Maria Sharapova floors Svetlana Kuznetsova in round 3 – Western & Southern Open 2011
Number four seed Maria Sharapova of Russia humbled Svetlana Kuznetsova to 6-2, 6-3 on Thursday to book her place in the quarterfinal of 2011 Southern and Western Open here in Ohio, United States.
Entering the Women’s Tennis Association tournament as a wildcard, Sharapova looked in commanding form in a match that lasted for only 1 hour and 21 minutes on the hard courts of Cincinnati. The three times Grand Slam Champion Sharapova wasted no time in asserting her dominance over her opponent as he broke the serve very early in the opening set to take control of the match.
Sharapova, who believes that Cincinnati Open could prove to be great platform for the upcoming US Open, created match winning opportunities for herself with her positive and aggressive intent. Although she experienced an early round loss at the Rogers Cup last week, she looked full of confidence as she dashed her powerful forehand and backhand strokes all over the court.
In front of a packed house, the former world number one displayed some high quality tennis. Breaking her opponent three times in the opening set, she raced to an impassable game score lead. Not allowing her opponent any sort of room to play her game, she pocketed the opener with in first 35 minutes of the match
"I thought I played aggressively, yeah, and felt better than I did last week, definitely," said World No. 7 Sharapova, who's seeded fourth here.
Kuznetsova struggled to hit her first serve as she gave the challenger enough opportunities to dictate the terms. Making unforced errors on the big points, she failed to handle the let as she let her Sharapova take the set score lead 1-0.
The second set also followed a pretty similar trend as Sharapova continued to dominate her opponent with consistent tennis. The Russian adopted a very attacking approach as she made her compatriot run for her money. Breaking the serve at regular intervals and holding on to her crucial serve games, she closed out the match in straight sets to book her place in the last eight at the Masters level tournament.
Although Sharapova made five double faults in the match, the quality of her serving was quite good in general. Wasting very little chances, she converted six out of eight break points in the match. In the quarterfinal, she will be facing Australian Samantha Stosur.
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