Maria Sharapova through to the third round at the Mutua Madrid Open
Former world number one Maria Sharapova won the all-Russian clash against Ekaterina Makarova in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open at the Park Manzanares in Madrid, Spain on Monday. She finished off the contest in the three
sets 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, to move on to the third round of the $4,500,000 WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) clay-court tournament.
Currently ranked at the ninth spot in the world rankings, Sharapova took one hour and fifty minutes to outplay her fellow compatriot, dispensing her out of the competition. It was the 15th victory for the eight seeded
Russian in the running WTA season and a much needed one also. Sharapova stumbled in the second set after securing the opener and let Makarova make her way back into the game. However, the 24-year-old Russian blazed through the decisive third set to conclude
victory and get one step closer to the title shot.
“I lost some focus but it was important to let that go and concentrate on taking my opportunities in the third set,” Sharapova told after winning the game. The former world number is still to win a WTA title after her championship
win at Strasbourg in May last year.
It was quite an usual thing for Sharapova as she conceded six double faults in the game, while firing five aces. She clinched 54 of 79 serve points in the game and broke the opponent three times and dropped her serve just once
in the second set en route to victory. Sharapova had a magnificent start to the game, delivering 83 per cent of her serve on target and converted most of her opportunities she received from her opponent. The Russian’s game play included frequent forays to
the net, converting plenty of volleys into easy cross-court winners to exert pressure upon her opponent.
A single break point proved sufficient for Sharapova to close the first set at 6-3 but she couldn’t carry on her momentum in the following set. A dramatic downturn was seen in her game as she started to play errant strokes and
committed a number of errors to bestow easy points to her opponent. Makarova capitalized on her rival’s mistakes and reeled off the second set at 6-3 to level the contest at 1-1.
The final set belonged to Sharapova, who proved absolutely devastating in the game. She stung two straight serve breaks and dropped just one game before concluding victory at 6-1 and advanced to the third round of the Mutua Madrid
Open. She will take on the unseeded Slovakian, Dominika Cibulkova in the next round.
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