Serena-Sharapova rivalry comes again to Australian Open

The American only offered Australian onlookers a bland, uncompetitive entre ahead of what fans hope will prove to be a mouth-watering main course when Williams tackles Sharapova later in the week. Even so, she still received enough freebies from her opponent for the match to stay competitive, extending to 2hr 5min before Sharapova finally sealed it 7-5, 7-5.

Maria Sharapova held her end of the bargain, beating Belinda Bencic 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday to reach the Australian Open quarterfinals and a possible rematch of last year’s final with Serena Williams.

The richly talented 18-year-old had a number of chances to break Sharapova in the second set, but the five-time Grand Slam champion’s serve repeatedly sprung her from jail. She hasn’t lost a set in four matches, and three of those matches lasted an hour or less.

Williams then swept aside Sharapova’s Russian compatriot in 55 minutes with little fuss. A win by the Russian would also be the 600th of her career.

Bencic laughed and said she was only joking.

“I think as we could see the worse for her was jumping, so it mean serve”.

“I don’t know if they exist or not”.

“Every match is new”, she said.

It was a sluggish start by Williams, who was broken in the first game by the 21-year-old on her tournament debut, to gasps of shock from the crowd. “You’re always trying to improve”, she said.

It denied Bencic a quarter-final clash with Serena Williams, but she was grateful for being able to show her mettle in such a big tournament.

“There is no reason I shouldn’t be looking to improve and to be getting my game in a better position than any other previous round. It’s only going to be tougher, especially against Serena”, she said.

Any insight from Sharapova’s coach, Sven Groeneveld, wasn’t possible since he is not allowed to speak to reporters without permission from Sharapova’s longtime agent, Max Eisenbud.

TOMIC SLATES FEDERER Outspoken Bernard Tomic has taunted Roger Federer over his struggles against Novak Djokovic after the Swiss great candidly told the young Aussie he had to knuckle down if he wanted to reach the top 10. For one he said he’d throw caution to the wind in the first set.

That’s as near to a tribute as Sharapova is likely to get from her deadly rival. I found a sword that looked like He Man’s sword.

“It’s more painful”, he said.

“Once she plays Serena it will be ace, ace, ace, everything”.

“The whole walk-on to the court is a different experience”. Williams has 33 from her backhand side (opposed to 20 forehand) and Sharapova 69 from her forehand (47 backhand). Going into the quarter-final, Sharapova only has 16 to worry about. Sharapova has not won a set during their last six encounters.

Polish fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska will face Spain’s 10th seed Carla Suarez Navarro in the other quarter-final tomorrow after both players came through testing three-setters. Radwanska, victor at the year-end championships in November, rallied to fend off Anna-Lena Friedsam 6-7 (6-8) 6-1 7-5 in a thriller. Friedsam was in tears in the closing stages as problems with both her legs cost her victory.

Federer didn’t step on the court at Rod Laver Arena until almost 11 p.m. local time and his match ended early Monday morning in Melbourne.

What was Djokovic thinking after the fourth set? Was definitely the score that you want to be healthy and be 100 percent.

Djokovic has now advanced to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the ninth consecutive year.

“I just heard that Andy went direct to the hospital”.

“I went to the botanical gardens, just walking, one day”. The victor awaits sixth-ranked Tomas Berdych.

Tomic, who has made more noise off the court than on it in his career so far, said the 17-time Grand Slam victor was “nowhere near” the world number one – and insisted his own game was top-eight material.

The Australian Open released a statement from Sears in which he says he’s been “cleared to fly back home to the U.K.in the next day or so”.