Maria Sharapova through to fourth round

 

Originally published on: 25/06/11 15:20

On boutique No. 2 court today, Maria Sharapova defeated the Czech player Klara Zakopalova 6-2 6-3.

Unlike some of her peers, the Russian said she likes Court 2. “I feel like you’re very close to the audience, which I think is great, because you don’t have a bad seat in the house for the fans.”

Sharapova was pleased with the way she played. “I was put in tough positions in the match and I was able to come through,” she added. “I was down a break in the second today and, found a way to win that second set. So, yeah, I was quite pleased.”

It was a comfortable victory for the 2004 Champion who is now looking forward to a rest day. “I guess I won’t be watching tennis tomorrow, which will be a nice change. But, yeah, I played a couple days in a row, so it will be nice to just chill out at home, be lazy, yeah. Maybe get some rain. I like the rain.” Nobody told her that there might not be much rain tomorrow; SW19 just might be bathed in sunshine!

Sharapova next faces the No. 20 seed Shuai Peng, who today defeated Melinda Czink 6-2 7-6 (5) and she is aware of the challenge she will face. “I think she has a great game for the grass,” said Peng. “She hits really flat, stays quite low. Her balls come pretty deep. I think the last time we played was in Palm Springs earlier this year. It was a tough match. Yeah, she’s playing some of the best tennis of her career. No doubt she’ll be out there playing loose and good tennis so I’ll have to be ready.”

Should she win that match she could find herself in a quarter-final against World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki, who today defeated Jarmila Gajdosova 6-3 6-2 on Centre Court.

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