Maria Sharapova breezes into the fourth round at Indian Wells
16th seeded Russian Maria Sharapova trashed 20th seeded French Aravane Rezai in straight sets to advance in the fourth round at the 2011 BNP Paribas Open on Monday.
The former world number one, Sharapova hasn’t been much active this season and only entered the Australian Open before reaching this tournament. She reached the fourth round before losing to 30th seeded German Andrea
Petkovic. In this tournament she overwhelmed Anabel Medina Garriques in the second round with a breadstick.
Currently ranked 18th in the world, Sharapova was shaky at the start of the opening set and committed five double faults. She lost her serve to the world number 22, Rezai in the very first game and couldn’t break back
in the next game. But after the 0-2 trail, she re-formed herself and showed tremendous skills to win the next six games in a row. She had a higher first serve percentage of 54 percent as compared to Rezai’s 35 percent earning an impressive 77 percent win on
it.
"It started slow," said the in-form Russian. "I started like I didn’t have my cup of coffee or something ... so that was disappointing. But I got it together.
The 23-year-old Russian carried her winning form to the next set and held her serve in the first game. The French woman refocused and held her serve by saving a break point in the next game. Later, the Russian went on to win the
next three games leading the score 4-1. Rezai roared back in the following game but the Russian was unstoppable as she cruised to win the set 6-2 again. She hammered 4 aces, saved all the three break points and registered an amazing 88 per cent win on her
first serve to clinch the set.
"When she’s on, she can be one of the toughest players to play against. I had good return games, I returned a lot better, and served a lot better in the second set."
Sharapova, who won the title at Indian Wells in 2006, will next face her countrywoman Dinara Safina. Safina reached this spot after upsetting 4th seeded Australian Samantha Stosur in straight sets in a night match.
Safina said about her compatriot, "She's a great competitor. Tomorrow I'm gonna go out there, do my best and I'll fight like I do."
Ranked 108th, Safina prevailed in the tie-breakers in the first set and then broke Australian’s serve three times in the second set to win with a score line of 7-6(2), 6-4. Despite double faulting 16 times
and having a slightly lower first serve percentage of 64 per cent as opposed to Stosur’s 65 per cent, she earned a convincing 68 per cent win on her first serve to win the match.
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