Cahill pointed out near the end of the match that Sharapova was looking to her box after every point, you know, because only on the WTA is tennis a team sport. She was lost out there. It is astonishing to me that someone who has played a million hours of tennis has such an underdeveloped tactical mind. If whatever strategy that her coach put in her mind over the past 24 hours doesn't work, well don't expect her to have the critical thinking to try a different approach.
If attacking Li's forehand is resulting in getting hit off the court, maybe it would be wise to not hit big ground strokes into that corner. Naturally, Sharapova's reaction to this was to "go bigger" and hit harder. Never mind that Li was feeding off of Sharapova's pace and Sharapova was upping her unforced errors when she should have been grinding.
Take Federer last night. His serve didn't show up and Tsonga was hitting his shots for long stretches of that match. That's a dangerous combination for Federer. As always, he mixed his pace, he played human backboard until Tsonga's hot hitting went cold, and he was aggressive when his ballstriking was at its best. He used everything in his toolkit to win a match that he maybe should have lost, and he used his tactical mind to unleash those tools at the right times. There's a reason this guy won like 14 Slams without a coach.
He's bound to return next month at a tournament in Chile. Let's hope it's the case. 
