Maria Sharapova Failed to Stop Henin-Hardenne
Former World number 1 Maria Sharapova was prevented by Belgian Henin-Hardenne from reaching the final of Australian Open. It is Sharapova’s second consecutive failiure at Semi-Final here.
All started well for Maria Sharapova, as she made the most of her forehand for winners. Though they broke each other in the seventh and eight games, Maria Sharapova secured the first set 6- 4 in 50 minutes.
In the second set, Henin-Hardenne lifted a gear and began to push the ball around. The incredible placement on serve and on her ground strokes left Maria Sharapova scurrying for cheeky drop shots or caught mid-court with backhand passing shots and lost the second set 1-6.
Alerted Maria Sharapova gave tough resistence to the 2004 champion. Henin-Hardenne dropped serve when her final approach shot narrowly clipped the top of the net, and Sharapova improved from 2-4 to 4-4. But Henin-Hardenne brought up two match points with a blistering backhand to finish the match 6-4, 6-1, 6-4.