PARIS – Eugenie Bouchard grew up admiring Maria Sharapova. Fake NFL Jerseys . "First, I noticed her cute dresses and things like that when I was young," said the 20-year-old Canadian, who met Sharapova when she was just eight-years-old at a tournament in Miami. "As a child, I looked up to her and I remember watching her in the finals of Wimbledon and thought what she was doing was so cool and I wanted to do the same thing." Bouchard and Sharapova will play on Thursday in the French Open semi-finals. It is the second straight year that the two have met at Roland Garros with the Russian prevailing in straight sets in the second round a year ago. "For sure I respect her," said Bouchard. "But now were in the semis of a Grand Slam, so Im going to respect her but not put her too high on a pedestal and really just battle. Thats what its going to be." Sharapova may be seeded seventh, but she has been widely considered the favourite to win the title since the top three seeds – Serena Williams, Li Na and Agnieszka Radwanska – all lost in the first three rounds. And Sharapova is favoured to beat Bouchard (-325, 4/13 per BoDog) for the same reason she is expected to hoist the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen on Saturday: she has the experience. She made the finals here a year ago. She won the whole thing just two years ago. At the age of 27, she has already won the career slam and has an Olympic silver medal on her resume. "Achieving what she has, she is of course very strong mentally," said Bouchard. "It is one of her strengths. Im going to be ready for another battle. You know, the semis of a Grand Slam, thats what you have to expect. "Im just looking forward to the challenge." Bouchard is earning her own reputation for poise under pressure. She overcame a 2-5 deficit (two breaks) and a set point to win the opening frame against clay-court specialist Carla Suarez Navarro in the quarterfinals on Tuesday. Then, after dropping the second set 2-6, Bouchard dug out of a 1-4 hole in the deciding set by winning 12 straight points. She then served to stay in the match at 4-5, holding easily. "At the end of the day, whether I win or lose, I want to at least leave it all out there and try and at least battle. Im proud of the way I did that in both the first and third. Shes a great player and a really good clay courter, as well. I knew it was a tough battle, and thats exactly what it was today. Im just proud of the way I stayed in there." Bouchard appeared to show some nerves after wasting a match point, serving at 6-5, with a double fault. She was asked if that was a sign she is, after all, human. "I show Im human all the time," Bouchard noted with a smile. "Yeah, you know, its one of those things. I didnt really worry about it. I think thats the most important thing: I didnt see it as a big deal, and I just regrouped for the next point, which allowed me to just give me a chance to get in a position to have a match point again. "Even on the second match point I missed a ball, but I was trying to go for it, so I didnt worry too much, either. "I think that was a bit the theme the whole match: even if I was down 5-2 or 4-1 in the third, not to worry too much, keep going, keep going, keep going, and it paid off in the end." Bouchards mental toughness and aggressive play have earned her comparisons to Sharapova. Does she like that? "There are positives and negatives," Bouchard said. "Of course shes a great champion, so to be seen as the next of someone who has won four slams and has been No. 1 in the world, its a compliment. "But at the same time, of course, Im my own person and I just want to be myself on the court, and you know, try and achieve what I want to achieve and just be seen as that." Bouchard is the only womens player to make the semis at both slams this season. She is part of the future of womens tennis and looking to prove the future is now. Bouchard readily admits that back in January when she made that magical run to the Australian Open semis, she suffered from a bit of stage fright at the start of a straight-sets loss to Li Na. "I was maybe a little bit frozen at the beginning of that match," she said. "Ill be much more ready this time." Fake Jerseys . Bjoergen pulled away from Swedens Charlotte Kalla on the final straight to win in 38 minutes, 33.6 seconds and defend her title from the 2010 Vancouver Games. Kalla was 1.8 seconds back. Heidi Weng of Norway took bronze. Fake Nike Jerseys . - The Pittsburgh Pirates plan on keeping promising left fielder Starling Marte playing alongside National League MVP Andrew McCutchen for years to come. http://www.fakejersey.com/ . Murray, the defending champion and No. 3 seed, claimed his first match win at Queens in 2005 and went on to win the Wimbledon warmup three times. But he failed to take advantage of eight set points after leading the first-set tiebreaker 6-2, and Stepanek survived to convert with his second set point.ANAHEIM, Calif. - Between the 20-year-old goalie with 39 saves and the 21-year-old forward with two goals, Teemu Selanne wasnt sure which youngster deserved the most credit for propelling the Anaheim Ducks veterans to the brink of the Western Conference finals. Selanne is only certain the Ducks youth movement is happening at an ideal time for their Stanley Cup hopes. John Gibson was outstanding in his second career playoff start, and Devante Smith-Pelly scored two goals 1:23 apart in the second period of the Ducks 4-3 victory over the Los Angeles Kings in Game 5 on Monday night, putting Anaheim up 3-2 in the second-round series. Selanne is older than Gibson and Smith-Pelly combined, but the Finnish Flash knows the kids are why the Ducks are in position to finish off their Southern California rivals in Game 6 on Wednesday after a raucous meeting at Honda Center. "They answered the bell again," said Selanne, who had a sublime assist on Smith-Pellys first goal. "Devo has all the tools. Gibby is rock-solid. Theyre pretty special players, and they both took care of it for us tonight. You need special contributions from everybody to do what were trying to do." Nick Bonino and Jakob Silfverberg also scored for the Ducks, who jumped out to a three-goal lead in the second period and hung on behind their rookie goalie, earning the first home victory by either team in the series. Smith-Pelly is the Ducks unlikely leader with five post-season goals after a superbly energetic effort in Game 5. He has three goals in the past two games, capitalizing on his promotion to Anaheims top line with captain Ryan Getzlaf and Corey Perry after scoring just two goals in his 19 regular-season appearances for the Ducks. "Were just having a lot of fun," Smith-Pelly said. "This is what you dream about, playing in the playoffs." The Ducks also got another standout game from Gibson, who shut out the Kings in Game 4 to even the series in his Anaheim playoff debut. "I think I got tested more," Gibson said. "Its fun. Im just trying to take it all in and win some hockey games." Gibsons fifth career NHL appearance was tougher than the first four — but his teammates also helped out much more this time, scoring four regulation goals against the Kings for the first time in the rivals 10 total meetings this season. Marian Gaborik scored his NHL-best seventh and eighth goals of the post-season for the Kings, including a redirection with 5:48 left to trim Anaheims lead to one goal. Los Angeless pressed throughout the final minutes to finish with a playoff-high 42 shots, outshooting the Ducks 14-2 in the third period, but couldnt beat Gibson for the equalizer. Fake Adidas Jerseys. . "We were talking about how we have to get to Gibson, and if we do, things are happening," Gaborik said. "If we get shots through and try to go to the net, rebounds are there, and we got some chances. We have to keep doing that and we have to clean a lot of stuff up. Were coming home. Were confident we can win and come back here." Trevor Lewis also scored and Jonathan Quick stopped 20 shots for the Kings, who will face their fifth elimination game of the post-season at Staples Center on Wednesday. Theyre on their second three-game skid of the playoffs — bookending a six-game winning streak. The road team had won every game in the first series between these rivals separated by 30 miles of freeway, but the Ducks snapped the Kings four-game road playoff winning streak dating to their 0-3 comeback in the first round against San Jose. "Tonight isnt about the third (period), its about the second," Kings captain Dustin Brown said. "We made too many easy mistakes, and we had to try to come back the way we did. Its too hard." After Bonino and Lewis traded goals in the first period, Anaheim took the lead for good 1:11 into the second when Mathieu Perreaults shot off Selannes pass glanced off Smith-Pellys toe in the crease. "I didnt really do anything," Smith-Pelly said with a grin. Smith-Pelly then broke in alone on Quick 83 seconds later when Getzlaf intercepted Martinezs pass in the neutral zone, and Silfverberg put the Ducks up 4-1 midway through the period. The Kings gathered themselves and finally capitalized on a double-minor by Smith-Pelly when Gaborik scored in front, getting his fourth goal in the series three games in Anaheim. After several minutes of fruitless work for the Kings, Brown shovelled a backhand at the net and Gaborik redirected it home. NOTES: Perreault returned to Anaheims lineup after missing Game 4 with an injury, and rookie Rickard Rakell was scratched. Ducks F Matt Beleskey missed his second straight game after getting hurt in Game 3. ... F Jordan Nolan replaced Kyle Clifford in the Kings lineup. Nolan hadnt played since Game 3 of the first round against San Jose, sitting out eight straight games. ... The Kings are still without two key veteran defencemen. Willie Mitchell missed his sixth straight game, and Robyn Regehr sat out his fourth. ' ' '