Sharapova feels ready for the US Open

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  • Still upbeat: Maria Sharapova is optimistic of her chances at Flushing Meadows.

    Maria Sharapova is pleased with her US Open preparation despite letting victory slip away against Ana Ivanovic in the Cincinnati semi-finals on Saturday night.

    The Russian world No6 climbed back from 2-6, 0-4 down to win the second set and force a decider and was serving for the match at 5-4 in the final set (held two match points) but couldn’t close it out.

    Sharapova had lost in the third round in Montreal to Carla Suarez Navarro the week before and heads to next week’s US Open with four wins and two losses under her belt on the North American hard courts this summer. Five of her six matches in the past two weeks had gone to three sets.

    Asked whether she feels good about where her game is at heading into the Open, Sharapova said: “I do, actually. I feel like I’ve played enough matches. Definitely would’ve loved to play another one tomorrow, but just didn’t happen that way. Overall got through some tough, tough wins.”

    Early in the third set, Ivanovic called for a medical timeout as Sharapova was serving at 0-1, 15-all. The Serb said it was due to nausea and she was given some pills by the doctor and had her blood pressure taken.

    The pair exchanged several breaks after that and when Sharapova was broken on a double-fault for 4-4, the Russian yelled out “check your blood pressure” mocking Ivanovic.

    “Obviously it adds something to the game,” Sharapova said of Ivanovic’s mid-game medical timeout. “All of a sudden there is an interruption and you don’t know what’s going on. Is it an injury? And then you don’t get an answer. I don’t think they even know. That’s the tricky part. Could have been something like an anxiety or something. I’m not really sure what you take blood pressure for.”

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