Sharapova wins in 3 sets at Australian Open

Maria Sharapova reached that milestone on Friday with a hard-fought 6-1 6-7(5) 6-0 win over American Lauren Davis, a match that encapsulated her nearly unrivalled ability to shut out disappointment and turn it into success.

“I felt like I made it a little bit more hard than I should have”, Sharapova said. She broke back for 2-all in the second set. If I think about it like that – “Oh, I’ve been around the block, I’ve been to all these tournaments so many times” – that would seem quite heavy and would not really motivate me much.

“Yeah, an impressive player”, said Sharapova. Kyrgios 6-3, 6-4, 1-6, 6-4; Tsonga d.

She continued to pressure the Davis serve and got a break in the third game of the second set.

The five-time grand slam champion lost just two points on her serve in the first set while breaking Davis twice, but her touch deserted her in the second as the American warmed to her task.

“You know you’re in a Grand Slam environment, third round, and against an opponent you haven’t played… that’s fired up and is not going to just give you the match, and that’s exactly what happened”. The five-time Australian Open champion was playing at the same time as Serena Williams, a six-time Australian Open victor, so he shuffled over to Margaret Court Arena. Dimitrov took a set off Federer for the first time in the quarterfinals at the Brisbane International, and did that again in Melbourne. “That’s a fact.” Sharapova was 9 when she moved from Russian Federation to Florida with her father, Yuri, to train at the famed Nick Bollettieri tennis academy. “I’ve been fooled too many times when I was a teenager”.

MARIA SHARAPOVA, on learning that she had just won her 600th career match against Lauren Davis.

Bencic had to work to recover in the second set against tennis mother Bondarenko, who left the circuit to have a child in 2013 but said that “boredom” brought her back to the sport. Here you will find exclusive clips and footage from Australian Open tournaments as well as player interviews featuring the likes of Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Roger Federer, Maria Sharapova, Andy Murray, Rafael Nadal and Martina Hingis.

Federer will next play David Goffin, who defeated Dominic Thiem 6-1, 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 to become the first Belgian man to reach the Round of 16 at the Australian Open since 2005.

The world number 103 was unable to carry her momentum into the decider, however, as Sharapova sealed a 6-1 6-7 (5/7) 6-0 win.

“When I was probably 18, 19 years old, I mean, first of all, I never thought that I’d miss a year when I’m 21 and thought that I was at the peak of my career, thought I was playing some of my best tennis”, she said.

The match-up between Sharapova and Williams would certainly be an exciting match, especially considering that it was Williams who bested the Russian in last year’s Australian Open final.