Sharapova avoided becoming the latest upset victim in the women’s tournament, which has lost seven of the top-10 seeds. PHOTO: AFP
PARIS: Maria Sharapova battled into her fourth successive French Open semi-final and fifth of her career with a 1-6, 7-5, 6-1 win over rising Spaniard Garbine Muguruza on Tuesday.
The seventh-seeded Russian, who was the 2012 champion and runner-up to Serena Williams last year, goes on to face Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard for a place in Saturday’s final.
But the four-time major winner and former world number one was given a fright by the 20-year-old Muguruza who had knocked out Serena in the second round.
The world number 35, playing in her first quarter-final at a major, was a set and 5-4 ahead in the second set before Sharapova dug deep into her famed reserves of fighting spirit to win through after two hours six minutes on court.
“There was little I could do in the first set as Muguruza was playing so well,” said Sharapova, who had also dropped the first set of her fourth round tie against Samantha Stosur.
“I needed to pick up my energy and start moving my feet. It was tough losing the final last year and it has given me greater motivation to go one step further this time.”
Meanwhile, Bouchard became the first Canadian woman to reach the French Open semi-finals when she defeated Spanish 15th seed Carla Suarez Navarro 7-6 (7/4), 2-6, 7-5.
Halep to face Kuznetsova in quarters today
Simona Halep puts her bid to become the first Romanian woman to win the French Open in 36 years on the line against 2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova in Wednesday’s quarter-finals.
Russian 27th seed Kuznetsova was the last of the eight women to book her spot in the last eight thanks to a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 win over Czech Republic’s Lucie Safarova as dusk fell Monday.
However, the 2004 US Open champion knows she will have a massive fight on her hands when she takes on the in-form Halep who dispatched America’s Sloane Stephens 6-4, 6-3 to make the last-eight.
“She’s already in the top 10,” said Kuznetsova of her opponent. “I think she going to be good, even better than she is now.”
On their last meeting in Stuttgart earlier this year, when Kuznetsova evened their head-to-head record at 2-2, she dismissed any notion of an advantage having won in two tough sets on the German clay.
“It will be different match. It doesn’t matter who won last time or anything like that. It’s going to be new match in a Grand Slam quarter-final.”
Published in The Express Tribune, June 4th, 2014.
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