She better finish YE#1
and mess. Petra's game is too basic for Maria at this stage. Petra plays well when she's standing in the court dictating. If she has to move, even a little bit, her timing is thrown out of whack and she's reaching. She doesn't have the quick feet necessary to get into position, the court speed to play good defense, or the attacking abilities of position to get Maria thrown off. She's too big and slow.
Many times Sharapova burned Petra's BH return. Her rally backhand did a lot of damage but you can't win off of that shot alone and Maria knew that. I could count like 12-15 times Petra either netted a BH or hit it long. And the thing is, especially on the AD side, Maria's serve is going to Petra's BH (a righty's FH) so you'd thing that she would learn. If Petra cheated on the BH side she would've gotten so many returns in. And it's not like Maria would've burned her too many times by going to her forehand on that side either because 95% of the time she avoids that, it's her worst spot to serve in.
This matchup is a lot like Davenport-Maria. Maria doesn't play defense well at all, but she certainly moves better than her slow opponent and as long as she keeps the ball out of Petra's strike zone or robs her of time she'll never lose. Petra is no Davenport where she can just blast out of position. I mean she can but the success rate is very small.
With that being said, Maria was never going to lose this match because she's gaining form and Petra is just being Petra
I mean, her serve is still a huge weapon for her, she's winning many points after her opponent's bad return of her serve.
I hate she's become Masha's pigeon but I guess it's because their game is very similar and Masha's more stronger mentally. On the other hand, it's good for Petra that she's finally taken a set
