Sharapova fights her way past Lisicki

Fighting and shrieking her way through.

In a match between two glam dolls that totally lived up to the pre-match hype and hoopla, Maria Sharapova, the 4th seeded Russian fought her way through to the quarterfinals. 14th seeded German Sabine Lisicki matched Maria shot for shot and sometimes even outplayed her. But, Maria’s famed grit and fighting spirit saw her increase the level of her game considerably in the final two sets – her shrieks were getting unbelievably louder too. The final result was a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 scoreline in favor of the Russian.

Sharapova rushed to a 3-0 lead at the start of the match. From then on, Lisicki has overcome her initial nerves and started hitting the ball harder than before. A stretch of six games saw Lisicki seal the first set 6-3. Sharapova had trouble with her serves as she repeatedly double faulted (totally 8).

In the 2nd set, Maria finally reversed the trend and started winning some games. Her ground strokes started getting fiercer and so were her shrieks. She broke Lisicki twice to take the set 6-2.

In the 3rd set, Lisicki had a chance to break Sharapova’s serve at 1-1. But after 11 mins and four wasted break point opportunities, Lisicki could not break Maria’s serve. Maria used this momentum to break the Lisicki at 3-2. Lisicki managed to have one more break point when Maria was serving for a 5-2 lead. But, it was not to be.

The German was serving to stay in the match and she had two disastrous double faults at the most inopportune moments. She nevertheless saved one match point too, in another marathon game that saw four deuces and held serve for one last time. Now, Maria had to serve for the match. She double faulted. Lisicki was fighting till the very last.

After 2 hrs and 15 mins, the match was finally over as Lisicki hit a return to the net. The 3rd set alone lasted 58 mins. Lisicki, the ever charming young German proved herself to be a great fighter. Sharapova will next meet fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova in the quarterfinals.