Li Na, Serena and Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Agnieszka Radwanska and Ana Ivanovic had all suffered premature exits at this year’s French Open and today Maria Sharapova was just six points away from joining the group of players with some uncalled for free time, but the Russian avoided the fate, reeling off 22 of 25 points to bring back control of her fourth-round encounter with Samantha Stosur.
The 2010 French Open finalist Stosur won four straight games to take the first set and in the second set she was up 6-3 4-3 30-30 – just six points away from triumph. But the fierce Sharapova fired back and won nine games in a row to defeat the 19th-seeded Stosur 3-6 6-4 6-0. What a waste it would’ve been had the 2012 champion Sharapova lost now that the draw has opened up for her so nicely.
In other Sunday’s fourth-round matches, seed No.18 Eugenie Bouchard raced into the quarterfinals by beating eighth-seeded Angelique Kerber 6-1 6-2, Garbine Muguruza, the conqueror of Serena Williams, continued to advance with a 6-4 6-2 victory over Pauline Parmentier, while Carla Suarez Navarro took out young gun Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3 6-3. (photo by Jimmie48)
I REALLY wanted Sam to win and therefore was very excited after having seen the scoreboard after the 1st set. This is now Sharapova’s tournament to lose.
I also didn’t know Caro and Serena were so close! But it’s good for Caro to be around friends during this hard time.