Maria Sharapova edged past Alexandra Dulgheru in the quarter-final of Sony Ericsson Open
Former world number one, Maria Sharapova of Russia won a hard-fought battle against the 26th seeded Romanian, Alexandra Dulgheru in the quarter-final of Sony Ericsson Open at Miami, Florida on Tuesday night. Sharapova
won the three hour twenty nine minutes marathon contest in three sets , 3-6, 7-6(8), 7-6(5), to book a berth in the semi-final of the WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) tournament.
Sharapova was stretched to her limits in the contest by the Romanian, who was facing the 13th ranked Russian for the first time. Sharapova dropped the opening set of the contest and strained very hard to clinch the later
two sets in tie breaker rounds to register her 10th victory of the running WTA season.
The 23-year-old Russian conceded plenty of unforced errors; including seven costly double faults which wore her out in the opening set. Sharapova broke twice in the opener but the Romanian stung four serve breaks to route her out
of the set at 6-3.
An amazing display of high quality tennis was observed in the next set as the former world number one battled hard to remain alive in the contest. Sharapova uplifted her first serve accuracy to an impressive 78 per cent but still
couldn’t control her double faults which mounted five in the set. An exchange of three serve breaks from both players dragged the match into a tie breaker round at 6-6. After an enthralling tie breaker round which extended to a total of 18 points, Sharapova
finally overcame her opponent to bag the second set at 7-6(8).
The two contestants stepped into the decider with the match evenly poised with one set a piece. Dulgheru remained brilliant with first serve, delivering 85 per cent on target and committing just one double fault, as compared to
the Russian’s five. She struck three serve breaks but Sharapova replied with the same to enforce another decisive tie breaker round in the third set. The Russian took down her opponent in the decider and concluded victory at 7-6(5) to move on to the round
of four at Miami.
Sharapova will face the 21st seed Andrea Petkovic of Germany in the semi-final of the event. The German registered a surprise victory over the world number seven Jelena Jankovic 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, in the quarter-finals.
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