Maria Sharapova, Klara Zakopalova and Sorana Cirstea reach fourth round at Miami

Maria Sharapova, Klara Zakopalova and Sorana Cirstea reach fourth round at Miami

Former world number one, Maria Sharapova, glided into the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open at Miami at the expense of the 26-year-old compatriot, Elena Vesnina, who was put aside in straight sets 6-4, 6-2 on Sunday.

The 25-year-old Sharapova didn’t start well and fall victim to the onslaught of her rival who won the first breakthrough of the match in the fourth game. However, the four-time Grand Slam Champion rallied back into the contest with a breakpoint in the following game and held her serve to equalise the scores at 3-3.

After an intense battle in the seventh game of the match, Sharapova sneaked a breakthrough and put her opponent under pressure. She didn’t make any sort of mistake in the following games except a lethargic shot play in the eighth game that almost forced her to drop a breakpoint. It was a hard fought defeat in the opening set for the 32^nd ranked Russian who held a 1-1 head-to-head record against Sharapova.

The second set witnessed a commanding display of forehand and backhand winners from Sharapova. The Russian broke her opponent’s serve twice in succession to post a resounding lead of 5-1 in her favour. She was just a game away from closing out the match but her foe registered a serve hold to love that prolonged the match to another game.

Sharapova lost just one point in the final game of the contest before marching on to the fourth round at Miami. She won the title at the BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells) so her consistency will be the key factor when she will take on the likes of the Klara Zakopalova of Czech Republic who registered an upset against Maria Kirilenko in the third round.

In an on-court interview, Sharapova said, “It wasn’t easy for the both of us with the heat and the wind. It was just one of those days where you know you might not be playing your best tennis – I certainly wasn’t today. But I got through, and I’m onto the next one.”

Sorana Cirstea of Romania capsized Angelique Kerber of Germany to move into the fourth round.

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Posted by Fahad Zafar on Mar 25 2013. Filed under Pakistan. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.