Maria Sharapova wins the thriller against Ana Ivanovic – Porsche Tennis Grand Prix 2013
A nail-biting battle was witnessed in the quarter-final round of Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, with two of the most beautiful divas on WTA Tour battling for a place in the round of four. The world number two, Maria Sharapova, went
through a rough ride against the former world number one, Ana Ivanovic, on Friday. The two former top-ranked players contested for two hours and 16 minutes before the top seeded Russian ultimately came out as the winner. The final match score was 7-5, 4-6,
6-4, in favour of Sharapova.
26-year-old Sharapova had won four of the last encounters she had with the Serbian tennis ace. She was anticipated as the hot favourite for winning the quarter-final brawl against Ivanovic convincingly but no one expected such
level of resilience from the world number 17. The Russian number one extended her head-to-head lead to 6-2 against Ivanovic after her Friday’s victory. Sharapova has merely won one championship title this season and is highly bidding for claiming her second
one in Stuttgart, Germany.
"It was another really tough match today, and I really had to push myself to the end to win it," Sharapova said after her victory. "I'm really happy I managed to win - why shouldn't I be? I feel like there were some opportunities
in the second set and I gave them away a little bit, but I knew I just had to give myself a little bit more energy in the third set, and turn it up a bit. Thankfully I closed it out in the end."
Sharapova was off to her usual fiery start, breaking her opponent in the very first game of the match but Ivanovic struck back in the fourth game to level the score line at 3-3. The top seeded Russian nailed another crucial blow
in the 11th game and went on to seal the first set at 7-5.
The following set witnessed no break points until the last game. Sharapova held her serve in the opening four games but Ivanovic stung the vital serve break in the 10th game to turn the tables on the world number two.
She took the second set at 6-4.
The third set was a real nail-biter, with both top class players battling extremely hard to take the better of one another. A total of seven break points were witnessed in the decider and Sharapova topped the Serbian with four
break points. The top seeded Russian will take on the home favourite, Angelique Kerber, in the semi-final.
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