Irina-Camelia Begu vs Maria Sharapova Tennis Prediction

The five-time slam champion Sharapova holds a 3-0 record over the former world #22, with all three wins coming in straight sets and on three different surfaces. Their last meeting was during Sharapova’s title victory campaign at 2017 Tianjin (6-4 6-2).

Maria Sharapova News

Maria Sharapova recorded her first win since January by cruising past last week’s Prague runner-up Mihaela Buzarnescu in straight sets, 6-4 6-1. Even though she got broken once, the Russian never trailed the match and racked up ten more winners than the Romanian.
The former world #1 arrived at Madrid with a four-match losing run on her back. After getting crushed by Angelique Kerber at the Australian Open (6-1 6-3), she went on to lose the opening rounds of Doha (Niculescu), Indian Wells (Osaka) and Stuttgart (Garcia).
Sharapova is the 2014 champion of Mutua Madrid Open, defeating Stosur, Radwanska, and Halep. After winning this Premier Mandatory, she went on to claim her fifth Grand Slam at the French Open (def. Muguruza, Bouchard, Halep).
After coming back from her doping suspension in April 2017, Sharapova won her 36th career title at Tianjin Open (def. Sabalenka), an International event, but struggled at bigger tournaments. The best she could do is a fourth round at the 2017 US Open (l. Sevastova).

Irina-Camelia Begu News

Irina-Camelia Begu stunned the reigning French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko to a 6-3 6-3 trashing in just under 90 minutes. It was Begu’s sixth top 10 win, but first since June 2016 (Birmingham, def. #Bencic).
The Romanian #4 could hit just eight winners against Ostapenko but was greatly helped by the Latvian’s 39 unforced errors, who won less than half of her first serve points (16/34).
The two-time Madrid quarterfinalist, Begu started the year with a semifinal at Shenzhen Open, where she lost to the eventual champion Halep. Her next semifinal would come just last month at the Istanbul Cup, where she again failed to the eventual champion, Parmentier.

Tennis Prediction: Maria Sharapova
Odds: 1.40