Paula Ormaechea vs Maria Sharapova prediction

Paula Ormaechea, currently 75^th on the WTA ranking list is playing against Maria Sharapova, currently 8^th in the rankings.

Sharapova made it through to the third round with two easily gained victories, against Ksenia Pervak and Tsvetana Pironkova. After the shock losses of Serena Williams and Na Li, Sharapova is maybe the strongest candidate to win the prestigious title in Paris, which would be her second here on Roland Garros.

Paradoxically, the toughest job that may await her in this tournament will have to be undertaken in the next round, where she will face either Stosur or Cibulkova, who have both been playing in a fine form in the current year.

Paula Ormaechea managed to get through to the third round, which is alone a massive success for the inexperienced 22-year-old Argentine. In the first round match she was better than Oprandi, but the real miracle happened in the second round, against the weathered, seemingly well-prepared Monica Niculescu from Romania. Ormaechea easily lost the first set, and was trailing a break down in the second, but she ultimately managed to make a comeback, win that set by 7:5, and then easily clinch the final set for the clash against Sharapova.

The victory against Niculescu is the biggest achievement in her short career, and it is really hard to imagine that she could make one more upset in the tournament. Ormaechea lost every match against the top player this year with ease, and considering even the fact that clay is her favorite surface, while Sharapova clearly isn’t in love with it, to put it mildly, the Russian is the big favorite to win this one.

Ormaechea clearly doesn’t have a weapon in her game one would require in order to put sufficient pressure on Sharapova. Since her opponent lacks that ability to make her feel uneasy, the tall Russian will probably have a great time on the court, winning points by the strength of her powerful forehand. The only chance that the Argentine has is to hope for an awful day at the office for Sharapova, and a lot of unforced errors. But again, that shouldn’t happen without prolonging rallies and pushing Sharapova back, and Ormaechea didn’t show, up until now, that she is capable for that.

Also, this will be the first meeting of these two players, and that could be important also, because Sharapova’s game is really powerful, and in combination with the noise which she produces before she hits the ball, that could really intimidate the young Argentine.

There is a big chance that she won’t be capable of handling the pressure and the appearance on the big stadiums, on which she featured very rarely in her career.

Prediction

This should be a real training match for Sharapova. If Ormaechea doesn’t play by far her best match ever, and Sharapova doesn’t make a lot of unforced errors, this could end very quickly.

Head to head

This will be the first match between these two players.