Auckland: Maria Sharapova hit the first speedbump in her injury comeback on Thursday when she was beaten 6-2, 7-5 by Hungarian veteran Greta Arn in the quarterfinals of the ASB Classic tennis tournament.
The formerly top-ranked Russian, a three-time Grand Slam champion, has struggled to find her 'A' game in her first tournament since last October's China Open and finally met a player in Arn, 31 years old and unseeded, who could fully exploit her hesitance.
Sharapova's serve has been shaky in three matches this week — she particularly struggled with her ball toss in windy conditions — and she has shown a lack of patience and accuracy in rallies.
Her coach counseled her during her first- and second-round matches to play through the middle of the court and to take her time to work her way into points but through the week Sharapova looked for the quick winner.
She tried to hit the lines with her powerful forehand but, lacking matchplay, missed her usual accuracy and fell into errors.
She made 14 unforced errors in her first set against Arn on Thursday, dropping serve in the first and fifth games to lose the set in 30 minutes.
By the end of the match, she had made 30 unforced errors, had three double faults and had hit only won clean winner. Still, she detained Arn for 61 minutes in the second set and showed grit, breaking back after losing serve in the first game.
She broke Arn in the sixth game for a 4-2 lead but immediately dropped her own serve and did so again, crucially, in the 11th game when, at breakpoint, she put a routine volley into the net.
"I would have loved to play a few more here and be the winner," Sharapova said. "But that's the way it goes. You look forward to the next one. That's the good thing about tennis."
Arn, winner of one WTA title in 2007, said Thursday's match was a dream.
"I'm like a little girl whose dream has come true," Arn said.
"If you ask a little girl what is your dream, she would say to play Maria Sharapova."
The contrast could not have been great between the form of Sharapova and No. 2 seed and defending champion Yanina Wickmayer who breezed through her quarterfinal against Simona Halep of Romania 6-0, 6-2 in 63 minutes.
Wickmayer won the first nine games and Halep allowed herself an ironic fist pump when she held serve for the first time in the fourth game of the second set. She delayed Wickmayer's victory momentarily by breaking serve in the seventh game of the set then gave up the set and match with a double fault at matchpoint.
Wickmayer's semifinal opponent will be Peng Shuai of China who won her quarterfinal 6-4, 7-5 over British qualifier Heather Watson.
Peng was fully stretched by the 18-year-old Guernsey native, a hard-hitting baseliner, and took 49 minutes to win the first set with a single service break.
The second set, stretching to 65 minutes, was closer and brought out the fighting qualities of both players. Peng had a service break to lead 4-3 but Watson fought back to level in a thrilling 10th game.
Watson won the first three points of the game but Peng saved four break points and held a match-point before the Briton leveled at 5-5.
Peng immediately broke back and saved a further two break-points in the 12th game before taking the match on her second match-point.
"Before the game, I was really nervous; I got so tight and I started to push the ball," Peng said. "She's a very good player because I was running a lot."
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