Some stats to finish up with
Well, Sharapova served at 64% and won 84% of her points on first serve, but that potentially flattered her in what was often a jittery display. She’ll take solace in the fact that things improved as this match went along but you get the feeling she’s fallible, even in a semi against Makarova.
Sharapova hit 19 winners to Bouchard’s 13 and made 12 fewer unforced errors (18-30). Of interest too is that she’ll now encounter a left-handed player, a novelty factor but also potentially a further disruption to her rhythm.
That’s all from me, but stand by for more live action as this Australian Open moves into the finals.
Sharapova beats Bouchard in straight sets - 6-3, 6-2
2nd set - Bouchard 2-6 Sharapova
Sharapova is throwing the kitchen sink at her groundstrokes now and though Bouchard is able to retrieve a number of them, she’s overpowered to go down 0-15. Sharapova moves to the net and attempts to shepherd a volley into the open court but it’s too heavy. At 30-30 Bouchard maintains focus to bring up game point but Sharapova again launches a series of brutal backhands to make it deuce.
Sharapova hits a screaming winner down the line to bring up match point and makes no mistake next up, walloping an identical stroke to take it out. That was just brutal hitting. She wrapped up that second set in just 37 minutes.
A matter of seconds after shaking hands with Sharapova, Bouchard has disappeared into the tunnel. “I had to have a really good performance against Genie,” says Sharapova, who says she was wary of her opponent’s rising confidence heading into this encounter. “I try to take that away from her and I did a really good job of that today,” she says.
“I knew she was going to go at it and be an aggressive player.”
Of her clash upcoming semi-final clash with fellow-Russian Ekaterina Makarova, Sharapova concludes, “One of us will be in the final and that makes me happy.”
2nd set - Bouchard* 2-5 Sharapova (*denotes next server) - Sharapova leads 1 set to love
The Russian is actually improving slightly as this match wears on, which isn’t to say she’s been unimpressive today but there’s a more ruthless streak in this service game. Each serve is fast and perfectly positioned, allowing Sharapova to force Bouchard wide and hold with a rare love game. Bouchard despairingly calls upon the review on the last point but she’s out of luck in almost every sense today.
2nd set - Bouchard 2-4 Sharapova* (*denotes next server) - Sharapova leads 1 set to love
Bouchard has at least done well at defending in this match and again hangs tough to take a 30-15 lead on serve. Sharapova looks like she has somewhere to be this afternoon and is really laying into her returns, in slightly ham-fisted style in this case. Bouchard holds serve, but not after her opponent has had a few tense words with the chair umpire over the game-finishing line call.
2nd set - Bouchard* 1-4 Sharapova (*denotes next server) - Sharapova leads 1 set to love
Eugenie Bouchard won’t cave in, we know that. Showing great spirit she cracks a lovely cross-court winner and then sees an opening when Sharapova double-faults to make it 0-30. The 2nd-seeded Russian recovers well, forcing her opponent wide on serve and then clipping a neat forehand winner down the line. That’s followed by another big first serve to level it at 30-30.
At this point, Sharapova’s scattered serving routine might actually be as much of a distraction to Bouchard as it is for herself. She stutters a while before a rally in which Bouchard falters again to hand her opponent a 4-1 and the increasing likelihood of taking out the match.
2nd set - Bouchard 1-3 Sharapova* (*denotes next server) - Sharapova leads 1 set to love
At 15-15, Bouchard’s tepid second serve is now offering Sharapova some real encouragement and the Russian clubs her way to 15-40 and two break points, but needs only one when Bouchard hits long. Unless Bouchard launches a stunning counter-attack, that could be the match I fear.
2nd set - Bouchard* 1-2 Sharapova (*denotes next server) - Sharapova leads 1 set to love
If the tactics of both players can be seen as artless here, it’s not like they’re not producing some compelling tennis. Sharapova remains a worry with that jittery ball-toss but belts her way to 30-0 in clinical fashion. A big serve down the line and hay-maker smash take it to 40-15 and she muscles her way through a rally before walloping a forehand winner down the line to hold.
2nd set - Bouchard 1-1 Sharapova* (*denotes next server) - Sharapova leads 1 set to love
There’s a few dangerous signs in this service game from Bouchard. Has she got a gear change in her at this point? It’s all-out attack, which is a tactic of sorts, but she remains vulnerable when Sharapova is smacking back returns like the forehand monster that brings up another break point.
Bouchard moves around the court with efficiency to volley a winner at the net and make it deuce and then absorbs a series of huge bombs from Sharapova before shoveling a backhand winner down the line when she’d been hemmed in. Sharapova attacks her return of the second serve again but gets a little overzealous, netting to allow Bouchard to hold.
2nd set - Bouchard* 0-1 Sharapova* (*denotes next server) - Sharapova leads 1 set to love
In their infinite wisdom, the local Seven network has decided that pre-recorded Nick Kyrgios puff pieces are a better bet than actually showing this match, so we miss all bar the final point as Sharapova holds serve to start this second set. In a quarter final??? They’re the worst, they really are.
Sharapova breaks again and takes the first set 6-3
1st set - Bouchard 3-6 Sharapova* (*denotes next server)
Now it’s Sharapova’s return to attack on her return, which gets her first blood on the Bouchard serve but the Canadian turns defence into attack to level it at 15-15. The rally that follows is as hard-hitting as any so far but Sharapova almost shovels a forehand winner down the line to make it 15-30. What an unusual shot.
The Russian returns with venom, constructing the perfect point to bring up a break and set point, but Bouchard saves that with a wide, out-swinging first serve. Given a second opportunity to break, Sharapova hangs tough and forces an error, permitting herself a determined but muted fist pump as she heads towards her chair.
1st set - Bouchard* 3-5 Sharapova (*denotes next server)
With new balls in play, Sharapova feels no more confident in her service preparation or ball toss and her forehand is also troubling her. Bouchard sense this and feeds it into that hitting zone at every chance. At 15-15 on the second serve, Bouchard again misses her opening, sacrificing nuance for exuberance and netting her backhand.
Sharapova moves to 40-15 with hard, bouncy and irretrievable serve down the middle but then mis-hits yet another forehand to keep Bouchard in the game and stumbles to deuce. Sharapova serves her way out of trouble, holding with another aggressive serve down the line.
1st set - Bouchard 3-4 Sharapova* (*denotes next server)
Bouchard is trying to smash her way into the match now, hitting with real force from the baseline to make it 30-0 before she’s outsmarted on the rally and then cracks another backhand long to level it. A chip and charge applies sufficient angle and pressure to bring up game point and Bouchard holds confidently before belting a spare ball into the ground on the way to her chair and giving herself a few words of encouragement.
1st set - Bouchard* 2-4 Sharapova (*denotes next server)
Perhaps now it’s time for Bouchard to strike. Sharapova remains jittery and troubled on her serve - stopping often in the middle of her ball-toss - but does find enough rhythm to slam an ace down the middle and level this at 15-15. The Russian judiciously employs a review when she correctly identifies that Bouchard has returned long but then herself snatches at an awkward forehand error before coughing up a break point at 30-40.
Bouchard can’t take her chance, cracking an attempted winner long before flailing unsuccessfully at Sharapova’s second big ace down the middle. After a brutish rally Sharapova nets her back hand to make it deuce and stutters again on serve, double-faulting to offer up another break point. Bouchard has a golden opportunity on the second serve but again overcooks her return.
“She has a very extreme grip”, notes Sam Smith of the Canadian.
After finding herself in a horrible position in the final rally, Sharapova benefits from some tactical indecision from Bouchard and holds.
1st set - Bouchard 2-3 Sharapova* (*denotes next server)
Sharapova rallies and then moves to the net with a drop shot to make it 0-15 and then 0-30 after a double-fault from Bouchard. The Canadian fights back with another big backhand winner and then levels it at 30-30 when Sharapova pounds her return of the second serve long.
There ensues a fierce baseline rally in which both players are belting the cover off the ball but worrying for Bouchard, Sharapova is sending it back with interest and whacks a big forehand winner. At deuce, the Russian wrong-foots herself on the baseline and nets but Bouchard squanders her advantage by shanking an attempted backhand winner wide.
Sharpova won’t die wondering and with a misfired return she allows Bouchard to hold.
1st set - Bouchard* 1-3 Sharapova (*denotes next server)
Again Sharapova is maintaining a statistical dominance on serve without ever looking particularly strong herself. Her first serve is not the weapon it might be and her 40-0 lead is a virtue of Bouchard’s mis-steps rather than Sharapova’s success. Still, she holds after yet another wild biff from Bouchard and can be reasonably happy with her lead given she’s yet to hit her straps.
1st set - Bouchard 1-2 Sharapova* (*denotes next server)
Bouchard starts poorly again on serve but has her best moment so far when she whips a cross-court winner on the backhand to make it 15-15 and then forces a pair of Sharpova errors on return to bring up to nerve-settling game points. Bouchard is even better in closing it out, working Sharapova around with acute angles before hammering a winner across court.
She’ll be far happier with that effort.
Updated
1st set - Bouchard* 0-2 Sharapova (*denotes next server)
Sharapova is taking an age to launch her serve to start with, seemingly troubled by an insect in her eye but also perhaps indulging some kind of imagined disruption to her rhythm. She recovers momentarily and moves to 30-0 after Bouchard hammers a double-handed backhand into the net but Sharpova’s yips continue on serve.
Remarkably, Bouchard again fails to take advantage of the second serve, belting another return into the net to let her oponent off and then blazing an ambitious cross-court forehand return wide and long. She made Sharapova look good there.
1st set - Bouchard 0-1 Sharapova* (*denotes next server)
Bouchard wobbles early on serve, cracking a forehand long to go down 0-30 and then sending down a nervy double fault to hand Sharapova three early break points. Bouchard looks better when she gets a rally going but Sharapova breaks after the Canadian fails to handle her deep, heavy forehand.
These are some troubling signs early on for Bouchard.
The Canadians are in full voice
Are these people Canada’s version of the Fanatics? I must say though, it’s a very disappointing crowd for this encounter - desperately thin in some bays of the front sections.
Here we go...
It sounds like a cliche
...but this match might be won on the serve. Sharapova has won 72% of her points on first serve so far in the tournament while Bouchard has won more break points than anyone else in the women’s draw. Can she make a dent this time? One thing is for sure, she can’t slacken off the way she did mid-way through the second set against Irina-Camelia Begu.
Bouchard really arrived in 2014 and her task this year is to back up and build upon that foundation. She was a fan of Sharapova as a kid but there’s been the odd prickly moment between the pair in the last 12 months, not least Sharapova’s subtle dig at the Canadien after she’d beaten her at Roland Garros.
“I don’t feel that I played my best tennis,” she said, “but to be in the semifinals of a Grand Slam and winning a match where I felt my opponent played extremely well, exceptional tennis, and I didn’t feel that I was playing my best, I fought, I scrambled, and I found a way to win.” Hmm.
“We’re not friends,” said Bouchard, “so there is that.” Not much reading-between-the-lines needed there.
The pair are now well into their warm-up and we’re only moments away from the start of this clash.
Good afternoon all
And welcome to this Australian Open quarter final between Eugenie Bouchard and Maria Sharapova, coming to you a lot earlier than this live-blogger expected, I’ll be honest. That’s because Ekaterina Makarova just demolished 3rd-seed Simona Halep 6-4, 6-0 and will now play the winner of this Bouchard-Sharapova encounter in the semi.
The second set in that one was an absolute cakewalk.
“Maybe you should buy some real estate here,” says Nicole Bradtke, sounding increasingly desperate in her attempts to get international players to pledge allegiance to Australia.
To the matter at hand though; Bouchard and Sharapova have met three times before with the latter taking the honours each time. Second-seed Sharapova is the favourite here; she’s done it all before, she’s closing the gap to regain the No. 1 ranking and bar a slight hiccup in Round 2 against Alexandra Panova, she’s controlled each of her matches so far. In actual fact she’s conceded only 5 games in the last two.
Bouchard, of course, made the semis last year at Melbourne and this time around has put aside some unwanted distractions to replicate that success. She took the first set off Sharapova at the French Open last year but then stumbled to defeat. We’re about to see what strides she’s made since then.
Russell Jackson is the man with to take you through today’s big women’s match in the women’s draw at Melbourne Park: second seed Maria Sharapova against seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard. Is there an upset on the cards? Would it really be an upset if Bouchard were to win? Can the Canadian go all the way and claim her first grand slam here? Those questions, and more, to be answered over the next couple of hours or so. But while we’re waiting for Rusty to take his seat, why not pass the time by catching up on a story that has somewhat passed under the radar – that of Madison Keys.
There’s a hint of Capriati in Keys; it’s in the singsong inflection of the voice, the “you knows” sprinkled liberally in the sentences, the big, toothy grin, the joyful exuberance.
But it’s likely this story will have a far happier ending. Because it has taken nearly six years for Keys to at last fashion her first big breakthrough on a big tennis stage. Surely she’s far better equipped to handle it.
Read the full story here.
