Maria Sharapova reached the final defeating Ksenia Pervak, Tsvetana Pironkova, Paula Ormaechea, Samantha Stosur, Garbine Muguruza and Eugenie Bouchard. So far she lost three sets, in the last three rounds. She’s in her third consecutive Roland Garros final and won it in 2012.
Simona Halep reached the final defeating Alisa Kleybanova, Heather Watson, Maria-Teresa Torro-Flor, Sloane Stephens, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Andrea Petkovic. So far she lost no sets. This is her first final in a Grand Slam tournament.
Maria Sharapova starts the match aggressively but also makes some mistakes and Simona Halep breaks her in the first game. This isn’t one of the slow beginning the Russian had in the previous rounds because beyond a few mistakes there are many winners, by both players. In fact, the Russian seems to slowly take control of the game and in the fourth game she breaks the Romanian at the fourth break point. In the fifth game Sharapova offers a break point but she wins her service game and in the sixth game she breaks Halep again. In the ninth game the Russian serves for the set but loses her service game. In the tenth game Sharapova breaks Halep again and wins the first set 6-4.
In the second set Maria Sharapova starts well breaking Simona Halep in the second game but gets broken back in the third game. The set is again balanced and intense although not as brilliant as the beginning of the first set. The Russian seems to have an edge over her opponent and has two break points in the eighth game but the Romanian wins her service game and in the ninth game breaks Sharapova. In the tenth game Halep serves for the set but loses her service game. The player at the service suddenly seems to have lost confidence and there are two more consecutive breaks to reach the tie-break, where both still struggle to win points on their service. The balance goes on until the end, when Halep manages to win the tie-break 7-5.
In the third set there are still problems for Maria Sharapova and Simona Halep to win their service games because it starts with two consecutive breaks. The Russian make more mistakes than the previous sets and in the fourth game offers two break points but wins her service game and reacts as a champion breaking the Romanian in the fifth game. Halep resists and in the eighth game breaks her opponent but gets broken back in the next game. In the tenth game Sharapova wins the set 6-4 conquering the match and her second Roland Garros title.
Last year, Simona Halep was the rising star of women’s tennis, this year is proving to be an established star, winning several tournaments. In this tournament she proved she’s very competitive even in Grand Slam tournaments, where the competition is at its top. Today she mostly reacted to Sharapova’s game and eventually lost but she showed she can be a contender for the title, also because she still has room for improvement.
Maria Sharapova regained the Roland Garros title at the end of a tough tournament in which she defeated among the others three of the strongest young players around. Today she made many mistakes but she always tried to take the initiative and also scored a lot of winners. At the end her aggressiveness and her desire to win have probably made once again the difference.
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