Maria Sharapova devastates Sara Errani to reach the semi-final draw – BNP Paribas Open 2013
World number three, Maria Sharapova, convincingly won her quarter-final combat against the eighth ranked Italian contender, Sara Errani, on Wednesday night. The second seeded Russian blonde registered victory in straight sets,
7-6(6), 6-2, to reach the semi-final round at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, USA.
The contest appeared evenly matched in the opening set, with Errani posting some serious resistance to hamper Sharapova’s aggression. However, the Italian number one suddenly ran out of gas in the following set and gifted away
the match to the second seeded Russian in the end.
The contest took off with an exchange of break points from both ends. The two contenders held their next two serves to drag the score line to 3-3. Errani delivered another blow in the seventh game to break into a 4-3 lead but Sharapova
came back very strongly in the 10th game to even out the scores to 5-5. A tie-break came into play and none of the contestants was willing to let go. The decider went to the wire as well but Sharapova came up with a crucial mini-break at 6-6 and
then wrapped up the opener at 7-6(6).
The third ranked Russian dropped her serve in the fourth game of the following set but came up with three cracking breaks of serve to race away to 6-2.
Sharapova sustained her clean sheet against the crafty Italian, improving 3-0 in the all-time head-to-head series. She had defeated Errani in the final of the French Open and the WTA Championships last year, with both of her victories
coming in straight sets. The 25-year-old Russian beauty queen carried on with her sublime form to register her 12th victory of the running WTA circuit. She is yet to end her title drought of the season and the way she has performed at Indian Wells,
is appears as if she will bag her opening championship title of 2013.
The Russian diva will take on her fellow compatriot, Maria Kirilenko, in the semi-final round on Friday to book a spot in the title match of the BNP Paribas Open. Kirilenko stunned the Czech number one, Petra Kvitova, 4-6, 6-4,
6-3, in the quarter-finals to book a date with Sharapova in the round of four.
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