TENNIS/French Open:It was as expected, artillery from the backcourt, Maria Sharapova screaming like a banshee and 19-year-old Ana Ivanovic meeting the Russian force with her own weapons-grade returns, her forehands bringing the most pained expressions to the famous face of the world number two.
It was a big, orchestral Grand Slam semi-final, full of noise and the skid of swinging winners popping off the racquet strings, and one that for Sharapova was a match too far this week.
For the younger Serb, who, with Jelena Jankovic, started out on her tennis career playing in Belgrade on carpet laid in a dried out Olympic sized swimming pool, a Roland Garros final now beckons against Justin Henin, yesterday's other semi-final winner against Jankovic.
It is Ivanovic's first final at this level, Henin's ninth.
For Sharapova, who came into the tournament under-cooked and short on tournament play because of a shoulder injury, it was a disappointing showing, the 6-2, 6-1 scoreline close to humiliation. Ivanovic cleaned her clock, dusted her down and probably made her feel what others do when an in-form world number two is hitting balls at them. In Ivanovic, Sharapova may have caught a glimpse of herself. She jumped on weak serves, of which there were many, and constantly attacked the normally robust game of the twice Grand Slam winner.
The Sharapova serve was broken three times in the first set, leading Ivanovic to speed to a 5-2 lead. Then the Russian stood up to serve again, went 15-40 down and double-faulted for the set to a collective groan from the crowd. In those 32 minutes, she won 44 per cent of her first serves and 28 per cent of her second.
Whereas Sharapova was able to rescue herself in the earlier rounds of the tournament with her natural fizz, against Ivanovic's deceptively simple game there was no answer. Both players are over six feet. Both are right-handed. Both have double-fisted backhands. Both are millionaires. Both are poster girls for tennis. Both are from Eastern Europe. What separated them was the sting and penetration in Ivanovic's game. Ivanovic's cannonade was unmanageable, Sharapova's risible.
The second set was even more one-sided and Ivanovic raced to 5-0. All was over bar the shouting. Sharapova then held serve for 5-1 before Ivanovic won three match points and aced Sharapova for the final act of the meeting.
"I knew she is not a great mover on the clay," said Ivanovic, innocently turning the knife. "So I tried to play deep balls, put her under pressure and move her a little bit."
Sharapova now looks forward. In her mind, there is little to be found in 2007's visit to Court Philippe Chatrier that will help her on what she clearly sees as London's sweet grass.
"Despite losing, I think this is very positive," she said menacingly. "My favourite time of year is coming up."
As a three-time winner here, Henin would not agree, although the Belgian, who beat Jankovic almost as easily, 6-2, 6-2, has twice been to the Wimbledon final. Again, it was a case of Jankovic offering Henin a shadow of the game to the one that earned her a place in the semi-final and Henin reacting with a magisterial performance, her backhand winners as ever drawing breath from the crowd. Already she is being compared to Steffi Graf, who won Roland Garros six times.
Henin threatened almost every one of the eight service games of Jankovic, squeezing the 22-year-old constantly. Ultimately that created opportunity for the defending champion and like Sharapova before her, Jankovic double-faulted to lose the first set with a groan.
While Jankovic tried to mix up her game by coming to the net, slicing drop shots as well as trading from the baseline, it was cack-handed and the execution tardy. The serve also continued to cause self-inflicted trouble, Henin breaking it three times in the second set, the final stroke of the game a long forehand from Jankovic sailing out of play.
"It's not like she didn't give me a chance to get back into the match," said Jankovic. "She did but I didn't use it. I was trying different things but everything I did was wrong. It didn't work. Everything I tried was a mistake. Nothing was right. I was making mistakes and playing the wrong shots at the wrong times."
Ivanovic will also be forced to try an unlock Henin. That's a tall order in what has become the Belgian's backyard.
Women's singles semi-finals:(7) A Ivanovic (Ser) bt (2) M Sharapova (Rus) 6-2 6-1; (1) J Henin (Bel) bt (4) J Jankovic (Ser) 6-2 6-2. Men's doubles semi-finals: (9) L Dlouhy (Cze) & P Vizner (Cze) bt F Santoro (Fra) & N Zimonjic (Ser) 6-1 1-6 6-4; M Knowles (Bah) & D Nestor (Can) bt M Bhupathi (Ind) & R Stepanek (Cze) 6-3 6-4. Mixed doubles final: (8) N Dechy (Fra) & A Ram (Isr) bt (6) K Srebotnik (Slo) & N Zimonjic (Ser) 7-5 6-3.
Today: Men's singles semi-finals:(1) R Federer (Swi) v (4) N Davydenko (Rus); (6) N Djokovic (Ser) v (2) R Nadal (Spn)
