Sharapova advances to first final since ban
TIANJIN: Five-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova crushed Peng Shuai 6-3, 6-1 at the Tianjin Open to reach her first final since serving a 15-month doping ban.
The 30-year-old Russian, playing on a wildcard in the seventh tournament of her comeback, hit top gear as she swept aside the Chinese third seed in one hour, 18 minutes yesterday.
A businesslike Sharapova broke four times and conceded zero breaks of her own before wrapping up the semi-final with a clinical crosscourt forehand.
In today’s final – her first since she won the Italian Open in May 2015 – she will be the red-hot favourite against 102nd-ranked Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, who beat qualifier Sara Errani 6-1, 6-3.
Sharapova, one of the world’s highest-earning female athletes, will now expect to win her 36th career title and end a trophy drought of more than two years, the longest since her debut win in 2003.
By contrast Sabalenka, 19, is gunning for her first WTA title after a run to the Tianjin final that included wins over China’s Duan Ying-Ying and Lin Zhu.
HONG KONG: Daria Gavrilova produced her best performance of the week to cruise into the Hong Kong Open final with a 6-0, 7-5 defeat of Jennifer Brady yesterday.
She will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in today’s final after the Russian sixth seed also completed a comfortable win, 6-3, 6-4 against China’s Wang Qiang in the second semi-final.
Naturalised Australian seventh seed Gavrilova, who was born in Moscow, sped through the first set in 22 minutes, dropping just four points on her own serve as her American opponent looked overawed in her first WTA Tour semi-final.
”I feel like today was my best performance since I’ve been in Asia,” said a delighted world No. 22 Gavrilova, who broke the American’s serve seven times on the way to a dominant win.
Pavlyuchenkova had it slightly tougher against the 48th-ranked Wang Qiang, being broken three times on her own serve.
But the Russian ranked 21 always had enough firepower to subdue China’s No. 3, who has been suffering with a flu-type virus all week.
“I played Wang Qiang in Tokyo recently and came through a tough match 6-2 in the third,” said Pavlyuchenkova.
“So I was pleased to get it done in two sets today in tricky conditions with the wind.” — AFP