I can think of many adjectives to describe Maria Sharapova's 6-2, 5-7, 6-3 win over Peng Shuai, but "pretty" isn't one of them. Ordinarily, that wouldn't be so bad; judging from the scoreline alone, this one might have been a dogged, bitter, close battle. What it was, though, was yet another remarkable testament to how quickly a player can lose her confidence and in the blink of an eye, making a hash out of what ought to be a routine beatdown.
This analysis will seem harsh to some; after all, Sharapova is a mere No. 16 seed here and is now in the semifinals, where she'll meet Caroline Wozniacki. That's a good effort, especially when you consider how much hardship, pain and frustration Sharapova has had to endure for what seems like an eternity (despite the fact that she hasn't even turned 24). Today, she faced a player whose great weakness (a poor serve) plays right into the hands of a good returner like Sharapova. She was also in against a player whose two-handed forehand looked at times more like a loose mainsail flapping in the wind than a piercing, penetrating, reliable weapon.
Those criticisms of Peng help explain how Sharapova, striking the ball with savage efficiency and serving well, rolled to a 6-2, 2-0 lead and had her staunchest fans hoping that this was the great turnaround, the great return to consistent excellence for which they'd been waiting. Given that Sharapova had given up just six games in her previous two matches, this was not a delusional hope.
Then the wheels feel off. Again. A three-double-fault game by Sharapova allowed Peng to break back for 2-all in the second, and another double-fault combined with inexplicable groundstroking errors yielded another break and set Peng up to win the set. She got it by virtue of yet another Sharapova break, this one featuring double fault No. 11. You know what comes next: bathroom break!
For a while it looked as if Peng ought to have joined Sharapova, and neither woman should have bothered to return to the court. The first four games of set three were breaks, with the server winning just one point—total—over that span. Both women were spraying balls all over. Peng held the fifth game and it looked like sure doom for Sharapova when she fell behind 15-40, serving that next game at 2-3. But to her credit, she played three great points to pull herself out of the doldrums, and broke Peng in the next game to take the lead for good.
That Sharapova's game could fall apart so comprehensively yet again does not bode well for the future, much as we may admire her guts and determination. It takes a little more than those intestinal qualities to beat a consistent, focused, confident player like Wozniacki.
—Pete Bodo