Sharapova stands Lisicki challenge into Australian Open QF

Michelle Payne January 23, 2012 0

Sharapova stands Lisicki challenge into Australian Open QF

MELBOURNE: Russian tennis queen Maria Sharapova avoided tense moments in her fourth round match against Sabine Lisicki of Germany to eventually storm into the Australian Open 2012 Quarter-Finals in Melbourne on Monday.

Sharapova, 4^th seeded, used her experience and strong nerves to show big heart in the penultimate third set against Sabine Lisicki after the 14^th seeded German won the opening set by 6-3.

Sharapova on the rampage

The Russian tennis queen then stormed her way back into the contention with a strong show in the second set winning it by 6-2 before standing the strong combination of ground strokes, service returns, and serves from Lisicki to win it 6-3 to enter the last-eight stage of the Australian Open 2012.

Sharapova, 24, had conceded only five games prior to the fourth round match but her German opponent showed some good mix of skills and courage to make the Russian dance in the Rod Laver Arena and made her work hard for the victory.

In the first three round matches, Sharapova had only spent three hours, 29 minutes in the court but Lisicki, who had been nursing an abdominal injury before Australian Open and withdrew from Auckland Classic quarter-finals, looked desperate for a victory against the top seed but failed to execute the efforts.

Sharapova rates Lisicki tough player

Talking about her German opponent, Maria Sharapova told reporters, “She’s a really solid player. If you play to her strengths, if you give her time that’s what she really does best, she gets a good strike on the ball and can hit a good winner from any side of the court. But obviously I was trying to create those opportunities where maybe she had to go for a little bit more and force the errors out of her.”

Lisicki relishes challenging Sharapova

Sabine Lisicki told media persons, “I think it (when Sharapova held serve) was quite important, but also the game where she broke me. It was very close, the entire match. When the match is that close, really every single point counts at that moment. I thought it was a very good game. Unfortunately she made some great serves in the third set when I had breakpoints (and there was) not much I could do there at that moment. But I kept fighting until the very last point, and unfortunately it wasn’t enough.”

Sharapova will next meet her counterpart Ekaterina Makarova who defeated US Serena Williams the same day.