{"id":45232,"date":"2018-01-18T14:32:13","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T09:32:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=45232"},"modified":"2018-01-18T14:32:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-18T09:32:13","slug":"sharapova-storms-into-third-round-to-set-up-kerber-clash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tns.world\/?p=45232","title":{"rendered":"Sharapova storms into third round to set up Kerber clash"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>MELBOURNE Jan 18 (TNS):<\/strong> Unseeded Maria Sharapova Thursday showed she is a serious contender for the Australian Open by swatting aside a 14th seed who had given her major trouble in the past.<\/p>\n<p>Sharapova, back in the top 50 after a 15-month doping ban, demonstrated all the shot-making that made her a five-time major winner as she destroyed gritty Anastasija Sevastova 6-1, 7-6 (7\/4) on Rod Laver Arena.<\/p>\n<p>The Russian, who faces Angelique Kerber next in a mouth-watering clash of former Australian Open champions, warned she was still improving less than a year after her comeback last April.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-lang=\"en\">\n<p dir=\"ltr\" lang=\"en\">&#8220;I love Australia. I love summertime. (Last year) I was watching the tournament sick. I feel like I transported myself into the TV this year &amp; I&#8217;m finding myself on RLA competing. A lot of things to smile about. I wanted to be here. I got myself here.&#8221; <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/MariaSharapova?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@MariaSharapova<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AusOpen?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#AusOpen<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/EXHWRlXlMN\">pic.twitter.com\/EXHWRlXlMN<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AustralianOpen\/status\/953850855345733632?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 18, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She\u00b4s had success here,&#8221; she said of Kerber, the 2016 title winner. &#8220;She\u00b4s had success playing out here in these conditions on these courts. I want to see where I am on that level.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The Latvian had thwarted the Russian\u00b4s Grand Slam comeback in the last 16 of the US Open last year.<\/p>\n<p>In their next encounter in Beijing Sevastova was only denied after more than three gruelling hours in a titanic three-setter.<\/p>\n<p>On Thursday, it was a different story as Sharapova sped through a sizzling first set in just 23 minutes for the loss of only nine points.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I played really well at the net, finished the balls off with a swing volley or good volley,&#8221; she said.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Something I\u00b4ve been working on, and definitely improved in the match today.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Sevastova characteristically fought back in the second but the only time the 2008 Australian Open champion and crowd-favourite wobbled was when serving for the match.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;She never really lets up,&#8221; Sharapova said. &#8220;But I got through it. I did the job in two, and that\u00b4s not something I did, you know, towards the end of last year.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I think that\u00b4s an improvement.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As temperatures soared towards 40 Celsius (104 Farenheit) on the hottest day of the tournament so far, it was a dramatic demolition.<\/p>\n<p>The Latvian, who reached back-to-back quarter-finals at the US Open in 2016 and 2017, briefly woke up to break the Sharapova serve for the first time early in the second set.<\/p>\n<p>The jolt to the Sharapova juggernaut was evident and she began to make unforced errors as service holds and breaks were exchanged.<\/p>\n<p>At 4-4 a backhand winner got Sharapova to break point and when a second screamer followed it was greeted by a double-fist pump from the Russian.<\/p>\n<p>But still Sevastova was not done and broke back again to force a tiebreak.<\/p>\n<p>Sharapova regathered and was not to be denied as she hit a scarcely believable forehand crosscourt winner on the run to get to 5-2 before closing out the match with a scream of joy, a fist pump and a huge smile.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I did my job in two sets against someone that\u00b4s been troubling in the past for me. I think I deserve to smile out there after that victory,&#8221; said Sharapova.<\/p>\n<p>Sharapova, one of the highest earners in women\u00b4s sport, suffered a string of early defeats after her comeback but has been working her way back up the rankings since.<\/p>\n<p>She broke through to win the Tianjin Open in October &#8212; her first title since 2015 &#8212; and enjoyed a run to the semi-final in Shenzhen to start the year.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>MELBOURNE Jan 18 (TNS): Unseeded Maria Sharapova Thursday showed she is a serious contender for the Australian Open by swatting aside a 14th seed who had given her major trouble in the past. Sharapova, back in the top 50 after a 15-month doping ban, demonstrated all the shot-making that made her a five-time major winner [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45233,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[330],"class_list":["post-45232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45232","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45232"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45232\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45234,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45232\/revisions\/45234"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45233"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45232"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45232"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tns.world\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45232"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}