Zeenews Sports Bureau
Melbourne: Maria Sharapova powered past Venus Williams with a straight-sets 6-1, 6-3 win in the Third Round of the Australian Open today.
Having come into the match with the startling fact of not having lost a single game in the previous two rounds, Williams did at least tarnish that record.
But the match failed to live up to its billing of two equally strong competitors in the women’s circuit as the Russian dominated the match from start to finish.
Sharapova broke in the very first game and raced ahead against a Venus that was very slow off the blocks. The first set was over in less time than it takes one time to finish a Sugarpova, the sweets range that belongs to Maria.
Venus played better in the second set but not before Sharapova had already gone a couple of break up. The resistance was too-little-too-late as Sharapova’s confidence was enough to shut out Venus’ resilience in straight sets in spite of being broken once late on.
Her opponent in the next round will be unseeded Belgian Kirsten Flipkens who defeated Valeria Savinykh.
First Published: Friday, January 18, 2013, 15:13