Maria Sharapova breezes to quarters at the Sony Ericsson Open
16th seeded Russian Maria Sharapova stunned 4th seeded Australian Samantha Stosur to advance to the quarter-finals at the Tennis Center at Crandon Park in Miami. The Russian registered a 6-4, 6-1 win over
Stosur
Sharapova last met the Australian and overpowered her on Japan’s hard court in 2009 but after defeating the world number five Stosur, the Russian extended her lead in their head-to-head series by 7-0.
Ranked 13th in the world, Sharapova hasn’t been much active this season. She did however, reach the fourth round at the Australian Open and made a semi-final berth at Indian Wells before losing to the eventual champion
Caroline Wozniacki.
The Russian star showed her tremendous skills in the match and broke the 26-year-old Stosur’s serve in the very first game. The Australian made a jittery start and double faulted to give the edge to the Russian. Stosur quickly
counterattacked in the next game and snatched back the break courtesy Sharapova’s three double fault.
Later both players held their serves spectacularly but the Russian broke Stosur’s serve again in the seventh game due to two double faults committed by the Australian. Sharapova took the lead with this break of serve and later
held her serves to clinch the set with a 6-4 score line.
Sharapova won this first set in 50 minutes and mustered 55 per cent win on her lower first serve share. She also smashed two aces and hammered 13 winners.
The Australian hammered two winners to keep her serve convincingly in the first game of the final set.The 23-year-old Russian then went on savage mode and won the proceeding six games in a row plausibly.
The former world number one is now aiming for her 23rd career title and with the world number one Caroline Wozniacki being ousted on another court, Sharapova can easily win a title and end her title drought this season.
She will next face 26th seeded Romanian Alexandra Dulgheru who reached this spot after trashing Chinese Shuai Peng in straight sets.
The 21-year-old Dulgheru converted eight out of ten breakpoint opportunities to her advantage to win the match with a 6-3, 6-4 score line.
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