Makarova is playing above her abilities. I highly doubt that she will be able to play like that (without UE) tomorrow.
Plus, Petra desperately needs to change her tactics, interrupt the rallies more frequently with drop shots and net approaches after good groundies or serves.
Well, she became confident because she saw Petra was struggling, just like everybody contender would become (flashback against Cibulkova earlier this season, against Kiri too). They start scrambling and hitting like there's no tomorrow.
I'm pretty sure she'll win this match. I mean, she ALWAYS comes out of the blocks and rocks the opponent on their heels for a set.
If she were in the same kind of shape as Kanepi, she might not have these let-downs after 10 games or so. I think that's the problem: she loses a bit of energy, that affects her legs and elevation on her serve, which starts double-faulting. Then that leads to negativity and wallowing in misery, fighting and fighting, but without the confidence and strength that she started the match with.
I think that David Mercer said that just as it is. She lost her confidence which she had in 2011 or even 2012 and it is so hard to come on the net for her because she's worried that she will mess it up. She's worried that she will make double fault and that's why she makes them.
She totally lost her confidence in the second set and she just can't play without it, that's the real problem. She haven't won a lot of matches in recent time and winning is the only thing that can repair it. Remember how she served and volleyed in Katowice, she played 4 matches there and that gave her the confidence to do this in the final.
So I stick to hoping rather than being sure. I know that she can win it, but unfortunately it's not sure thing that she will.