NEW YORK _ The U.S. Open got its screech back Monday night.
Maria Sharapova, playing on a wild card and back in the Open for the first time since 2014, brought her power game and her piercing screams to Arthur Ashe Stadium Court. There she eliminated No. 2 seed Simona Halep, who had been the most likely player to exit the Open with the No. 1 ranking. Instead, Sharapova parlayed a strong start with a determined finish for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory, in 2 hours, 44 minutes of stirring tennis.
Sharapova, who served a 15-month ban starting in January 2016 for testing positive for the newly prohibited drug meldonium at the Australian Open, returned to competitive tennis in April at Stuttgart, Germany, and reached the semifinals.
Almost in tears, Sharapova said after Monday night's win: "I thought it another day, another opportunity, another match. It was so much more. Everything you go through is so worth it."
Because her ranking had fallen precipitously during the ban, Sharapova required wild cards to get into tournaments, and when the Stuttgart event gave her one, some players were critical of that decision, including Halep. But when Halep was asked Saturday about the Open granting Sharapova a wild card, she deflected comment.
Sharapova, the 2006 U.S. Open champion, missed the 2015 tournament with a leg injury and last year's because of the ban. The Open had never denied a wild card to a champion, though all of those players were returning either from injuries (Lleyton Hewitt, Juan Martin del Potro and Martina Hingis) or retirement (in the case of Kim Clijsters, who just happened to win it in 2009). Sharapova was denied a wild card to the French Open, and officials cited her doping ban as the reason.
Her fitness coming into the Open was a mystery, though she looked fit Monday night, moving well. She had withdrawn from the Wimbledon qualifying tournament with a muscle tear, then suffered a left forearm injury at the Stanford tournament in July and hadn't played since, pulling out of Open lead-in events at Toronto and Cincinnati. She played nine matches before Monday night, going 6-3.
Sharapova, who is 7-0 against Halep, won the first set Monday night. She had no answer for Sharapova's power. Plus she found herself on the back foot off her serve, powderpuffs on both first and second serve that Sharapova played tee ball with.
So "Screechapova" was back on the big stage, showing up in a basic black sequins dress fitting for New York nightlife. But her sparkly game started to deteriorate in the second set after she gained another break and had taken a 4-1 lead.
She had Halep down a break point in the sixth game, but she fought back to hold serve, then broke Sharapova in the next game. The unforced errors were coming fast and furious from Sharapova and it looked as if the rigors of Grand Slam combat against a dogged opponent were eating into her game.
Halep's reputation for hanging in there was on display, and she even started to serve better. She managed an ace in the 10th game of the second set, and went on to win it. But in the end, Sharapova was too much for her.
