Maria Sharapova Set For Lindsay Davenport Rematch

Maria Sharapova Set For Lindsay Davenport Rematch
By Tripp Mateschitz, Lawn Tennis Correspondent, Posted: Friday, April 11, 2008 10:20pm CST USA

Maria Sharapova Set For Lindsay Davenport Rematch,
Bausch And Lomb Championships, Amelia Island

Photos by Phil Coale/AP

AMELIA ISLAND--(lawntennismag.com) At the Bausch and Lomb Championships Saturday top seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia meets 16th seeded Lindsay Davenport of the USA in the women's semfinals.

Sharapova leads Davenport 5-1 head to head but would rather forget her lopsided 6-0, 6-0 2005 loss to Davenport. In their last meeting in January at the Australian Open second round, Sharapova beat a flat Davenport 6-1, 6-3.

Amelia Island, Florida, USA
April 7-13, 2008
Saturday: Women's Semifinals

Women's Singles: Semifinals
Maria Sharapova (RUS) [1] vs. Lindsay Davenport (USA) [16]

Davenport and Sharapova both being similar power baseliners prefer surfaces faster than the Amelia Island clay court and Sharapova admitted the match would be a tough one to win.

"It's always going to be a challenge against Lindsay," said Sharapova. "She's had great success here, and she's always been a tough opponent on any surface. Neither of us are exactly clay court specialists, so we'll just stick to our guns and see what happens."

Sharapova enters the semifinal with a 19-1 WTA Tour record this year, while Davenport is 20-3. Both players have won three grand slam singles titles and both stand tall at 6 feet, 2 inches tall.

Sharapova a few years ago described her claycourt movement as like "a cow on ice" while Davenport has skipped much of the the claycourt season for several years. The better mover Saturday and the better finisher of points will win. Davenport has never played Sharapova on clay, but she has more experience winning matches on clay and is a bit of a better mover.
Winner: Davenport

ESPN2 is scheduled to televise the match live at 12:00pm-2:00pm CST USA.