Maria Sharapova defeats Sabine Lisicki in the third round of the Sony Ericsson Open
The former world number one Maria Sharapova of Russia blew away her third round opponent, Sabine Lisicki of Germany at the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida on Saturday night. Sharapova took less than one hour to oust the German wildcard in straight sets,
6-2, 6-0, to move on to the fourth round of the tournament.
It was the first time Lisicki faced the world number 13 Sharapova and she stood no match for the winner of three Grand Slams. Sharapova displayed her vintage class to ease out of the contest and registered her 10th victory of the current WTA (Women’s
Tennis Association) season. She barely faced a challenge from the German opponent and ejected Lisicki from the Sony Ericsson Open in the most assertive manner.
The strong Russian serve was poorly met by Lisicki in the game and she appeared in all sorts of confusions right from the start of the contest. The German’s first serve per cent was drastically low to 41 per cent and she collected just 14 out of total 44
serve points in the game. Lisicki had two opportunities to break the Russian serve and she converted just one of them to remain on the losing side at the end.
Sharapova was very agile in the game right from the beginning of the contest and raided the net on regularity to convert some juicy volleys into cross-court winners. She delivered 70 per cent of her first serve on target and conceded four double faults but
stung six serve breaks to the opponent’s serve out of 13 chances. A total of 81 points were played in the contest and Sharapova amazingly won 55 out of them to seal the match.
The 23-year-old Russian coughed four double faults in the opening set of the contest, allowing Lisicki to belt a serve break early. Sharapova proved far better on collecting the first serve points and clinched 77 per cent of them, while her opponent lagging
way behind with 38 per cent. She had seven break chances and cashed in three of them to push the German on her back foot. The first set fell to the Russian’s name at 6-2, giving her one set lead to none.
Sharapova was less merciful in the next set as she broke the German opponent in every serve game she faced. The Russian stung three straight break points to race to 6-0 in just 20 minutes of play. A total of 34 points were played in the second set with Lisicki
winning a mere eight and Sharapova collecting 26 of them to advance to the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open.
The former world number one will square off against the fourth seeded Samantha Stosur of Australia in the next round matchup. Stosur outplayed Lucie Safarova of Czech Republic in straight sets, 6-0, 7-6(1), in the third round to meet Sharapova in the round
of 16.
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