Maria Sharapova won her second French Open singles title yesterday by beating Simona Halep of Romania in a very close final encounter. After toiling hard for more than 3 hours, the Russian beauty queen managed to register the victory.
The final matches at Roland Garros had been pretty one sided in the last one decade or so and it was believed that something similar could happen this time around as well. But, that wasn’t the case to be. An epic battle was fought between the two finalists and the spectators present there got their money’s worth.
Sharapova had not performed that well in the last few Grand Slams that she had played and because of that many people had started to believe that she was losing her spunk. But, in this tournament, the Russian superstar showed that she was still one of the best in the business.
When Sharapova had first burst onto the scene, she wasn’t a great clay court player. She used to be more comfortable on grass courts and hard courts. The first three Grand Slams titles that she won, neither of them came on clay courts.
But, in the last few years, Sharapova has worked very hard on her game on clay courts under the guidance of some fantastic coaches and the result is that she has now lifted two trophies at Roland Garros in 3 years.
Speaking in the post match interview, Sharapova said, “It feels surreal really. If, at the start of my career, somebody had told me that two out of my first five Slam titles would be French Open, I would have laughed that off.”
“During the last couple of weeks, things have gone absolutely perfectly for me. It’s a very emotional moment.”