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Kerber Sends Sharapova Packing in Paris
By: Erik Gudris Photo Credit: Mark Peterson/Corleve
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(February 10th, 2012) For tournament director Amelie Mauresmo, her week in Paris at the Open GDF Suez has been a bit of a roller coaster with so many of the top seeds either withdrawing due to injury or losing earlier than expected. So it probably wasn't a surprise to those on hand during Maria Sharapova's quarterfinal match against Germany's Angelique Kerber to see Mauresmo's face change color a few times when faced with the prospect of losing her top seed and main attraction.
After Sharapova went up an early break in the first set, it was easy to think fans might see the Russian blow out Kerber as she did in their previous meeting last month in Melbourne. But Sharapova never looked comfortable handling the clubbing power of Kerber's lefty forehand as Sharapova handed the break back and then went on to lose the first set through a string of unforced errors.
Despite going down another early break, Kerber did a good job of handling Sharapova's power and changing the direction of her shots to keep Sharapova guessing. Sharapova, getting more exasperated, even served and volleyed on a few points, but nothing seemed to click for the Russian as she dropped serve to let Kerber back in the match at 3-all. From there the German, currently ranked No. 27, cut down on her errors while Sharapova continued to pile on more leading her to dropping serve with another backhand error in the final game handing a delighted Kerber a 6-4, 6-4 victory and one of the biggest wins of her career.
Though Sharapova said afterwards "As much as I love Paris, I'm happy to come back home", it's probably too soon for Sharapova to start packing for Mauresmo's tastes who now must hope France's own Marion Bartoli survives her quarterfinal against Roberta Vinci. As for Kerber, she now enters her third semifinal of the year and looks top 20 bound which would make her the fourth German to do so recently along side fellow Fed Cup teammates Andrea Petkovic, Sabine Lisicki and Julia Goerges.
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