August 13, 2010
Maria defeated #16 seed Marion Bartoli of France to advance to the semis in Cincinnati. Maria won 6-1 6-4 in 1 hour and 22 minutes.
Maria came out firing in the first set as she dropped only 1 game against the 16th seed. The first set took only 29 minutes and Maria won the set when Bartoli hit a shot long. Maria's serve was particularly impressive in this set as she had a first serve percentage of 74% and won 13 out of 14 points when the first serve when in. Maria also had 5 aces to 1 double-fault.
Maria got the first break of the second set when she hit a forehand return winner to lead 3-2 and another break for 5-2 when she hit a backhand winner. In the next game Maria was up 40-15 but couldn't convert the matchpoints she had and Bartoli broke, Bartoli then held her serve but Maria made sure in the next game that the match was hers when she hit a pounding backhand winner.
In the semis to be played on Saturday, Maria will face Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, Maria has never played Pavlyuchenkova before.
Resources : http://www.mariasharapova.com/
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