PIC POST 1: Maria Sharapova and Sam Stosur

We literally have over a thousand photos from the 2011 Western & Southern Open in Cincinnati, so it only makes sense to share a few of them here from time to time. I’ll be honest, the collection is very Federer and Nadal-heavy, but we’ll try to dig out all the ones that feature other players.

The top pic is from Maria Sharapova’s Saturday practice session on the final weekend of the tournament. By the way, yes, she does grunt in practice as the workout intensifies, but not as loudly as in a match. She also seemed a bit wary of the crowd, which definitely had a lot of exuberant men trying to get her attention.

The day before, Sharapova played Sam Stosur. Maria won in straights, 6-3,6-2.

These photo posts are also going to have a lot of service motion photos, just because they’re so cool, and it’s fun to see how players compare.

And yes, the tennis ball is actually in Maria’s photo, wayyyyyy up at the top.

Go on to PIC POST 2: Andy Roddick, Grigor Dimitrov, and David Nalbandian.

PHOTOS: Maria Sharapova and Sam Stosur, Cincinnati (Western & Southern) Open, c2011 Valerie David.