TENNIS AO15 – Maria Sharapova cruised past Eugenie Bouchard in the eagerly awaited quarter final with 6-3 6-2 to advance to the semifinals. Sharapova will face Ekaterina Makarova in a all-Russian semifinal. Makarova reached her second consecutive Grand Slam semifinal after sweeping aside Simona Halep with 6-4 6-0. Diego Sampaolo
AO2015: Interviews, Results, Order of Play, Draws
Sharapova lost to Dominika Cibulkova in the fourth round last year in Melbourne, while Bouchard reached her first ever Grand Slam semifinal. In the previous three head-to-head matches Sharapova led 3-0.
Sharapova, who won her last Grand Slam title on hard-court at the Australian Open in 2008, edged Bouchard in a very tight Roland Garros semifinal en route to winning her fifth Grand Slam but this time the Russian star was the dominant player from the beginning of the match and won her fourth head-to-head match against the young Canadian.
Masha broke serve in the opening game of the first set and held serve in the second game for 2-0. In the first two games Bouchard committed six unforced errors. The Canadian earned the chance to break back in the sixth game but failed to convert on her two break points with two backhand errors. Both players held serve until the ninth game when Sharapova got her second break to clinch the first set with 6-3 when Bouchard missed a backhand down the line on the set point.
Sharapova earned a break point early the second set with a forehand return winner but Bouchard saved it with a volley and a down-the-line backhand. Masha broke serve in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead. Sharapova went down 0-30 on her serve in the next game but she held her serve with her serve and a down-the line forehand. She broke again before sealing the win with a huge forehand winner down the line on her first match point.
Sharapova hit 19 winners to 18 unforced errors. Bouchard ended the match with 13 winners and 30 unforced errors.
“I felt pretty good from the start. I thought I had a really good start. I kept my focus throughout the whole match. I didn’t feel that I had too many letdowns, which is important. When I had a few slips I was able to come out with great first serves or really powerful returns. But overall I am really happy with the way the match went”, said Sharapova
“I knew that I had to play a really complete match. She is one who goes after it and goes after her strokes, so I knew that the second and third balls would be very important. I knew I had to take time away from her and be aggressive”
Like Nadal, who survived a scare in the second round, Sharapova also had to dig deep to beat Alexandra Panova but then her last two matches went easily.
“I am not sure if it has anything to do with Nadal. We have been kind of playing before or after each other on the schedule, so I don’t know if that’s something to do it. But, of course, when you’ re down and out like in the second match, it’s like, you know, I don’t want to face that phone call with my father too many times during a tournament. It’s like, I better get my stuff together. It was important to change some things around and just to come out with a little bit of a different perspective and play a bit better. I am happy I was able to do that”
Bouchard, who reached the semifinals last year in Melbourne and at the Roland Garros and the final at Wimbledon, felt obviously disappointed with her match today.
“I felt under pressure the whole time, a bit on my back foot. That’s not how I want to play. I feel like I didn’t start well and and it went downhill from there. It’s definitely easier when you have a good start to the match. It’s hard to compare this match with that we played last year in Paris on different surfaces, different circumstances. I think she definitely played well today and she didn’t give me many chances. I am disappointed with that.I did not take the few chances I got here and there. Against great players, you have to take every little chance you can get. Although she didn’t give me many, I know I had some. I am disappointed I could not do better with those”, reflected Bouchard.
Sharapova set up a all-Russian semifinal against Ekaterina Makarova who cruised past Simona Halep with 6-4 6-0 qualifying for her second consecutive Grand Slam semifinal after reaching this stage at last September’s US Open where she lost in the semifinal against Serena Williams. Makarova cruised to 3-0 with a double break lead in the first set. Halep recovered one of two breaks but Makarova was still a break up and earned a set point at 5-3. Halep saved it with a forehand down the line but Makarova served out for the first set for 6-4 as Halep hit her backhand into the net. Makarova eased past the Romanian player with a bagel in the second set. Makarova is the only player not to have dropped a single set in the whole tournament.
Sharapova won all her five previous head-to-head matches against Makarova and dropped just one set.
“Besides playing another Russian, I am also facing an opponent that wasn’t necessarily a favourite coming into that stage. That’s always a tricky situation because she is going to come into that match free and almost happy to be in that situation and that’s dangerous. I haven’t faced a lefty in this tournament yet. She has been using her lefty serve extremely well from what I have seen. I will be looking out for that, work on a few things tomorrow and be ready for that match. I don’t know her too much. We have practiced a little bit during the Fed Cup, but that was a few years ago. We already played a few times. There are no secrets in each other’s game. I try not to focus on the fact that every time I play a fellow Russian player the mental part is different compared to players from other countries. I know it’s always tougher. That’s why I always try to focus more on what I have to do to win the match more than we are from. At the end of the day, both of us are both trying to win that last point”, said Sharapova.