Serena, Sharapova into Madrid semis

Potential final showdown in the offing for the old rivals.

MADRID: Serena Williams extended her unbeaten record this season to 24-0 as she swept aside Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 6-1, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the Madrid Open on Thursday.

Serena had to save three match points in overcoming two-time Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka on Wednesday, but had no such trouble as she maintained her record of never having dropped a set against Navarro in their six meetings.

Defending champion Maria Sharapova also reached the last four for a third consecutive year with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over Caroline Wozniacki.

The Russian showed no ill effects early on from her marathon win over Caroline Garcia on Wednesday as she raced through the first set.

Sharapova broke again in the first game of the second set, but a host of errors handed the momentum back to the world number five and Wozniacki served out to take the match into a deciding set.

The third set followed a similar pattern, except this time it was Wozniacki who failed to build on an early break as Sharapova’s power from the baseline proved too much for the Dane. And after breaking in the penultimate game, Sharapova rounded off victory in just over two hours on court to set up a semi-final meeting with either Lucie Safarova or Svetlana Kuznetsova.

On the men’s side, Thomas Berdych continued his impressive start to the clay court season as he marched into the quarter-finals with a 7-5, 6-2 win over Jo-Wilfried Tsonga.

Bulgaria’s Grigor Dmitrov also reached the last eight when, just as in the Monte Carlo Masters, he disposed of Stanislas Wawrinka in the last-16 7-5 (7/5), 3-6, 6-3. 

Published in The Express Tribune, May 8^th,  2015.

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