Sharapova Qualifies For French Open Final Beating Bouchard
Oladunjoye Opeyemi
Maria Sharapova has booked her place in the French Open final for the third year in a row after she beat the up-and-coming Canadian Eugenie Bouchard 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 on Thursday.
The Russian seventh seed, who lifted the Suzanne Lenglen Cup in 2012 and lost in last year’s final, will take on either the Romanian fourth seed Simona Halep or the German Andrea Petkovic, the 28th seed.
Struggling with her serve, Sharapova, who is 18-1 on clay this season, dropped the first set before playing deeper to level the contest, outrunning the 18th-seeded Bouchard in the third.
Sharapova has now won the last 19 matches in three sets she has played on clay since losing to Justine Henin in the third round at Roland Garros in 2010.
“She played an unbelievable match, her level was extremely high … I’m just very lucky to be the winner,” Sharapova said later.
Bouchard, who was inspired to play after watching Sharapova at an early age, took first blood, breaking serve and playing her opponent at her own game by pushing her into the corners before the Russian broke back for 4-4.
The Canadian, in her second major semi-final this year, immediately broke back and took the set when Sharapova sent a backhand wide.
Despite Sharapova’s service games being peppered with double faults, last year’s runner-up turned up the heat and squeezed out the second set on her fifth set point to send her third successive match in Paris into a decider.
