Sharapova dumps Stosur to move into last eight; Nadal, Serena advance, but Murray bites the dust
Maria Sharapova celebrates a point against Samantha Stosur yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
Madrid: Four-time Grand Slam title winner Maria Sharapova moved into the last eight of the Madrid Open yesterday with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Australian Samantha Stosur.
Maria Sharapova celebrates a point against Samantha Stosur yesterday. Pic/Getty Images
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Sharapova's big serving was the key as she was broken just once all afternoon to seal her 13th win over Stosur in 15 meetings and set up an intriguing quarter-final against world number two Li Na.
Meanwhile, Wimbledon champion Andy Murray was dumped out of the Madrid Masters at the third round stage yesterday 6-3, 6-2 by Santiago Giraldo.
Murray was competing for the first time in a month in the Spanish capital and was powerless to stop the in-form Colombian, who reached the final of the Barcelona Open two weeks ago, as he sealed victory in just over an hour to set up a quarter-final meeting with Spain's Roberto Bautista Agut.
Nadal in fine form
Earlier, World No 1 Rafael Nadal remained on course to retain his Madrid Masters title with a comfortable 6-1, 6-4 win over Finland's Jarkko Nieminen.
Nadal had come into the tournament looking to dispel doubts after suffering shock defeats to David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro in the quarter-finals of the Monte Carlo Masters and the Barcelona Open respectively.
However, he looked in fine form as he took nine of the opening 10 games to move 6-1, 3-0 in front.
Nieminen then briefly threatened a comeback as he broke back and even had break points at 4-4 in the second set, but Nadal held on before sealing victory when the world number 57 fired long in the next game.
"I am happy because I think until 3-0 in the second set I played the best I have on clay since I started in Monte Carlo," said Nadal.
"It's just a question of finding my rhythm, my level of play and I am doing that little by little. Tomorrow will be another tough match and I need to prepare well for that.
"I did what I needed to do today and I just need to find that little bit more consistency which I lost after 3-0 in the second set."
Next up for the 13-time Grand Slam champion is a meeting with sixth seed Tomas Berdych after the Czech came through in three sets against Bulgarian 12th seed Grigor Dimitrov 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.
Serena breezes through
Serena Williams also maintained her quest for a third consecutive Madrid Open title with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro.
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