Tired Maria Sharapova bows out of China Open in round three

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On Tuesday Maria Sharapova had played a three-hour match against ninth seed Victoria Azarenka and recovered from a 5-2 down in the third set to win the match. That marathon took its toll, and to the delight of the home crowd China’s Peng Shuai followed up her upset of defending champion Jelena Jankovic in the second round with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Maria Sharapova in the third.

World No.53 Peng got to lead 6-2 5-2 against Sharapova, and although the Russian almost pulled off one of her trademark comebacks, closing to 6-2 5-4 and getting to deuce, there was no more fuel in her tank and she fell on Peng’s third match point.

“My energy level was not where it should have been … there’ve been occasions where I’ve been able to fight back, today was just not one of those days unfortunately,” said the world No.15 Sharapova, who claimed her first title since returning from injury in Tokyo last weekend.

“She played really solid and really aggressive and did all the right things to win the match.”

11 COMMENTS

  1. I commented on the Serena article the same time this was posted. Boo, I should’ve waited a little longer.

    Maria lost. Funny how she couldn’t move her legs! But Peng played great as well, despite being dead tired Maria did try to fight a bit 2-5 down in the second set, served to stay alive at 4-5 but couldn’t do it. I’m not that sad, there’s a lot of positive things to take from this. And she’s finally getting her season off, she even smiled after leaving the court (and never called for Michael to come down during the match, it was obvious the loss wasn’t painful or anything). Since she didn’t care, why should her fans? 😀 Have a good off season Maria!

  2. Oh, and Maria also said:

    “She played really solid and really aggressive and did all the right things to win the match today,” Sharapova said. 🙂

  3. Teerin, I know… 🙂 Phew, you copy-pasted that comment, I got worried for myself, I thought you wrote that long comment in seconds. It takes me a couple of minutes. 😛

    I know, I read that quote, I just skipped to share it for some reason, to make the article shorter actually.

  4. Hehe. I actually did a Keyboarding Contest a few months ago, I placed third thanks to Miss-I-Typed-Since-I-Was-3 who was sitting beside me, and someone else who made a lot less mistake than I did. 😀

    Yeah, it’s alright. I just think that quote is important for those who will read the comments because the quote about her not having energy, she doesn’t say anything about her opponent, who played really good actually. I’ve never seen Peng Shuai played that way before, she beat Kim awhile back and Kim said Peng’s a “future top 3” player. But she’s still mentally fragile. 🙂

  5. Too bad she lost…:-( Teerin, any link from today’s match (couldn’t watch because of lectures at university)?! Thnx in advance:-)

  6. Teerin, haha, you see, I felt you had a typing talent. 🙂 You’re right about the quote, that crossed my mind as well. I’ll add it now. And yeah, share with us some selected video, as tennis fanatic has suggested.

  7. I think what she has achieved since her return to tennis after surgery has been great. It’s ok to have a loss, she needs the rest. Good for her. Let’s hope 2010 will be great for Sharapova.

  8. yeah, I also think she will save the magic for the next season. Tokyo was some kind of a proof to herself that she has what it takes. She’s not my personal favourite but I still think she has got a great fighting spirit.

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