Sharapova Screams Through

Wimbledon Review

It was ladies day on the second Tuesday of the 2005 Wimbledon Championships and the women did not disappoint with all of the top hopes making it through to the semi finals relatively easily.

Defending champion Maria Sharapova kept her title defence alive with an extremely hard fought 7-6(6) 6-3 win over her Russian compatriot Nadia Petrova.

The first set was tremendously tight with neither player being able to break the others serve and the tie breaker went along the same lines before Sharapova got the vital mini break to take the opening set.

Petrova’s head dropped after losing the first set and the eighth seeded Russian quickly fell behind 4-1 in the second set, before going on to lose 6-3 to her glamorous countrywoman.

Sharapova’s opponent in Thursday’s semi final will be Venus Williams after she conquered French Open finalist Mary Pierce 6-0 7-6(10).

Williams, a two time winner at Wimbledon, came out firing on all cylinders to race through the first set 6-0 in 21 minutes, but faced a much tougher test in the second set as Pierce lifted the level of her game.

With both players unable to break serve the second set went to a tie breaker and after staving off five set points against her Williams was able to take the shootout 12-10 to send her through to the Wimbledon semi finals for the fifth time in her career.

“It was a tough tiebreak, it really was. It was a tough second set. I played really well in the first set. I think she played well, too, but maybe she just wasn't expecting me to play as well as I did,” said Williams in her post match press conference.

“I had quite a few set points against me. To pull that out and not have to go to the third is really good.”

World no.1 American Lindsay Davenport also moved through to the semi finals defeating Russian no.5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 7-6(1) 6-3.

Davenport started the match well taking an early 2-0 lead, but Kuznetsova fought hard to break back and at 5-4 had a set point on the American’s serve that she couldn’t take advantage of.

The first set eventually made it’s way to a tie break and from that point on it was all Davenport as she raced through the breaker 7-1 and then kept it going in the opening stages of the second set establishing a 3-0 lead.

Kuznetsova managed to hold serve the rest of the way, but Davenport held her nerve taking the second set 6-3 to close out the match.

Amelie Mauresmo was by far the most impressive winner of the day taking out Russian ninth seed Anastasia Myskina 6-3 6-4.

Mauresmo, the no.3 seed, used her superior skills at the net to pressurize the Russian all match and at no stage did Myskina look like having an answer for the broad shouldered Frenchwoman.

Day Eight Results

Women Quarter Finals:

1-Lindsay Davenport (USA) bt 5-Svetlana Kuznetsova (Russia) 7-6(1) 6-3
2-Maria Sharapova (Russia) bt 8-Nadia Petrova (Russia) 7-6(6) 6-3
3-Amelie Mauresmo (France) bt 9-Anastasia Myskina (Russia) 6-3 6-4
14-Venus Williams (USA) bt 12-Mary Pierce (France) 6-0 7-6(10)

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