Maria Sharapova bounces back to oust Marion Bartoli in the quarters – US Open 2012
Former world number one, Maria Sharapova survived the scare against the 11th ranked Frenchwoman, Marion Bartoli, during the quarter-final clash on the eve of Wednesday. The match was scheduled to be contested on Tuesday
but just after four games into play, it was postponed due to rain. Sharapova was trailing 0-4 at that time but fought back the next day to win the encounter 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
The Russian commented afterwards, “It was good just to get a good night's sleep and come back. I tried not to think about it too much, but it's not always a good feeling to come into a match knowing you're down 0-4. It's like you're
going to try to win that set, but if you don't, you're down 0-1. It was a pretty tough position to be in."
She further added, “Honestly, every time I've gone into a third set I haven't thought about it because every single match is different. Sometimes you can be coming back; sometimes you win the first set then have a letdown.”
Bartoli won two breakpoints in a row to take a resounding lead of 4-0 at the start of the match. However, the new day changed the luck for the 25-year-old Russian who broke serve in the first game and decreased the trail of 2-4.
Sharapova wasn’t able to win the second breakpoint back and lost the opening set. The start to the second battle witnessed an exchange of breakpoints. Both players held their serves to push the scores at 4-3 in favour of the third
seed Russian with her opponent serving the following game.
The Frenchwoman failed to hold serve and gifted the critical breakpoint to her rival. Sharapova made full use of the opportunity allotted to her; held her serve to love and levelled the set scores at one apiece.
The final set witnessed a serve hold at both ends in the start coupled with a swap of breakpoints that kept the scores together. Both players capitalized on their serves in the following four games before the Russian earned a hard
fought breakpoint to take a lead; followed it up with a magnificent serve hold to win the encounter.
The semi-final will be played between Maria Sharapova and her arch rival from Belarus, Victoria Azarenka.
Other semi-final will be contested between the likes of the fourth seed superstar, Serena Williams, and the 10th ranked Italian, Sara Errani.
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