Sharapova advances quickly and easily.
Tsvetana Pironkova, the 98th ranked player in the world, was clearly outmatched today in the first round of the US Open. She was up against Maria Sharapova, the 31st ranked player in the world who plays more like a top 15 player at this point in her career. Head to head they had met up once in a tournament in Istanbul (clay) and Sharapova won that match.
Pironkova is a career first or second rounder as far as Grand Slams go, having gone out in one of those two rounds in each of the last 15 Slams. Nothing was expected of her against Sharapova except for maybe an ‘E’ for ‘Effort’, the old ‘college try’, or energy worthy of the US Open and that is what she, Pironkova, delivered.
She whacked the ball pretty good from the baseline and ran down some of Sharapova’s shots that looked like winners, but despite her effort Sharapova was the first to break in the first set (in the 5th game). After holding (with difficulty), she broke again in the 7th game to all but assure victory in the first set, which she ended up winning 6-3.
The second set was completely one-sided. Pironkova, it should be said, was giving her maximum effort and she forced numerous deuces and saved two match points, but Sharapova was too much and in the end she had the answer.
The final score in the match was 6-3, 6-0 and Sharapova looked incredibly sharp in winning (except for her first serve percentage).
Source from: crunchsports.com
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