French Open Day 11: Garbine Muguruza ousts Sharapova
Garbine Muguruza stalling Maria Sharapova’s momentum was the highlight of a wild day at the French Open.
Garbine Muguruza quietly crept through her matches when she achieved her first grand slam victory here at the 2016 French Open, shockingly defeating Serena Williams in two sets. And Muguruza looks to be doing the same this time around. She’s powered through all her matches so far without dropping a set, with her win over Maria Sharapova no exception, breezily beating her 6-2, 6-1.
“When you’re facing somebody that also has an aggressive style of game I think it’s about who takes the command, who takes the first opportunity,” Muguruza said afterwards.
The third seed is poised to achieve the No. 1 ranking if she powers through to her second Roland Garros title.
But first she must get through a semifinal against the other contender for the the French crown, Simona Halep, the current No. 1, still looking for her first grand slam win after three tries, including this year’s Australian Open against Caroline Wozniacki. Halep’s game is strong on clay, but as we saw in the French Open final against last year’s winner, Jelena Ostapenko, it’s her mental game that is often her undoing.
“It was really about the mental,” Halep said after her match on Wednesday. “So I think that’s why I won today. My head won it.”
Trailing Kerber in the first set, the Romanian then woke up and started scrambling for every ball and gave us some of the thrilling shot making that reminded me of the compelling Australian Open final with Woz. Halep and Muguruza will now face each other in the semifinal on Thursday, without a day to rest.
“What a draw,” Muguruza said about her meeting with Halep in the semis. “I think she’s right now probably the best player. Well, she’s No 1.”
Halep is the best player on clay left in the draw, but Muguruza’s been playing the best all tournament. Their matchup will be the most anticipated women’s match of the tournament.
The men’s semifinals became interrupted by rain that poured down the courts at the end of the day, forcing Rafael Nadal and his unlikely opponent, Argentine Diego Schwartzman to retreat to the lockers rooms twice until play was definitively suspended for the day.
But what a match it was until then. The scrappy Schwartzman did the impossible — got a set off the 10-time French Open slam champ, the first player to do so in three years. Nadal wasn’t playing with his customary dominating speed and accuracy and he had to have both wrists bandaged up.
The rain delays couldn’t come at a better time for the Mallorcan. And it certainly isn’t the first time a rain delay has saved the day for Nadal. The weather pattern also halted Alexander Zverev’s momentum in the Rome Masters final, with the Spaniard coming back renewed and rejuvenated and reversing the match to claim the title. Nadal seemed to be on the same collision course when he and Schwartzman came back, but a second rain delay forced the suspension of the match until Thursday.
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Same with the Marin Cilic and Juan Martin del Potro game, which was paused right in the middle of a very tight first set tie break, at 5-all. It will be fascinating to witness who the rain delay benefits when both top players emerge on Thursday, since they were dead even right before weather wreaked havoc with today’s play.
The women’s semifinals and the resumption of the men’s quarterfinals from today will take place on Thursday.