Sharapova and Bouchard Gain French Open Semifinals
PARIS - At around 2:30 Tuesday afternoon, Rafael Nadal of Spain was celebrating his 28th birthday in the players' lounge at Roland Garros.
Around the same time, his countrywoman Garbiñe Muguruza won the first set of her quarterfinal against Maria Sharapova, 6-1, and another Spaniard, Carla Suárez Navarro, was ahead by two breaks, 5-2, in the first set against Eugenie Bouchard.
Two hours later, the party was over for Spain.
Sharapova rallied to beat Muguruza, 1-6, 7-5, 6-1, and Bouchard fought off Suárez, 7-6 (4), 2-6, 7-5. Sharapova and Bouchard will meet in the semifinals.
Muguruza, 20, was attempting to become the first player to beat Serena Williams and Sharapova at a Grand Slam tournament. She took advantage of Sharapova's serving struggles in the first set.
But the match turned out to be a near carbon copy of Sharapova's 3-6, 6-4, 6-0 victory over Samantha Stosur. After a sloppy first set, Sharapova grabbed control of the match by breaking Muguruza to go up by 6-5 in the second set and served out the set.
She broke Muguruza again in the third game of the third set, but had to survive an epic 11-minute game, saving five break points, to consolidate that break and pull away in the match.
The seventh-seeded Sharapova, the 2012 champion here and the runner-up last year, has emerged as the favorite in this upset-filled tournament. She is now 16-1 on clay this year and said losing in the final to Williams last year gave her extra motivation.
Bouchard, a 20-year-old Canadian, reached the semifinals for the second consecutive major, the only woman on the tour to do so.
Suárez, the No. 14 seed, had Bouchard down several times in the match. She served for the first set twice, only to be broken both times. Bouchard went on to win the set in the tiebreaker. After frustrating Bouchard in the second set, Suárez got a break early in the third set, too.
After getting the break back in the seventh game of the set, Bouchard overpowered Suárez the rest of the way. She held at love in two games, then in the 11th game ripped a backhand winner to go ahead by 6-5 and serve for the match. The final game included two overrules by the chair umpire, a double fault and a nervous volley into the net.
But the 18th-seeded Bouchard emerged with her 10th win in a row, including a run to her first WTA title in Nuremberg, Germany, the week before the French Open began.
Post a Comment for "Sharapova and Bouchard Gain French Open Semifinals"