Russian beauty falls to China's Li Na in semi-finals; defending champ Schiavone crushes Bartoli
Russian beauty falls to China's Li Na in semi-finals; defending champ Schiavone crushes Bartoli
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The sixth seed, who lost to Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open, took advantage of Sharapova's serving struggles to add the Russian to an impressive list of scalps in Paris, including Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka.
Russian Maria Sharapova isu00a0 stunned after her defeat to Na Li in the
French Open semi-finals yesterday
Li had won their last two meetings but Both players list clay as their least favourite surface, with the Russian once famously describing her movement on the red stuff as like a cow on ice.
The swirling wind had effected Sharapova and this was a factor in Li winning the opening three games.
The seventh seed pegged her back to 4-3 and then 5-4 but could not hold onto her serve, throwing in five double-faults in the set and missing a simple forehand on set point.
Sharapova seemed to have turned things around with an early break in the second set but her serving demons were never far away and a seventh double-fault helped Li to level at 4-4.
The Chinese player was now firmly in the ascendancy and, with Sharapova serving to stay in the match for a second time, Li created two set points, taking the first on Sharapova's 10th double.
Sharapova later said: "She played a very good match. She certainly played a lot better than I did and a lot more solid. She played the crucial points better. I had some chances in the first set on her serve, a couple of games that went deuce and I had a couple of break points. At times I didn't serve well and was rushing more than I had to."
Victory today would have given Sharapova a great chance of completing a career Grand Slam but, after making the last four of a major for the first time since 2008, she had plenty of positives to reflect on. The Russian said: "It's been a good season on clay. I had a great tournament (winning) in Rome, and I got to the semi-finals here after not being at this stage of a Grand Slam for long."
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