Maria Sharapova beats injury-stricken Angelique Kerber to reach the semis – China Open 2012
World number two, Maria Sharapova, didn’t break a sweat against the sixth ranked German star, Angelique Kerber, in the quarter-final of the China Open on Friday. She was leading the scores by 6-0, 3-0 when the 24-year-old German decided to quit the encounter after the ankle injury started to hamper her game to a greater extent.
It was an unfortunate event for the number one German to end the tour of Beijing with an injury. She was absolutely breathtaking throughout the tournament and played a marvellous three-setter against the former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, in the third round before making it to the last eight.
On the other hand, the 25-year-old Russian superstar showed no holds barred against the fifth seed German. She dismantled her completely with shear pace and accuracy of her shots. However, the injury was taking a toll on Kerber right from the word go and her progress in the match deteriorated at an exponential pace.
Sharapova started off with a breakthrough and coupled the deserving start with a serve hold to make it 2-0. She broke serve again and didn’t allow her rival to bounce back into the contest; saved a breakpoint to keep the game alive and finally registered a serve hold to push the scores at 4-0. Nothing looked good for the German superstar who is the leading women player as far as the total wins (60) are concerned for the season.
The 6’2 tall Russian bagged the opening set without losing a game and sent a strong message to her potential rivals that she is far beyond the class of the other top seeded players and will show no respect at all to anyone. Kerber played a lengthy game consisting of five deuces in the second set but couldn’t manage to hold serve and failed to get off the mark.
On the other hand, Sharapova survived the early scare to hold serve and won another breakpoint to lead the scores 3-0. It was the time when Kerber withdrew from the contest and allowed Sharapova to march on.
Li Na and Agnieszka Radwanska are having a battle out there to book a date with Maria Sharapova in the semis.
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