Maria Sharapova outmuscles Ekaterina Makarova to reach the final-four – Australian Open 2012
Russian tennis ace, Maria Sharapova, reigned supreme over Ekaterina Makarova in the quarter-finals of the Australian Open tournament. She produced yet another sizzling performance to hammer down her compatriot in straight sets
6-2, 6-3. The gorgeous Russian dumped her opponent without facing any real challenge; pace and accuracy of winners down the line were the rationale of her success at Rod Laver arena on Wednesday.
World number four, Sharapova, registered the third successive win against her opponent and remains unbeaten with 3-0 head-to-head lead. Makarova looked promising, considering her emphatic performances throughout the tournament
but she was no match for the beauty queen of Russia that outclassed her in every aspect of the sport.
First three games were held by respective serve players but Makarova faced immense difficulty in holding on to her serve. If it was not for the unforced errors made by the 4th ranked Russian, Makarova would have lost
her first serve game very easily. Second serve game from the 56th ranked Russian laid the foundation for Sharapova.
Superior ranked Russian tennis ace broke serve in the fourth game and registered a two-game lead. Makarova tried her best to encounter this onslaught but she was beaten for pace at all times. Sharapova broke serve once again in
the eighth game of the set to seal the opener in her favour. Trailing by one set, Makarova looked extremely low on confidence, crawling her way back to the playing court from the sidelines to commence the second set.
Both players capitalized on their serves and pushed the scores to 1-1 before they exchanged breakthroughs in the next two games. Things looked competitive by then but once again Sharapova pounded her opponent with her fierce forehand
cross court and down the line winners. Next two games were bagged by the former world number one that included the vital break serve.
No more serve breaks were witnessed at the arena and Sharapova easily booked a berth into the semi-finals to compete against world number two, Petra Kvitova. The second seed Czech registered a comprehensive victory against Italy’s
Sara Errani in the quarter-final round earlier.
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