WTA: Sharapova with perfect balance in the half-match

If it goes against Simona Halep, then Maria Sharapova can only look back on a successful experience.In Beijing, the Romanian and former number one in the world meet in round three.

The conditions couldn’t be better for Simona Halep – actually.Maria Sharapova also had a hard time in the second round of Beijing, needed three sets against Ekaterina Makarova as well as against Anastasija Sevastova to open the match.After all, the five-time major winner did not have to fight off a match ball this time, although Makarova fought back honestly.And that’s why the eighth round of the China Open will see the eighth match between Halep and Sharapova.

And the previous ones have brought only victories for the Russian.

The last duel is still in the best and most of all fresh memories of the tennis fans,”Opening Night” at the US Open, from which Sharapova in particular made a really great show: 6:4,4:6,6:3 was the motto for the 30-year-old resident of Manhattan Beach in California.Not that Halep didn’t fight back.The final minutes of the match, however, left an impression that the Romanian did not believe in a victory.

Halep had two easy games in round two in Beijing, opponent Magdalena Rybarikova had to give up at the beginning of the second set.The physical constitution of the perfectionist from Constanta, however, is rarely the problem in Halep’s game anyway – apart from perhaps the final defeat in Rome, when the 26-year-old was injured at her ankle early on.

Halep should have won her first Grand Slam tournament at the French Open, with all due respect to the real winner Jelena Ostapenko.She took advantage of the opportunity that Saturday in Roland Garros.But also the fact that Halep played too passively in the decisive phases and that he let himself be taken out of his hands too easily.

On the other hand, Maria Sharapova must never be subordinated to passive play; at the Arthur Ashe Stadium, she has maltreated the balls with a force that forced respect from all viewers.

After the US Open, where Sevastova finished fourth in round four, Sharapova took a break and Halep tried to play a tournament.With very modest success – against Daria Kasatkina, the current number two in the world only managed to win two games.Perhaps the prerequisite for Maria Sharapova could not be better.

Here is the single panel in Beijing