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Wimbledon: Maria Sharapova untroubled by blip against Coco
Sharapova hardly lacks for star quality, what with her high-profile off-court relationship with Bulgaria’s Grigor Dimitrov and her “Sugarpova” range of candies.
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Maria Sharapova was left unconcerned by her second-set blip en route to a quarter-final victory over Coco Vandeweghe at Wimbledon, insisting there is no “easy road” to grand slam success.
That brought her into conflict with veteran chair umpire Asderaki-Moore, who clearly felt that Sharapova’s shuffling and shifting of position while Vandeweghe tossed the ball on her second serves was well within the rules. “I said if she has a problem speaking to Maria [Sharapova], if she’s too scared to do it, I had no problem speaking to her”.
“What I experienced, what I felt from her moving around in between my serving motion was not, I don’t think, sportsmanlike. When I felt that it wasn’t being reciprocated, that’s when I spoke to the umpire”.
“I find that this was one of the most hard matches I’ve played at Wimbledon, maybe in my career”, Djokovic said. “What she said, I’m not going to argue against her words”, said the Russian.
First, Vandeweghe gave No. 4 seed Sharapova all she could handle over the course of 2 hours, 46 minutes before bowing in three sets. The sheer toil required in this victory r-eflected the frustrations of subduing an awkward, unconventional ad-versary.
This time there was no coming back as Sharapova then broke again to take the match and set up a semi-final against either top seed Serena Williams or Victoria Azarenka, who were meeting on Centre Court later on Tuesday.
Sharapova’s wince-inducing screams grew louder amid stress points, as is her custom – any decibel rises did little to deter Vandeweghe, who can at least be proud of the staying power that forced a third set. The 23-year-old American clearly was not daunted by the occassion, as impressively, she found some damaging serves, especially up the tee.
Certainly her semi-final opponent has had an interesting ride.
“I wasn’t taken aback by her whatsoever from the match’s standpoint”.
“I don’t feel like I have any pressure going into this match”.
Sharapova ruthlessly pounced on her few opportunities to seize a double break in the opening set, but struggled to press home the -advantage.
But Vandeweghe displayed remarkable resiliency to save four break points and hold.
The ex- champion sealed her place in the last four at SW19 on Tuesday with a tough three-set win over the American.
However, it is the memories of 2004, when she first rose to global pre-eminence on this court aged just 17, which continue to inspire.
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“There really is [a special feeling]”, said Sharapova. “Even to be a small part of its history is an incredible feeling”.