Sharapova FRENCH OPEN makes her move
Russian huffs and puffs to enter third round
MARIA Sharapova huffed and puffed her way into the French Open third round with a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Croatia’s Donna Vekic.
The former world No. 1, back at Roland Garros after a two-year absence, was erratic throughout but her iron willpower helped her set up a meeting with sixth seed Karolina Pliskova.
Sharapova, who missed the 2016 tournament because of a doping ban and was denied an invitation last year on her return from suspension, will need to be more consistent if she is to beat the Czech, a semi-finalist here last year.
She failed to finish off a point at the net and Vekic counter-attacked to set up a break point in the first set, which the 28th-seeded Russian saved to move 4-3 up before breaking her opponent’s serve.
Vekic, however, broke straight back with a powerful service return.
Sharapova, who is on a quarter-final collision course with 2016 champion Garbine Muguruza of Spain, was waiting for her moment. It came in the 12th game when she forced the Croatian into a lung-busting rally, forcing her opponent to net a forehand and drop the opening set.
To break Vekic’s rhythm from the baseline, Sharapova mixed it up with exquisite drop shots, but she made 31 unforced errors and dropped serve four times on Court One.
Vekic, the world number 50, offered stiff resistance at 5-4 in the second set but she bowed out on the fifth match point when Sharapova fired a sizzling forehand winner.
Top seed Simona Halep also reached the French Open third round with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Taylor Townsend of the US.
Halep, twice a runner-up in Paris, will face Germany’s Andrea
Petkovic for a place in the last 16.
Petkovic was a semi-finalist in 2014 and was once ranked in the top 10 but has slipped to 107 after an injury blighted few seasons.
In the men’s singles, Denis Shapovalov’s growing fan club were left disappointed as his French Open debut was cut short by Germany’s Maximilian Marterer in the second round.
The Canadian 19- year- old’s eye-catching groundstrokes have rocketed him up the rankings in the past 12 months and he arrived to contest only his fourth Grand Slam seeded 24.
Despite taking the first set against fellow left-hander Marterer, three years his senior, he lost an absorbing scrap on the Court 1 bullring 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 7-5, 6-4.
Shapovalov’s game first began to fray in the middle of the second set when a double-fault at 3-3 gave Marterer the break.
The 70th-ranked German, also playing in the main draw for the first time, faltered when serving for second set at 5-4 but he made no mistake in the tiebreak, levelling the match when Shapovalov netted a forehand.
Shapovalov struggled to contain the errors in the third set and another double-fault when serving at 5-6 30-30 gave Marterer the chance to move ahead.
Marterer was powerless as Shapovalov found the line with a forehand winner to stave off the set point. But he earned another one and this time produced a superb backhand winner.
It was the German who showed the greater composure at the crucial moments and he sensed his chance as Shapovalov served at 4-5 in the fourth, breaking to love to claim victory and move on to a third-round clash with Estonia’s Jurgen Zopp. — Agencies