Bad news for Maria Sharapova that was not able to capitalize on a 1 set up lead to lose to Pavlyuchenkova in the Paris semifinals.
As per her habit, Maria had a terrible record with her 2nd serve to commit 7 double faults. The worst of all is that the match ended after Sharapova committed 2 back to back double faults (ouch). Here for all stats.
Pavlyuchenkova
The winner commented “I’m very happy with my performance today. Maria’s so tough and she’s always fighting until the end, so I’m happy I stuck with my game and kept fighting out there as well.
“I had to serve well – I had no choice today, because Maria has one of the best returns on the tour. We played a few years ago and she broke me a lot of times so that was a key for her to win again today, and I just tried to serve the best I could today. It was working well, so I’m very happy with it.”
Sharapova
Maria wasn’t as happy by her performance “I started the match really well, but as the match continued I wasn’t doing the things that really helped me in the first set. I wasn’t being aggressive, I wasn’t in the court – she was playing with a lot of confidence in the match and I gave her that opportunity to step in and play her game. She was serving really well out there. She just played a really good match today.”
The final vs. Errani
Anastasia will play the final against last year’s runner up Sara Errani. Head to head is 1-0 for Pavlyuchenkova.
