One week ago, Maria Sharapova was down match point—twice—against the 150th-ranked player in the world, Alexandra Panova. One round ago, Ekaterina Makarova was in complete control of the world No. 3, Simona Halep.
Each of those matches seemed like a lifetime ago as Sharapova put the finishing touches on a 6-3, 6-2 win over Makarova, a result that sends her to the Australian Open final for a fourth time. Sharapova served well, was accurate for the most part, and confident—qualities that were in scarce supply during her second-round scare. Makarova, meanwhile, was missing frequently and looked a different, lower class than her opponent, which accurately described Halep during her woeful quarterfinal showing.
“I wanted to take my chances,” said Sharapova after the match; she hit 23 winners overall. But the bigger story was Makarova, typically one of the tour’s most consistent players on court but today a liability on the baseline. She struck 29 unforced errors against 11 winners, unable to handle the pace of Sharapova’s trademark flat groundstrokes. Her second serve was also susceptible to attack, with Sharapova often driving the ball back a greater velocity than which it came.
It took 10 minutes for Sharapova to hold serve and win the first game of the match, but she become more efficient in all respects after that lengthy introduction. A forehand return winner and a consolidating hold quickly made the score 3-0, and while Makarova would claw her way back to 3-4, Sharapova’s superiority was impossible to hide. At 4-3, the second seed nailed four winners to reclaim the break-of-serve edge, then held at love for the set. She was never seriously threatened thereafter.
