French Open 2014 Photos

French Open: Maria Sharapova Survives Simona Halep to Win 5th Grand Slam Title

June 07, 2014 23:37

Seventh seed and tournament favourite Maria Sharapova survived a tense three-set encounter against fourth seed Simona Halep to win her second French Open title and her fifth major trophy. She won 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in the end after three hours and two minutes, this being the second longest final at Roland Garros. (All images AFP)

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Seventh seed and tournament favourite Maria Sharapova survived a tense three-set encounter against fourth seed Simona Halep to win her second French Open title and her fifth major trophy. She won 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 in the end after three hours and two minutes, this being the second longest final at Roland Garros. (All images AFP)
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Seventh seed Maria Sharapova walked into Court Philippe Chatrier first, being the lower ranked seed out of the two finalists, and she got a decent cheer from the crowd. However, the bigger cheer was yet to come.
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When Halep walked in following Sharapova, she got a huge reception from the crowd. The crowd at all Grand Slams, not only in Paris, is known to favour the underdog in every final and this was no different.
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Maria Sharapova didn't take much time during her customary pose with Halep and was already concentrating on the task ahead. Plus, Halep's small height compared to that of Sharapova made up for a slightly awkward picture.
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Halep started the final on a great note as she broke Sharapova in the opening game of the final and then consolidated her serve to lead 2-0. However, Sharapova was waiting to strike back and she levelled it up at 2-2 soon after.
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Sharapova took the opening set 6-4 but it happened only after 57 minutes had already passed into the match. Almost every game had players fighting off a deuce situation either to hold serve or to get a service break. A great final was on the cards.
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At the change of ends, Halep did some thinking as to what better she could do to come back into this match. She certainly had to play a lot more drop shots and some more sliced returns compared to her aggressive but boring baseline attack in the first set.
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Halep won the second set 6-4 after one hour and 14 minutes and the crowd was going mad in jubilation. They wanted a good match in the final.
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Sharapova looked completely taken aback at Halep's consistent baseline attack and she was not able to defend some of the backhand down-the-line strikes that landed just inside. She had a big task at hand in the deciding set.
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Sharapova made a great start to the deciding set as she broke Halep in the very first game to take a 1-0 lead but she gave it away in the very next game as Halep broke back.
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However, this time Sharapova kept her calm and after five breaks of serve in the final set, she won 6-4 to wrap up the affair 6-4, 6-7, 6-4 and get her second French Open title. She jumped into the crowd soon after to hug her father and her team. Great scenes!
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This was Sharapova's fifth Grand Slam title win and she was over the moon! She later said Paris was one of the most beautiful cities in the world and it was a dream come true to win two times at Roland Garros!
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Sharapova had tremendous amount of respect for her opponent Halep and said this was the toughest final she had ever played in her life.
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It all made for a great trophy pose between the two finalists and Halep seemed content with a second position. She thanked her team in her speech and wished she could make many more Grand Slam finals in the future. It was her first Grand Slam speech! She had never made the final of a major before.
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However, the lady of the moment was Maria Sharapova, and she couldn't hold back her tears as the Russian national anthem was played. She said she wanted to break some parts of the trophy and give it to her team, who according to her played a great hand in her success this year at Roland Garros. She also thanked her parents and wished they were not watching this because it made her superstitious. Of course, she saluted Halep for her heroic performance in the final.

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