By Ros Satar
(May 31, 2013) PARIS – Fans who braved the constant downpour were unlucky not enough to see the completion of No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova’s match against Canadian teen Eugenie Bouchard at Roland Garros on Friday.
Bouchard held her opening serve, but from then on it was one-way traffic in the first set, before rain stopped play with Sharapova leading 4-1.
With a restart under diminishing light, around 8pm CET, Sharapova found herself defending break points in both her games, before finally taking the first set.
The second set saw Bouchard get the first break, only for there to be two more in succession.
As the rain started to fall yet again on the late evening crowd, Sharapova showed absolutely no signs of wanting to come off, as Bouchard appealed to the umpire to come down from his sheltered canopy and see the conditions for himself.
With the Canadian serving at 2-4 Adv-40, the play was finally suspended for the day – with Sharapova looking none too happy.
The restart today was quick with Bouchard holding the game left in the balance, the night before.
However, Sharapova delivered the final coup-de-grace, breaking the teenager to advance into the third round 6-2, 6-4, where she will meet Zheng Jie.
Sharapova had to admit that despite wanting to stay out last night to finish the remaining games, it really was not an option.
“Well, at 8:45, I think when it was still raining, it was pretty tough to continue.
“Overall I was just happy that I finished the match and on to the next round.”