Just last week Maria Sharapova conquered the clay in Rome to win the Italian Open, take over the number 7 spot in the world and send a message that this could be her best chance yet to complete a career grand slam having already won at each of the other 3.
After thrashing Lucic 6-3 6-0, French teenager Caroline Garcia held no imaginable weapons from which the statuesque Russian should be overly concerned. That of course left off the reckoning that Maria only brought with her to Paris her dress sense and glamour - form was left in Rome. Sweet Caroline had the locals in raptures as she unravelled the Sharapova game piece by piece. It all began with the return of serve where Garcia had the temerity to stand right on the baseline to receive the first serve and half way to the service line almost for second efforts.
The serve was inconsistent and other parts of the game suffered. Meanwhile the crowd was dragging their youngster onto something quite special - first set 6-3. The sentence hadn't been fully punctuated yet as Caroline went on a rampage to lead 4-1 with serve to come in set 2. As is prone to happen though when the upset line is near attack strategy that won you your position is put in the rack in place of safety first. Maria did not need a second notification.
Sadly for the French girl, she won no more games, but in losing 6-3 4-6 0-6 to a champion like Maria, much can be learned. A most enjoyable match apart from the drop off towards the end and Maria could be semi final bound.
"What are we going to do about Maria ..."
ReplyDeleteGreat to see that your trip is going well.
Jimbo