Maria Sharapova

Madrid’s womens final is set to be a cracker as the world number 5, Simona Halep will go head-to-head with the world number 9, Maria Sharapova.  Halep has taken advantage of a Serena-less top half to reach her first Premier Mandatory final.  Halep’s best win of the week came over Ana Ivanovic in the quarter-finals, 6-2 6-2.  In the semi-finals, she was steady and solid in defeating Petra Kvitova, 6-7(4) 6-3 6-2.  It was a similar match to her third round match with Sabine Lisicki.  Halep didn’t do anything spectacular, but cleaned up her game midway through the second set and then maintained her control in the decider.  Kvitova looked a little tired at the end of the match.  There were some positives to take away from the match for Petra and with the grass court season just around the corner, I remain optimistic that her 2011 Wimbledon form will make a re-appearance.  Hey, i’m a Petra fan and I keep dreaming.

Sharapova beat Agnieszka Radwanska for the second consecutive tournament with a 6-1 6-4 victory.  Sharapova was absolutely flawless for a set and a half (excluding one service game in the first set) and at one point, it looked like Radwanska would be staring through teary eyes at a very miserable defeat.  Credit to the world number 3 for rallying in the second set, winning four straight games and finally getting Maria on the run.  Radwanska led with a break at 4-3, but after a chat with Sven Groeneveld, Sharapova regrouped and finished the match off in straight sets.  The victory over Li in the quarter-finals was a huge win for Maria.  She is looking back to her best form and is reaping the benefits from playing plenty of matches during this clay court season.

Sharapova v Halep was on my list of matches I really wanted to see during this clay court season.  Halep has more weight on her shots than Radwanska and is also much more comfortable on the clay so this should be a much closer match.  Sharapova leads the head-to-head 2-0; both wins came in 2012 at Indian Wells and Beijing and in two tight sets.  The head-to-head can kind of be disregarded as those matches came before Halep made a somersaulting rise up the rankings and became relevant on the tour.  In the matches I have watched this week, Halep has been a touch passive and I don’t think she can win the final, with the way Sharapova is playing, without being aggressive and dictating more of the rallies.  Halep has been impressive though, in maintaining her composure against more aggressive opponents after dropping the first set to both Lisicki and Kvitova.  Sharapova will be hungry to win a title that she has never won.  It’s Sharapova for me…

Prediction: Sharapova d. Halep in 3 sets

Thoughts? I know there are many Simona fans out there who will disagree with me! I’d love to hear from you 🙂