Sharapova recovers from 0-6 in the first set, to meet Azarenka in the French Open semis

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Wilson Blade 9

The action on Wednesday completed the semifinal line-up of the 2013 French Open, as Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka joined Serena Williams and Sara Errani, by the way all the representatives of Nike.

Defending champion Maria Sharapova was shockingly bageled in the first set by the revived Jelena Jankovic, but left the blowout behind her and went 5-1 up in the second set. Even though Jankovic found her resistance and approached Sharapova by winning three straight games, the Russian took hold of the set and with a crucial break of serve in the seventh game of the third set ensured her appearance in the semifinals of Roland Garros, her 12th straight match win at the tournament. Jankovic had a chance to recover, with break points at 3-4 in the decider, but Sharapova held and Jankovic dropped serve once again to hand Sharapova a 0-6 6-4 6-3 victory.

In the other quarterfinal, Victoria Azarenka beat Maria Kirilenko 7-6(3) 6-2. Azarenka won five straight points to go 6-1 up in the first-set tiebreak, which she soon won, while in the second set she held her serve throughout, unlike her opponent who double-faulted to trail 3-1.

The last time Sharapova and Azarenka played each other on clay Sharapova won and she also won their last encounter at the WTA Championships in the end of the 2012 season, even though Azarenka leads their head-to-head 7-5. As for the other semifinal pair, Williams leads Errani 5-0.

4 COMMENTS

  1. Even though JJ lost she can still hold her head high. She played very well against Maria. We shall what the grass has in store for JJ and see if she can improve her best result at Wimbledon.

  2. P!nky, I agree, although I’m sad she didn’t come back in the second set and somehow squeezed through. 😛 Maybe I wish for too much 🙂

  3. Numerical Fact List Concerning Jelena Jankovic and Maria Sharapova at the 2013 French Open

    Jelena is a force at the French. She should be nothing but proud of her performance and as a true tennis player and fan of hers and tennis, I state that the sport is better with her.

    She is under-reported. The Tennis Channel and ESPN have ignored her and that has been a consistent characteristic of their coverage. They tend to dumb down the sport by scripting the story if a handful of the dozens of players in a tournament and they cover events almost exclusively through the experience of those players. This is exactly why they completely ignored Li Na during the year when she won the whole damn tournament until they literally had to. Other “journalists” in the print media and Internet tend to be lazy and do the same thing. That’s why when one Googles Jelena Jankovic, the current headlines returned Begin with the words “Maria Sharapova.”

    Jelena Jankovic is the hardest working person in tennis, or certainly in the upper echelon of that category. Did you know she’s playing singles, doubles and mixed doubles? And went well into the draw in each category?

    JJ put a beat down on Sharapova in the first set that was so pronounced I heard that Russian fighter aircraft were scrambled and last seen heading west toward France. OK, that may not be a confirmed fact, but here’s one I can confirm: The Tennis Channel’s coverage of the match BEGAN, STARTED, COMMENCED with Sharapova evening the match in the second set. Shamefully biased. The Fox News equivalent of Tennis coverage.

    Jelena Jankovic has a body that caused that new Fila dress she was wearing to be all that it could be. In television and film producing we have a quantity called “Face Time.” Simply put, it is the percentage or absolute amount of time an actor or character is included in the viewers television set. As covered, Sharapova received 80% of the face time during that match, despite the fact that there were TWO players. I know why they did that. I know why they did not direct the camera toward Jelena Jankovic.

    They’re asexual.

    Go JJ! Go! Go! Go!

  4. For Pete’s sake, Pete, try to keep your objective observations (such as those about “Face Time”, and there actually being “TWO players” on the court) apart from your subjective ones (such as those about the sex-appeal)!
    I, for one, care much about many players, and, therefore, am sick of the “face-time-policy” of all the major and minor TV’s that cover any tournament – but, on the other hand, can see no sexual attraction in any of the two women in question… Also, there were many, many women that had a body that caused any Fila dress they were wearing to be all that it could be.
    That much said, please, do, by all means, inform us about your secret knowledge as to “why did they not direct the camera toward Jelena Jankovic”! (The only thing I could come up with, while meditating on your statement, was this: all the men of the world would ……… so hard that it would cause a major natural disaster. Of course, I could be wrong – and if so, I gladly stand to be corrected.)

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