Timea Babos gave in a long day to her opponent but couldn’t counter her way to victory at the US Open Wednesday. Maria Sharapova pulled off another long match at the Billy Jean King National Tennis Center to win 6-7(4), 6-4, 6-1 at Arthur Ashe Stadium. The two set run she endured on the biggest stage paid off yet again to continue her run in the tournament
This was not only a first time meeting for the two stars of the sport, but an important one after Monday’s thrilling victory by Sharapova. Her three set victory of world number two Simona Halep was a dynamite victory in a major for the first time in 19 months. With no heavy contender in the quarter of the draw, it was Sharapova’s to control or lose as her consistency has been tested since her return back in late April. The Hungarian had a three setter as well taking down her opening round matchup and would try to put a lock on the biggest threat in the entire ladies draw.
She started with a break of Sharapova countering the serve of the Russian with a chance to dictate. The hold from her side of the court continued paying off as the Russian had unforced errors on the returns. The former number one rallied back to post a hold to love forcing out an error from the Hungarian. Sharapova evened the score with a double break before struggling to save herself on serve. The Russian saved herself forcing deuce but after three challenging breaks, it was Babos who gained the victory and took over the lead.
Babos opened a two game margin as she focused on the struggles Sharapova still felt from her match Monday and benefitted from the easy points to her name. Seeing the trouble she was in, the superstar held Babos at 40-15 before capping a win that kept her a game down after seven. The Russian found herself in dire straits; serving to stay alive in the set with Babos up 5-3. Sharapova had her skills to thank in the ninth bring together an offense that allowed her another victory and a way to keep the set going.
She fought her game to reach break point in the tenth where her focused paid off watching the ball of Babos land long of the baseline. It set up an important point for her to regroup and take what good of her game is together and get in control. Serving for the lead in the 11th, Sharapova thought she had Babos beat but on game point, her decision to lob worked against her as the Hungarian got it back in behind the Russian.
On deuce, Babos got the advantage and watched a shot from Sharapova fell wide of the court letting out a scream of positivity and another chance to end the set. She couldn’t get it as Sharapova earned break points to force the key tiebreaker to determine who was going to lead the match. Sharapova had the errors coming back to trouble her as Babos gained a 3-1 lead in the tiebreak.
After ten points dealt out, Babos reached another chance to end Sharapova in what was her third attempt at set point. Her loose returns gave Babos the position she wanted to be in after nearly an hour of tennis in the books. Her first serve carried her into the lead as the second serve sat in the basement at 18 percent. Sharapova had more unforced errors in the set that put her in a spot to possibly play to the distance again.
She took an early 2-0 lead on Babos but her game struggled to give the Hungarian some room for improvement. Babos took Sharapova for a lengthy ride as her taking a 3-2 lead took quite a bit of effort against Sharapova. The endurance played a role in the further actions as she watched the Russian slowly make her way back to regain the lead while Babos stayed at her level.
The former number one was in cruise control taking a 5-3 lead on Babos as she was closer to playing the distance. Her attempts to win it took her to deuce but breaking the 24 year old was harder than she imagined. The ball was in Sharapova’s hands to dictate how the set would finish. The former champion of the Open put her best on court and pulled off a huge service to love that set up the important third set for herself and Babos to put everything out in order to get to the third round.
Sharapova got herself a 2-0 hold before Babos could get on the score. When she did, the Hungarian had an answer but it wasn’t enough to break down the level Sharapova was on. The Russian proved her worth with a serve to love in the fourth keeping herself two games ahead. Babos tried to come up with good ways to get the better of her opponent but the force of deuce caught her off guard for a time. Sharapova answered with good returns to get the advantage but a trick attempt from the 24 year old went awry losing out on gaining back ground but lost more instead.
Sharapova played at 5-1 with Babos very much fatigued and out of ideas on how to recover from such a large deficit. Sharapova earned a match point and nailed it with an unforced error flying over the baseline to bring an end to 2 hours and 19 minutes. In total, the Russian has logged four hours and three minutes on court with a third round match to take place Friday.
“It was difficult to control the emotions of yesterday because you want to be able to move on really fast so finding the balance was hard. Today, going into the match I just wanted to get it done and I did,” Sharapova said to ESPN’s Tom Rinaldi. It wasn’t my best tennis, it felt like it was a scrappy match but I feel like some of those days are sometimes the best because you get through and you give yourself another chance and I felt like this was one of those days.
She’ll get to settle and prepare for her match Friday facing the winner between Sofia Kenin and Sachia Vickery.
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