Maria Sharapova

Maria Sharapova continued her unbeaten run on the clay in 2014 with a three set victory over Simona Halep in the final.  This was Sharapova’s first ever title in Madrid and her 11th straight win having also won in Stuttgart two weeks ago.  Things didn’t start so smoothly for Maria as she was dished out a 6-1 breadstick opening set by Halep.  The Romanian lost just four points on serve and was dictating rallies, much more so than any of her previous matches in Madrid.  Sharapova was error-strewn throughout the first set, which may have been related to Halep’s positive play.

In the second set, Maria slowly began to gain the upper hand in rallies.  Halep became more passive and a little too predictable on serve.  Halep was pretty consistent, but seemed to run out of ideas in the last two sets.  There were only a handful of points where she showed that inventive streak that has seen her win 7 WTA titles in the last year and crack the top five.  When Sharapova was hitting aggressive and clean, Halep didn’t have any answers.

Sharapova has laid down a pretty confident marker for Roland Garros, which begins in two weeks time.  Maria said after Indian Wells that she needed matches and that’s what she has got.  Her game is zoned in and despite some obvious tiredness, she will be the favourite in Rome where she has won the title twice in the last three years.  This was another great tournament from Halep despite the final result.  I like how she never calls her coach, Wim Fissette down and tries to figure things out for herself.  She also looked so calm in that third set despite the scoreline!

It was nice to get a competitive final in Madrid although there wasn’t really a time during the match where both players were playing well at the same time.  There were some good matches in this tournament, but I am glad we are onto Rome now… WTA preview coming soon.

In the final poll it was very close, but 52% correctly went for Sharapova to beat Halep in the final.