Quarterfinal Preview: Maria Sharapova vs Andrea Petkovic – French Open 2011
Former world number one and three times Grand Slam champion Maria Sharapova will take on German Andrea Petkovic in the quarterfinal match-up at 2011 Roland Garros here in Paris.
After two barren years struggling to fight back from illnesses and injuries, the Russian has proved that she is not the world’s best paid woman athlete for nothing. Despite achieving ordinary results at the year’s first Grand Slam
Australian Open, Sharapova stayed firm and proved that she still belongs to the elite class of women’s tennis world. Just a couple of weeks ago, she surprised many tennis analysts by lifting her first WTA title of the year at Rome Masters.
Continuing her incredible form here at the clay courts of Roland Garros as well, Sharapova destroyed Mirjana Lucic 6-3, 6-0 in her opening match. She then secured easy victories over Caroline Garcia and Yung-Jan Chan in the second
and third round play respectively. Trailing 4-1 and 40-15 in the first set against Polish Agnieszka Radwanska, the Russian bounced back brilliantly to close out the match in straight sets and booked her place in the last eight.
Considering her recent performances and the confidence she is playing with at the moment, it is now not unthinkable that she could complete her career Grand Slam in Paris on Saturday following her title wins at 2004 Wimbledon,
2006 US Open and at 2008 Australian Open.
"I've always said it would be challenging to win here but I've always worked hard on preparing myself as best as I could. It's just going out there and believing in what you've done before and what you've prepared." Said Sharapova,
Andrea Petkovic is also on a roll for the last few months or so, claiming her second WTA triumph at Strasbourg some days ago. She has looked in stunning touch in Paris and eased past Jarmila Gajdosova and Maria Kirilenko in her
previous two matches at the French Open.
In terms of their head to head record, Sharapova leads 2-1 against the German. However Petkovic has up her game play since the start of this season and upset the Russian in the fourth round of 2011 Australian Open. And although
Sharapova avenged her defeat in the semi-final of 2011 Sony Ericsson Open, she faces a tough challenge as Petkovic is not going to give up until the last point.
"I've played her (Sharapova) twice this year already. She's a great champion and I admire her a lot, both as an athlete and how she handles herself. I think she represents women's tennis really well. I feel honoured to be in the
quarterfinals at all and even more so playing such a champion. I'll have to play my best clay court tennis to beat her."
Prediction: Although a competitive encounter is expected between the contestants, Sharapova, being the more experienced and skilful, is likely to emerge victorious. However, Petkovic should not be under estimated
in any way and if she can force the match into the final set, things can get really interesting.
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