Serena, Sharapova in quarters
World no. 1 Serena Williams cruised into the Madrid Open quarter-finals as she dismantled 13th seed Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 6-1 in just an hour and four minutes on Thursday.
Williams didn’t even face a break point during the match as she steamrollered the Russian, dropping only one more game from 3-3 in the first set.
The second set was straight forward for the 15-time Grand Slam champion as she raced into a 5-0 lead and then served out in style to book her place in the quarters, where she will face Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues.
And Williams believes taking some pace off her serve to get a higher percentage of first serves into court helped her relax and play more fluently than in her earlier rounds.
World no. 2 Maria Sharapova, who has yet to drop a set, continued her stroll into the quarter-finals as she overcame Sabine Lisicki 6-2, 7-5.
The Russian, who could overtake Williams at the top of the rankings should she win the title this week, broke the German’s serve four times to prevail in a disjointed opening set.
Serve was more dominant in the second set with both players exchanging just the one break early on before Sharapova secured a crucial second break at 5-5 and served it out to take her place in the last eight.
And the reigning French Open champion believes her game on the clay is rounding into shape nicely as she prepares to begin the defence of her title.
“I think when you win a Grand Slam on a surface, it would be pretty mean of me to say that I’m not comfortable on the surface. It took me many years to get to the level of where I am today.”
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