It was obvious from the opening bell of this semifinal whose racquet was going to be doing the dictating today. Maria Sharapova came out hammering every ball that Caroline Wozniacki served up to her. First serve returns, second serve returns, crosscourt backhands, down the line forehands—she was teeing off. Meanwhile Wozniacki, who had played with unusual creativity and even abandon in her last match, against Serena Williams, was back inside her favored defensive shell, unable to tilt rallies in her favor.
Which, it turned out, wasn’t a bad place to be. Wozniacki got just enough balls back to survive three break points and avoid going down 0-3 right off the bat. That was enough to put a seed of doubt in Sharapova’s mind. As the set progressed, the Russian’s shots began to stray and her errors began to catch up to her winners. At 4-1, she failed to convert two game points and was broken. Serving at 2-4, Wozniacki showed a few signs of proactive life, using her serve to move forward and take over rallies for the first time. By the next game, momentum had swung completely. Sharapova hit a first serve that landed on her side of the net, and she began to press and miss badly from the baseline. Wozniacki reeled off five straight games for the set, 6-4.
Sharapova righted herself in the second. She stayed aggressive, she kept moving forward to take the ball, but she was more measured in her shot selection. She pounded Wozniacki’s weaker forehand, but with spin and depth rather than all-out pace. This time, when she had break points for a 3-0 lead, Sharapova didn’t let them slip away. She broke with a forehand winner and went on to win the set 6-2. By the start of the third, she had hit 32 winners to Wozniacki’s six.
Just as important, Sharapova was 16-1 in three-set matches dating back to the start of 2011. The two held to 2-2, when Sharapova took a high forehand and hit it down the line. Wozniacki, looking for another ball crosscourt to her forehand, was caught leaning the wrong way.
With Sharapova up a break and continuing to hit cleanly, it looked like that was going to be it. Except that this was Wozniacki, and she was going to take any opening she could to get back into the match. Serving at 5-2, 15-0, Sharapova gave her that opening when she didn’t put a swing volley away. Instead, Wozniacki reflexed a winning pass crosscourt and gave a determined fist-pump. From there, she began to cut loose with her shots for the first time. She hit a flashy, Maria-esque crosscourt backhand winner, finished another point at the net, and forced Sharapova to try to serve it out again at 5-4.
Along the way, though, Wozniacki had made one error: She had used her last challenge on a shot of hers that had been well out. So she had none left when, on Sharapova’s second match point, chair umpire Kader Nouni overruled an out call on a second serve by the Russian. Wozniacki disagreed, and tried, preposterously, to get Nouni to have Sharapova challenge her own in call. Nouni instead called for a let to be played, and Sharapova won the point with a good serve and a swing volley (she was 12 of 13 at the net for the day).
Sharapova walked off with a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 win and a trip to her second straight U.S. hard-court final. Wozniacki walked off without shaking Nouni’s hand.
