Saturday, May 31, 2008

Maria Sharapova advances to Round of 16 to face Safina


Maria is through to the 4th round at Roland Garros for the 5th straight year as she defeated #32 seed Karin Knapp of Italy 7-6 (4) 6-0 in 1 hour and 58 minutes. Maria broke in the 1st set to lead 4-3 with a succession of powerful forehands and was serving for the set at 5-4 and Knapp broke to get the match back on serve when Maria double-faulted. The next 2 games were holds of serve and the 1st set was decided by a tie-break which Maria won 7-4 when she hit a cross-court forehand winner. Maria picked up the momentum that she gained from winning the 1st set and wrapped up the 2nd set easily without dropping a game. Maria won the match when Knapp hit an overhead into the net. In the 4th round to be played on Monday, Maria will play #13 seed Dinara Safina of Russia. They have played 5 times before and Maria leads the series 3-2, the last meeting was in Los Angeles in 2006 and Maria won in straight sets. They have played on clay twice before and it is tied 1-1.

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