Sharapova Wins Second French Open Title

The tough, but often called “sexy” and “hot” Maria Sharapova rallied from a set down three straight times in this year’s French Open Finals but emerged victorious on Saturday in a thrilling three-hour finals 6-4 6-7 6-4 against the rising Romanian star Simona Halep.

Sharapova, who was contesting a ninth such match, collected the trophy saying: “This is the toughest grand slam final I’ve ever played,”

Six years had passed since the 27-year-old was defeated after capturing the first set in a clay-court match. Having a sure thing in third sets on clay and having won 20 times in a row.

Halep, smaller and with less power than Sharapova, nonetheless almost did the unthinkable: toughing out the now five-time grand slam champion. Halep’s manager, Virginia Ruzici, remains the last Romanian to win a grand slam, in Paris in 1978.

Report said Sharapova in 2007 famously said that she felt like a “cow on ice” playing on clay, but now the French Open has become her most productive grand slam — it’s the only one she’s won more than once and it’s the only one she’s won after two serious shoulder injuries in 2008 and 2013, report said.

“If somebody had told me at some stage in my career that I’d have more Roland Garros titles than any other grand slam, I’d probably go get drunk,” Sharapova later told reporters. “Or tell them to get drunk, one or the other. She said she felt that she worked to get her position.

“Sharapova is already considered one of the best competitors ever in my view,” tennis analyst Pam Shriver, a former top-three player in singles and doubles, said in a report in CNN. “Just take alone what she has done since her shoulder surgery, how she regained her form not only post surgery but post service (woes) when most matches she was serving 10-15 double faults. “Also think about clay and her never-give-up attitude with clay.”

With tears of joy, Sharapova made the now familiar climb up to her box in celebration.

Halep, after the match, told reporters: “I was crying at that moment for a few minutes, and then I was smiling because I said that it was my first grand slam final, and I have to be happy, to smile, because I did everything on court,”

“I played very good tennis, very good level. So I’m really proud about these two weeks,” she added.

Sharapova, with a check of more than $2 million on Saturday, is listed as the world’s richest female athlete with a thick dossier of high-profile sponsors. With her recent victory, she also moved into second place in career prize money on the WTA tour behind Serena Williams at upwards of $30 million.

Source: CNN

Image Credit: sports.ndtv.com