In “Turning Points,” we take a look at the pivotal moments that changed the course of sets, matches and championship runs.
In this edition, we look back at the 2006 US Open, when Maria Sharapova refused to buckle against world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo.
All things being equal, Maria Sharapova could have faded away.
After dominating the first set of her 2006 semifinal against Amelie Mauresmo, Sharapova had allowed her lead to slip away. In some aspects, it was uncharted territory. In others, it was all too familiar.
Sharapova had contested the US Open semis 12 months earlier, the middle of five consecutive Slam semifinal losses. Now she was back, looking to beat a player she had never defeated before; the same player that toppled her in a tight three-setter at Wimbledon just two months earlier.
Mauresmo also happened to be the top seed. But Sharapova came into the 2006 season with a winning record against world No. 1s, having defeated American Lindsay Davenport in the Tokyo final and the round-robin stage of the year-ending WTA Tour Championships in 2005.
Now she was locked in a one-set shootout for a spot in the US Open final.
Tennis can be a game of momentum as much as anything else, and Sharapova had been riding the hot hand in New York City.
She had closed out her quarterfinal win over No. 27 seed Tatiana Golovin by winning all seven points of the second-set tiebreak, and she needed just 24 minutes on a blustery Friday afternoon on Day 12 of the tournament to race out to a 6-0 lead against Mauresmo.
Mauresmo was far from her best, committing a dozen miscues in an impatient, error-strewn performance that belied her top billing. Just like that, Sharapova was six games away from her first US Open final and her first title match at any major since she won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004.
The Russian had been deep into the second week of majors since her maiden Slam, most recently on London’s lawns earlier in the summer. She lost three of those five semis in deciding sets, twice after winning the opener. Her most recent defeat was against Mauresmo, who in July went on to win her first major two days later in the English capital.
But any thoughts Sharapova may have had of a straight-forward win in Flushing Meadows were short lived, if they ever existed at all. Mauresmo bounced back and took the second set, 6-4, inducing 15 unforced errors out of Sharapova and finding success at the net, where she won eight of 11 points to send the semifinal to a winner-takes-all third set.
All of a sudden, someone other than Sharapova had all the momentum.
“It was definitely tough to get broken that last game of the second set,” Sharapova said. “But, you know, I came off, took a little break, and I just thought to myself that it's not over until it's over, you know. I was still playing good tennis, and I knew that I could win it.”
Mauresmo, who had leapt into the air moments earlier after leveling the match, led 30-0 to begin the third set, but Sharapova refused to bow.
A forehand winner down the line off a Mauresmo net cord gave her an opening, and Sharapova ground out the next three points, as Mauresmo hit one backhand long and dumped two forehands into the net.
“Maybe I am 30-love up on my first service game in the third set, maybe if I make this one, then things might look a little different in the third set,” Mauresmo said. “I didn't feel very well throughout the match, and it showed.
“But all the credit to her. She played a good match. I didn't play the way I wanted to today. Even when I win the second set, I don't really feel like things are going the way I want to.
"But that's the way it is. Conditions were not so good today, as well. She handled them much better than I did.”
Advantage Sharapova. At a time when she could have buckled under the weight of nerves and her own lofty expectations, she remained steadfast.
Serving up a break at 1-0, 30-0, Sharapova sent a first serve down the middle. Mauresmo stretched left and got enough on the ball to loop it high back into play as Sharapova moved forward inside the service box. She let the ball bounce instead of taking it out of the air, eventually netting the overhead.
For the second time in as many minutes, she could have become deflated. But she buckled down, won a 23-ball rally on the very next point and eventually consolidated the break. She broke twice more in the third and fifth games, serving out the match for her second 6-0 set of the day and a place in the final.
History tells us what happened next, as the Russian defeated Justine Henin in straight sets to claim the second leg of the career Grand Slam, an accomplishment she’d complete six years later at the 2012 French Open.
