Maria Sharapova destroys Dominika Cibulkova in quarterfinals – Wimbledon Championships 2011
Russian number two delivered another comprehensive performance and beat Dominika Cibulkova of Germany to advance to the semi-final of the Wimbledon Championships 2011. Sharapova earned her place with somewhat peculiar 6-1, 6-1
victory over unorthodox Slovakian, taking just 60 minutes of play.
Cibulkova’s victory over seeded players like Julia Goerges and Caroline Wozniacki in the previous rounds will definitely help her elevating her world ranking, but a huge disconnection between the German and her shots was very prominent,
losing the match with a double breadstick.
Although the German talked up her chances in a pre-match interview, unfortunately that talk was about as good as it got. Cibulkova’s pre-match promise to repeat the feat was turned on its head as Sharapova forced the pace, alternating
brick-wall defence with sauntering groundstrokes.
The Russian No.1 was seemingly able to break at will, reading Cibulkova’s serve perfectly and converting five of six break points during the whole process. The Russian herself had some occasional wobbles on her own serve, but the
Russian was able to snuff out any break back chance.
The German had no answer to Sharapova’s meaty and furious groundstrokes but true to her credit, she did fight till the end, remaining unable to restrict Sharapova from serving for an ultimately highly impassive victory.
Justifying her fifth seeding Sharapova claimed the match with a whopping 23 winners and five aces, while committing ten unforced errors and a single double-fault. Additionally, she assured 74 percent on her first serve, 50 percent
on her second serve and a total of 32 of 51 on return.
With such a scintillating performance, the Russian number two has stepped up her year-to-date win/loss mark to 31/7 matches and has also moved one up in their head-to-head series to 3-2.
A jubilant Sharapova expressed her views in a post-match interview and said, "I was playing someone I lost to a little over a month ago on clay in two sets, so I knew she was capable of playing some really good tennis, a few years
ago I also lost to her at the French Open, at the same stage as today. I thought I played really solid and did the right things to win this time."
Sharapova’s next victim is the 21-year-old Sabine Lisicki of Germany, whom she has already met at the third round of Miami Masters, beating the German in straight sets to lead the head-to-head to 1-0.
A few years ago, Lisicki was improving upon her game as a key member of the German new wave, winning the Charleston in 2009 and cracking the No. 22 ranking soon after, but then the wheels fell off suddenly and she fell off at No.62
on WTA rankings list.
The German reached the quarterfinals after ousting much skilled players like Na Li, Petra Cetkovska and Marion Bartoli, suggesting that she can handle pressure and has the weight of shot to put Sharapova on run.
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