Maria Sharapova beats Simona Halep to begin the tour of Beijing – China Open 2012
Former world number one, Maria Sharapova, passed the first test at the hard courts of Beijing; dispatched the 47th ranked Romanian star, Simona Halep, in the opening round of the China Open. She hammered her opponent
away in an hour and 52 minutes; registering straight sets 7-5, 7-5.
Halep faced the second seed Russian in the third round battle at the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells, earlier this year. It was a similar result but a more emphatic one that time. However, the 25-year-old Russian wasn’t good with
her returns during the midst of both sets but recovered well to grab the triumph.
The 21-year-old Romanian was thumped on her serves by the 6’2 tall Russian during the starting phase of the match. She lost two breakpoints in a row to go down 0-3. However, the barrage of unforced errors by the Russian just helped
the Romanian to bounce back into the set. Sharapova’s serve was broken in the fourth and the eighth game of the match that equalized the scores at 4-4.
Both players held their serves in the following two games that pushed the scores to 5-5. Halep couldn’t handle the onslaught from the Russian and had to stoop in the most crucial game of the set. She couldn’t break serve back to
keep the set alive and lost the opening skirmish after a tough battling show.
Halep held her serve in the first game of the second set and Sharapova made no mistake on her turn as well. The same phenomenon was repeated on the second occurrence as well that pushed the scores to 2-2. However, the inevitable
was only delayed for just four games and the big shrieking Russian powered down her rival to the first breakthrough of the second phase.
Sharapova’s serve was broken back in the eighth set and a swap of breakpoints allowed the scores to stay level at 5-5. Halep tried her best to keep the set alive but couldn’t enforce the tie-breaker due to a lost breakpoint in
the 11th game.
Maria Sharapova will lock horns against another Romanian star, Sorana Cirstea, in round two.
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