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EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Bouchard claims victory over Sharapova in thriller

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MADRID: Eugenie Bouchard pulled off her first win over Maria Sharapova with a 7-5 2-6 6-4 triumph in the Madrid Open on Monday in a thrilling contest full of tension after the Canadian had called the Russian a cheater following her doping ban. Bouchard, 23, saw the five-time grand slam winner as her idol when she was growing up but her admiration vanished when Sharapova tested positive for the banned substance meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open, which led to a 15-month suspension. The match was the most eagerly anticipated when the draw was made after Bouchard’s comments in the Turkish media in April when she said Sharapova was a “cheater” and should not have been allowed to compete again following her positive test.


Bouchard stood by her comments about Sharapova on arriving in the Spanish capital and after Monday’s victory the Canadian said recent events had made her more fired up for the game. “I definitely had some extra motivation going into today, Obviously I had never beaten her before and then there were other circumstances,” she told a news conference. “I was actually quite inspired before the match because I had a lot of players coming up to me privately wishing me good luck, players I don’t normally speak to, getting a lot of texts from people in the tennis world that were just rooting for me.


“So I wanted to do it for myself, but also all these people. I really felt support.”


After suffering a tough defeat, Sharapova avoided getting drawn into the extra furore surrounding the game.


“I’ve been part of this game for many years. I know what the drill is,” she said. “But at the end of the day, it’s just two athletes competing against each other, and I’m one of them. That’s how I treat this game. “What you work for so many hours every single day is to be on the winning end of matches. Today was just not that day.”


THRILLING CONTEST


Monday’s enthralling contest, which lasted nearly three hours, certainly lived up to the hype. Bouchard, ranked 60th in the world, entered Madrid after five tour-level opening round losses in a row and her three-set first round win over Alize Cornet was her first since the Australian Open in January. But her extra determination to beat Sharapova was on display as she managed to win a gruelling 70-minute first set against the 30-year-old Russian by clinching the 12th game.— Reuters


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