No mercy from Sharapova

 

Originally published on: 26/02/10 12:46

With her victory, the 2006 champion booked a third-round meeting with another American teenager, Melanie Oudin, who earlier upset fourth seed Elena Dementieva.

Sharapova, seeded 29th, produced a display of power tennis although her 17-year-old opponent refused to be overawed at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Top seed Dinara Safina came through another shaky match and then saw her path to the final open up with the elimination of leading rivals Dementieva and Jelena Jankovic.

The Russian took two hours and 13 minutes to eke out at 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Kristina Barrois, giving up 15 double faults and committing 38 unforced errors to 36 winners.

“Another tough day in the office,” Safina said afterwards. “Another day off tomorrow and another match on Saturday.

“There is no problem in the technique, just in my head, so I have to change the chip in here,” she added pointing to her head.

Dementieva became the first big-name casualty of the 2009 US Open when Oudin claimed another big-name grand slam scalp.

Oudin, 18 later this month, had caused a shock at Wimbledon earlier this summer when she knocked out Jankovic in the third round and the world number 70 added the 2008 Olympic champion to her list of victims at Arthur Ashe Stadium with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 upset victory.

While Dementieva was removed from the picture as Safina’s seeded opponent for the semi-finals, Jankovic fell foul of Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova, losing a final-set tie-break to the world number 55, 6-3, 6-7 (4-7), 7-6 (8-6).

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