That wasn’t a walk in the park.. not at all!
World no.3 Maria Sharapova had a really tough time to defeat Karin Knapp in Melbourne.
Maria raced in the first set to win the opener 6-3… then things got difficult! The Italian fought back to win the second set 6-4.Then the extreme heat policy (today it was well above 40 degrees) allowed a 10 minutes break after the second set.
The deciding set was a sheer battle that has lasted 115 minutes (only the 3rd set!!!). Eventually Maria won it at 10-8.
The match was a typical Maria Sharapova’s match… but not a good one. Maria committed a mind blowing 67 unforced errors (12 double faults!). If she wants to beat the very bests she need to improve her tennis… but offcourse.. it’s not that easy dealing with this heat!
Maria: She has played great tennis
An exhausted Sharapova commented “It’s tough for both of us. We fought as hard as we could. She played some of the best tennis I’ve seen her play.”
Next vs. Cornet
Maria will play Alize Cornet in the next round. Head to head is 1-0 for Maria
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