A little rain never hurt anyone. It sure didn’t hurt Maria Sharapova, who regrouped after playing poorly before a rain delay for the second match in a row to post a three-set victory Wednesday. Sharapova beat Marion Bartoli 3-6, 6-3, 6-4 to advance to the semifinals of the U.S. Open, where she will play world No. 1 Victoria Azarenka.
“I tried not to think about it much,” Sharapova said. “It’s not always a good feeling coming into a match knowing you are down 0-4 [in the set]. You try to win that set, but if you don’t you are down 0-1, so it was a tough position to be in, but I’m just so thrilled to be in the semis here.”
The scenario unfolded eerily similar to her previous match. Sharapova was down 4-0 to Nadia Petrova in the second set during the fourth round before an hour-long rain delay stopped play. She then went on to drop that set, before winning the final set and the match. Wednesday, again trailing 4-0 but this time having to wait 20 hours between resuming the match, Sharapova lost the first set 6-3 before winning the final two. She improved to 12-0 this year in three-set matches.
“Every time I’ve gone to the third set, I haven’t thought about it,” Sharapova said. “Sometimes you can be coming back, sometimes you win the first set and then you have a let down. Every single match is different.”
Sharapova has not fared well against Azarenka, whose quarterfinal win on Monday guaranteed her hold on the No. 1 ranking regardless of how she does the rest of this tournament. Azarenka cruised through her first four rounds before narrowly escaping 2011 U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur in a third-set tiebreak, and owns a 5-4 lifetime record versus Sharapova, including a 6-3, 6-0 drubbing in the finals of this year’s Australian Open.
“A tough challenge. But I am glad I have a day to recover tomorrow,” Sharapova said on court. “She beat me in Australian quite easily and I’d love to get my revenge in a Grand Slam.”
Azarenka and Sharapova have each won a major this year, as Sharapova won the French Open. So the winner of this match could be the women’s player of the year.
“We’re good competitors and we love to win. But she’s had such a solid year this year, her breakthrough in terms of winning the Grand Slam, being No. 1 in the world for the first time,” Sharapova said.
The difference in yesterday’s match was break chances, as Sharapova converted on half of hers (5 of 10), while Bartoli had 16 chances, and only broke Sharapova four times. It wasn’t a pretty match by any means, as Sharapova had 11 double faults and 35 unforced errors, but it ended as all of her three-set matches have ended this year — with a victory.
“A little bit of luck always helps,” Sharapova said. “It wasn’t over until match point. That’s women’s tennis for you.”