Maria Sharapova rallies past Sabine Lisicki to reach the quarter-finals – Mutua Madrid Open 2013
Two of the prettiest tennis stars battled for a spot in the quarter-final round of Mutua Madrid Open on Thursday but the Russian blonde, Maria Sharapova, came out as the deserving winner in the end. The second seeded Russian hunted down the German diva, Sabine Lisicki, in the third round to enter the round of eight. She took one hour and 42 minutes to settle the dispute in straight sets, 6-2, 7-5.
Sharapova has already won two WTA titles this year and is aiming to increase her tally in Madrid. Shehas been absolutely ballistic in the tournament so far, winning all her matches in straight sets and forcing her way to the quarter-finals. She had defeated Lisicki four times prior to the Thursday’s battle and has now extended her lead to 5-1 in the all-time head-to-head series.
Dropping to the world number 39 rank for her inconsistent performance, Lisicki couldn’t do much to surprise the hard-hitting Russian. She posted some real resistance in the opening set but Sharapova kept coming hard at her. The second seeded Russian broke Lisicki in her very first serve game to get the early advantage. Another cracking break point conversion in the subsequent serve game took Sharapovato a 3-0 lead up front. Lisicki shifted her gears a bit in the next game and a series of break points was witnessed. Successive serve breaks were witnessed in the following five games of the set but eventually,Sharapova came at the top at 5-2. She convincingly claimed the opener at 6-2 to get the upper hand in the contest.
Lisicki held her opening serve in the following set before suffering a break point from her Russian rival in the fourth game. She responded with a serve break in the very next game and brought the scores back at even terms. A regular game dragged the score line to 5-5 and it appeared as if a tie-break round will come into play. However, the Russian beauty nailed a crucial break point in the 11 th game and then capitalised on it to seal victory at 7-5 in the end.
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