Russian tennis star Maria Sharapova continued with her fighting victories in the last three crucial matches at Roland Garros and won her second French Open title in three years. All through the week, Sharapova has played three-setters, often with the prospect of yielding to her opponents but her tenacity served her every time and she progressed from one stage to another. In her final against another fighter from Romania on Saturday, Sharapova went through all the shaky moments in her game and claimed the coveted clay-court crown. The fourth seeded doughty Simona Halep had to yield to the Russian 4-6, 7-6, 4-6 despite playing a great game.
The match began with Sharapova losing her opening game. But in this crucial match, Sharapova probably didn’t want to lose the first set, as has been the case in her immediately preceding matches. She worked hard to raise the level of her play and broke Halep three times. The Russian attacked Halep with her groundstrokes forcing the Romanian into committing errors, before taking the first set 6-4 in 57 minutes.
Halep was charged up in the second set, since she didn’t want to give up easily. She pinned Sharapova with an improvement in her game and at 5-4, she was serving for the second set. But the Russian broke her to level 5-5, only to lose her serve again to allow Halep another opportunity. But as the Romanian served for the set at 6-5, she lost her serve again and the set went to the tie-break. Sharapova had a great chance as she led 5-3 in the tie-break. It was a comic spectacle for the crowd to see the two finalists unable to hold on, when it mattered most. In the meanwhile the doughty Halep found an opening and closed the tie-break in her favor.
The first two games of the final set were breaks of serves again. After two hours of toil on red clay, both players were exhausted. Sharapova also got a time-violation warning. Later, Halep was the first to hold her serve in the set with Sharapova doing the same. Mid-way through the set, however, there was another exchange of service breaks. At 4-4 on Halep’s serve, Sharapova broke to take the 5-4 lead and then playing her best game, closed the set at love. The lanky Russian then dropped to her knees to allow the realization of big victory to sink in.
The Philippe Chatrier crowd had a lot to celebrate after the women single’s final, when their countrymen Julien Benneteau and Edouard Roger-Vasselin won the men’s doubles 6-3, 7-6, defeating Spaniards Marcel Granollers and Marc Lopez. On a lovely sunny day, the Frenchmen’s victory over the Spaniards sent the crowd into raptures.