Maria Sharapova blazes past Polona Hercog in the third round – China Open 2012
World number two, Maria Sharapova, knocked-out the 90th ranked Slovenian qualifier, Polona Hercog, in the third round of the China Open. She took just 74 minutes at the hard courts of Beijing to slam the underdog contender.
Final score line of 6-0, 6-2 for the Russian blonde was emphatic enough to stamp her command over the game.
The 21-year-old Slovenian could never settle into the atmosphere of the contest. Sharapova requires little advantage over her opponents and the nervy start from Hercog was good enough for the Russian diva to take hold of the proceedings.
She opened up the scores with a breakthrough and made it 2-0 in no time.
Hercog tried to bounce back in the contest but couldn’t cover the reach of the 25-year-old Russian who hammered her apart from one corner of the court to another. Two breakpoints in succession coupled with a back-to-back serve
holds posted a resounding bagel in the opening set that was quite embarrassing for the Slovenian qualifier.
Both these players were locking horns for the first time in their professional careers. So, the odds were definitely tilting in favour of the former world number one. She is extremely difficult to handle in the first meeting especially
because the pace at which the second seed Russian hammers the ball is extremely tricky to handle.
Sharapova didn’t look back and carried the momentum into the second set; broke serve first up to take a lead and coupled it with a comfortable serve hold to make it 2-0. However, a serve hold for the Slovenian and a rare breakthrough
in the following two games equalized the scores at 2-2. The Russian won a breakpoint immediately to reinstate the lead and lost just one point on her serve before scampering past to 4-2.
Hercog tried her best to hold serve in the following game but after three deuces gifted the breakpoint to her rival who made no mistake with her big booming serves to end the encounter without breaking a sweat.
Next up for the Russian will either be the fellow former world number one, Caroline Wozniacki, or the fifth seed German star, Angelique Kerber.
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