TENNIS – Maria Sharapova (4) perhaps has a love/hate relationship with Miami. She lives close by and so it is presumed that she is fond of the surroundings. However, she must find this tournament particularly frustrating as she has made it to the final five times (2005, 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2013) and has yet to win the title. Cordell Hackshaw
Maria Sharapova (4) perhaps has a love/hate relationship with Miami. She lives close by and so it is presumed that she is fond of the surroundings. However, she must find this tournament particularly frustrating as she has made it to the final five times (2005, 2006, 2011, 2012 and 2013) and has yet to win the title. Her form so far at the tournament has not been the best as she was pushed to three sets by her last two opponents and now she was facing a red-hot Petra Kvitova (8) who simply destroyed Ana Ivanovic (12) in previous round handing the former World No. 1 double bagels in the last two sets. Sharapova has a 4-2 head-to-head with Kvitova winning their last three encounters. However, it was their 2011 Wimbledon encounter when the Czech beat the Russian in straight sets to take the title that most tennis fans remember. Since then Kvitova has faded much to her fans’ chagrin and is now embroiled in the gossip columns with her ongoing affair with fellow Czech Radek Stapanek who was in the stands.
Kvitova continued her fine form from her previous match to break Sharapova in her opening service game. She quickly got to 4-2 saving two break points along the way. At this point, Kvitova started to lose focus and began getting careless with her shots. Sharapova upped her game and intensity. She exploited Kvitova’s lack of agility on the court and constantly had her off balance. Sharapova broke and was up 5-4 with Kvitova now serving to stay in the set. Kvitova was able to get it to 5-5 but at the crucial stage of 5-6, she was unable to hold her serve to force a tiebreaker and handed the set to Sharapova 7-5.
As the match went on, Sharapova just got better. She would later say, “I started getting more chances as we played more games in the first set, and little by little I started getting myself back in the points more and playing my game, playing well, going inside the baseline.”She was winning more points on her serve and applied the pressure to her opponent who only seemed to be dwindling as she became more error prone and reckless with her shots. Consider that in the 2nd set, Sharapova was only getting in only 62% of her 1st serve but won 81% of them and dropped only 8 points on serve. Kvitova on the other hand got 80% of her 1st serve in but only won 58% of them. She was unable to come up with any answers for Sharapova’s groundstrokes and aggressive stance at net. The only question that remained for the match was whether Kvitova was going to get a bagel as Sharapova was ahead 5-0 in the 2nd set. Kvitova saved face and held serve but it did little to deter Sharapova from taking the match 7-5 6-1 and a spot in the semifinals.
Sharapova noted of her opponent in the post-match interview “Petra is a Grand Slam champion. ..You can never underestimate someone that goes on the court and has that experience. She’s capable of playing really great tennis, and I think everyone knows that.” Sharapova has now improved to a 6-0 lifetime record in Miami at the quarterfinal stage and is 5-0 in the semifinals. However, Sharapova next faces the winner of the Serena Williams (1) v Angelique Kerber (5) quarterfinal match. There is no doubt that she would much prefer to face the German over the American if she hopes to be 6-0 in the semifinals.
