Sharapova fights back to make final
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Shanghai Daily, June 6, 2014
|
|
|
Sharapova subdues Bouchard to reach Paris final again. |
Maria Sharapova booked her place in the French Open final for the third year in a row when she beat up-and-coming Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 yesterday.
The Russian seventh seed, who lifted the Suzanne Lenglen Cup in 2012 and lost in last year's final, will take on Romanian fourth seed Simona Halep.
Struggling with her serve, Sharapova, who is 18-1 on the red dirt this season, dropped the first set before playing deeper to level the contest, outrunning the 18th-seeded Bouchard in the third.
Sharapova has now won the last 19 three-set matches she has played on clay since losing to Justine Henin in the third round at Roland Garros in 2010.
"She played an unbelievable match, her level was extremely high ... I'm just very lucky to be the winner," Sharapova told reporters.
Bouchard, who was inspired to play after watching Sharapova at an early age, drew first blood, breaking serve and playing her opponent at her own game by pushing her into the corners before the Russian broke back for 4-4.
The Canadian, in her second major semifinal this year after the Australian Open, immediately broke back and took the set when Sharapova sent a backhand wide.
Despite Sharapova's service games being peppered with double faults, last year's runner-up turned up the heat and squeezed out the second set on her fifth set point to send her third straight match in Paris into a decider.
In the third, she upped the aggression another notch, leaving Bouchard at times staring after the ball with a slight shrug despite the grit she showed to go toe-to-toe with the woman she had once put on a pedestal.
Sharapova completed a career grand slam by winning the title at Roland Garros in 2012, but lost to Serena Williams in last year's final.
Bouchard was playing at the French Open for the only second time. Last year, she lost to Sharapova in the second round.
Earlier, Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Jean-Julian Rojer of the Netherlands won the mixed doubles title with a 4-6, 6-2, 10-7, win over Julia Goerges of Germany and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia.
Roland Garros was the first time that Groenefeld and Rojer had played together and the first time that the Dutchman was playing in a grand slam final.
The pair staved off match points in their semifinal win and they were soon up against it again against eighth seeded Goerges and Zimonjic after losing the first set.
But they battled back to level the match and were always ahead in the match tie-break.
"It's five years since my last one in Wimbledon (mixed doubles title with Mark Knowles) and it's just as exciting this time around," Groenefeld said.
"Prior to this match I made, I think, four semifinals, but I was never even in the finals before."
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)