we may be in for an intriguing Henman-Greg Rusedski contest in the third round. Rusedski has been playing much better than Henman since Wimbledon, picking up a title in Newport, Rhode Island, in mid-July.

For the moment, Britain's best chance of a grand-slam title would seem to lie with Peter Colt. He's the journeyman pro played by Bettany who has one last shot at the title in Wimbledon. Does he manage it? Not telling.