Sharapova through to Australian Open quarters

Melbourne, Jan 25:

China’s top seed in the women’s draw Peng Shuai is out of the Australian Open in the fourth round after a straight sets loss to Maria Sharapova here Sunday.

Despite a fighting first set, in which she immediately broke back after losing a service game, Peng couldn’t maintain the level required to dismantle the tournament’s second seed, losing 3-6, 0-6 at the Melbourne Park, reports Xinhua.

Australia’s hometown hero Bernard Tomic suffered a similar fate, outclassed by Czech seventh seed Tomas Berdych to lose in three sets 6-2, 7-6 (7-3), 6-2.

Meanwhile, world No.3 Rafael Nadal eased into the final eight, barely threatened by the power of 201-centimetre South African Kevin Anderson.

Earlier, on the centre court, Sharapova eased into the quarter-finals with a comfortable victory over Chinese hopeful Peng. Peng, who had not yet met a seeded opponent on her way to the fourth round, couldn’t repeat her heroics from last year’s US Open and, despite battling through the first set, relinquished the second far easier.

After her straight sets win, Sharapova praised the fight of Peng and said she knew she would face stiff competition before the clash. “Coming into the match, I’ve had some trouble.

I have lost against Peng in my career before and I knew I had to start the match really well,” Sharapova told reporters. “I think I did. I played solid. I don’t think I did anything spectacular, but I felt that I was consistent.

I served smart at times, I returned quite well and I think that really helped me. I think I won the right points at the right time and ultimately won the match.”

Australian Tomic wasn’t so fortunate, succumbing to a tough straight sets loss at the hands of Berdych. In front of a sold-out Margaret Court Arena crowd, Tomic started the match looking nervous and never managed to recover, with a second-set defeat via a tie-break the killer blow for the 22-year-old.

“Emotionally, after that, it was so tough. He’s (Berdych) a very good front runner. When he’s on the front foot and if he’s winning and comfortable, it’s very tough to turn it around against him,” Tomic said of the loss in the tie-break.

“It felt like that today. I tried to hang in there and stuff, but he just kept going for his shots even more. He felt free, that he couldn’t miss.”

Elsewhere, World No.3 Nadal easily accounted for Anderson with a 7-5, 6-1, 6-4 victory. Nadal had struggled to deal with the height and bounce of his South African opponent in the first set, but saved five break-point opportunities and soon acclimatised to take the final two sets comfortably and ease into the last eight.

“I was playing better than the days before, I felt myself with better rhythm in the legs, better rhythm with my forehand, so in general, I am very happy with the way I played today,” Nadal said after the match. “The way that I improved my level is not the most important thing; obviously the victory is.”

On the women’s side of the draw, world No.7 Eugenie Bouchard survived a second-set scare to defeat Irina-Camelia Begu 6-1, 5-7, 6-2 and set up a quarter-final clash with Sharapova.

Meanwhile, 10th seed Ekaterina Makarova eased through to the final eight with a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 win over Julia Goerges. (IANS)