Maria Sharapova manoeuvres through Klara Zakopalova to reach the quarters – French Open 2012
Beauty queen of tennis, Maria Sharapova of Russia, had to labour through three gruelling sets before taking down the unseeded Czech contender, Klara Zakopalova, in the fourth round of the Roland Garros French Open on Monday. The world number two settled the final score line at 6-5, 6-7(5), 6-2, in her favour and earned a berth in the quarter-final round of the clay-court Grand Slam event being held in Paris, France.
The Russian diva has been in sublime form throughout the running WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) season and her dominating tennis has continued in the French Open campaign as well. She merely dropped a total of five games in the three initial round matches she played at Roland Garros and was expected to carry on the same belligerence against the Czech, Zakopalova, in the fourth round as well. However, Sharapova had to sweat harder than expected to overcome the solid resistance posted by her unseeded opponent.
The second seeded Russian took the opening set early to get the upper hand in the match but a thumping comeback from the 30-year-old Czech stunned everyone present at the coveted Philippe Chatrier arena. Zakopalova won the second set tie-breaker round to bring the matchup back on even terms but it ignited the rage mode in the booming Russian contender. The world number two shifted her gears in the decisive set and raced past her opponent in a convincing manner to finish off the contest in three hours and 11 minutes.
Sharapova coughed a total of 53 unforced errors in the match, which include 12 taxing double faults, something very unlikely of the world number two. She compensated for it by nailing 12 out of 31 break points in reply to her opponent’s nine out of 17 conversions to come out as the winner. It seemed as if the slender-legged Russian beauty was not at her very best during the encounter but her strong game play was still superior enough to take the better of Zakopalova.
"I thought my opponent played extremely well - I've played her a few times already and that's the best she's ever played against me," Sharapova said. "She's dangerous. She has had some very good wins before, so she's confident. On top of that, some days she goes out there and just goes for it, and it seems like everything just goes in and stays so low over the net. I had chances to finish it in two sets and I didn't. But I came out strong in the third set, and that's what matters. It's nice to be in the quarterfinals again."
The second seed Russian will play against the Estonian number one, Kaia Kanepi, in the quarter-final round.
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