Maria Sharapova frustrated on her sixth loss to Victoria Azarenka – Tennis News
Russian tennis diva, Maria Sharapova, suffered yet another defeat at the hands of the belligerent world number one, Victoria Azarenka, in the semi-final round of the US Open Championships on Friday night. It was the third defeat for Sharapova this season and the sixth one in the all-time head-to-head series from the racket of Azarenka, leaving the third ranked beauty queen quite frustrated.
Sharapova has been in her sublime form this year, winning three WTA championship titles, but her magic has not being working well against the might of the Belarusian number one. She made an excellent start to the Friday’s semi-final brawl and took the opening set with authority. However, Azarenka ignited her rage mode after that and absolutely devastated Sharapova in the next two sets to sideline her from the Grand Slam glory campaign. The Russian was extremely frustrated at her loss to the top seeded Belarusian, especially after a thumping start in the match.
"It's frustrating, but it's the game of tennis," dejected Sharapova said in her post match reviews. "A lot of swings in the match today. I had the lead and the advantage, but she picked up her game. And in the third set it had a lot to do with the returns. I didn't do much on her service games - she was winning them pretty easily. Mine were quite long. It's New York; it's a Grand Slam; it's the US Open. This is what you practice for, is to get in those situations and try to get out of them; today I just didn't."
The 25-year-old Russian now trails 4-6 in the head-to-head series and has lost four WTA title matches to Azarenka in total. She faced her in the final of this year’s Australian Open but fell in straight sets to fritter away the golden opportunity. Sharapova suffered the similar sort of fate in the title match at Indian Wells Masters but avenged Azarenka in the final at Stuttgart later. She was expected to capitalize on her recent victory in Friday’s matchup but all her hopes were brutally destroyed by an all-round onslaught from the world number one.
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