Aegon Classic: Maria Sharapova reaches semifinals despite serving struggles

Former world number one Maria Sharapova reached her first tour semifinal in more than 12 months at the Aegon Classic in Birmingham.The 73rd ranked player beat Belgium’s Yanina Wickmayer 6-1, 2-6, 6-3.

The Russian noticeably struggled with her serve during the second set but managed to recover in the third set by breaking her opponent’s serve twice to gain a 5-1 lead which guaranteed her victory.

Sharapova committed eleven double faults in the match which was attributed to her “remodeled” serve. This was done to protect her injury-prone shoulder.

“I kind of lost the momentum and made more errors than I would have preferred, and she gained confidence from that,” the Russian said after the match.

“When you give her time, she plays very aggressively. And once she had broken me, she kept swinging away and came up with some great shots,” she added.

For a spot in the finals, Sharapova needs to beat China’s Li Na in the semifinals on Saturday. Li defeated Stefanie Voegele 6-3, 7-6.

The other semifinal will be contested between India’s Sania Mirza and Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia.

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