Maria Sharapova’s impressive comeback at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix got to an end at the hands of Kristina Mladenovic in the semifinals, while Laura Siegemund, whose career breakthrough happened last year in Stuttgart, managed to reach the title match for the second year in a row.
Wildcard Sharapova reached the final four without dropping a set, looking as if she hadn’t been absent for 15 months, and against Mladenovic she was up a set and a break, but the Frenchwoman prevailed 3-6 7-5 6-4. To be eligible for the French Open qualifying, Sharapova needed to reach the final in Stuttgart, while now we’ll have to wait for May 16th to hear the decision about a wildcard entry for the claycourt Grand Slam.
In the upcoming final, the 23-year-old Mladenovic will face Stuttgart’s Laura Siegemund, who recorded her third Top 10 win this week by upsetting fourth seed Simona Halep, the player she had eliminated in the first round en route to the final last season. Halep had two set points in the second set, but Siegemund roared back by winning ten of the last 11 points for a 6-4 7-5 triumph.
Even if she has served her time, WTA should not welcome and promote her so shamelessly …. The message they are giving out is … “as long as you are a star it’s okay with us that you cheated.” This article hear sums it up quite niclely http://www.138mph.com/has-sharapova-done-her-time/
I think WTA really did promote Maria Sharapova the last few days. She’s definitely a star and since Serena and other marquee names are absent, she’ll definitely fill that post. It was also a nice comeback campaign for her. I was actually expecting her to win the tournament because the seeds fell early but a SF finish was good. From unranked, she climbed up to #262. Not a bad result at all.