TENNIS in DEPTH.

Title hope Maria Sharapova stared defeat in the face before hitting back to end the plucky challenge of home wild card Caroline Garcia at the French Open. Sharapova was down a set and a double break at one stage but hit back to defeat the impressive 17-year-old 3-6 6-4 6-0, winning the last 11 games. Garcia, playing in front of her home crowd, gave the Court Philippe Chatrier fans plenty to cheer about. The conditions were difficult and the clay surface was blown around by the strong winds, but it proved no obstacle for the young French star as she outclassed her Russian opponent in the opening exchanges. Sharapova was expected to hit the ground running in Thursday’s second-round clash, fresh off the back of her title win in Rome and her easy victory in the first round which saw her drop just three games. Garcia had not read the script though and in the first set the young wild card produced a flurry of crunching groundstrokes – off both wings – to put the seventh seed on the back foot. The two women exchanged early breaks but youngster Garcia soon took control of her serve, while Sharapova was making errors all over the court, gifting her opponent opportunities to take hold of the match. Garcia capitalised on the errors the Russian continued to make and, having failed to do so in the seventh game, eventually held serve in the ninth to seal the first set. The Russian looked demoralised and deflated going into the second set and Garcia was ruthless, punishing any mistakes by Sharapova with more powerful groundstrokes. The French player continued to look strong on the serve and she stormed to a 4-1 second-set lead and, having broken Sharapova twice, was on the verge of causing the second major upset of the day; Kim Clijsters having crashed out to the Dutch youngster Arantxa Rus earlier. The sixth game turned out to be the decisive moment in the match as Sharapova managed to up her game and break the serve of youngster Garcia, letting out a cry of relief and looking towards the sky. The break came after a controversial call from the umpire to overrule a decision from the line-judge. Sharapova took full advantage though, winning the game to kick-start a fantastic run which saw her win five straight games to level the match.

One of the best fighters on the tour, Sharapova took her renewed form into the final set and once Garcia had been broken early on in the decider it was clear her game was all but up. Sharapova, who meets Chan Yung-jan in round three, showed immense spirit to overturn a seemingly impossible deficit and emerge victorious from a match in which she failed to ever really get going. Garcia, on the other hand, can be immensely proud of her performance. She might have seen the match through to the end had it not been for her inexperience.

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