The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Maria Sharapova sails past Shuai Peng

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Friday, May 06, 2005

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Maria Sharapova sails past Shuai Peng

FACILE WIN: Chasing the No. 1 ranking, Maria Sharapova breezed through her third round match against Shuai Peng. — Photo: AP

ROME: Russian Maria Sharapova breezed through her third round encounter against Shuai Peng 6-2, 6-1 at the German Open here on Thursday.

If Sharapova wants to claim the world's top ranking at the German Open, she may have to earn it the hard way. Sharapova needs to win the title, a major French open tuneup, to unseat Lindsay Davenport.

"I never look ahead at a tournament, just my next round," Sharapova said. "It would be amazing to be No. 1, but I'm not going to put any pressure on myself."

Earlier, Belgian Kim Clijsters was forced out after injuring her right leg during a third-round match against Switzerland's Patty Schnyder.

The Belgian slid awkwardly on the clay court chasing down a ball in the second set. She received court-side treatment, but gave up a short time later.

Clijsters had won the first set 7-6 (4) and was trailing 6-5 in the second when she retired hurt.

In the first set, she warded off three set points at 5-6 before forcing the tiebreak.

Clijsters, formerly ranked as the world's top player, was in the midst of a spectacular return from a 10-month absence due to a left wrist injury. She had won 19 of her last 20 matches before Thursday, including wins at Indian Wells and Miami. But she has also been troubled by a shoulder problem.

There was no immediate comment on the extent of her injury.

Russia's Nadia Petrova, seeded sixth, became the first player to reach the quarterfinals. Petrova beat Mary Pierce, 6-2, 7-5.

Coria races

At Rome, ninth seed Guillermo Coria raced into the quarterfinals of the Rome Masters with a 6-0, 6-4 win over home favourite Davide Sanguinetti. Sanguinetti, ranked 76th in the world, had received a wild card into the event and looked well out of his depth against clay-court specialist Coria, the losing finalist at last year's French Open.

The Italian's initial tactic of playing from the baseline proved badly flawed, as Argentine Coria used his metronomic groundstrokes to wrap up the first set in half an hour.

Sanguinetti held serve in the first game of the second, but a pair of unforced errors in the third gave Coria the break he needed to close out the contest.

"I feel I'm getting better and better," Coria said. "This is the first time I've got as far as the quarters. I think I'd prefer to play Roddick. We've played a lot of matches on hard courts and I've never beaten him, but the last couple of times I wasn't 100 per cent fit."

Safin upset

Earlier on Wednesday, Spanish qualifier Nicolas Almagro upset Australian Open champion Marat Safin 6-4, 6-3 in the second round.

The 19-year-old Almagro matched the Russian's heavy groundstrokes in long baseline rallies and chased down Safin's drop shots throughout the match. Safin also struggled in the first round before beating Jiri Novak in three sets.

The 101st-ranked Almagro, who had never won a Masters Series match until he beat Igor Andreev in the first round, broke Safin's serve to win the first set and then converted three more breaks in the second.

Safin slammed his racket at one point in the second set to show his frustration. He converted only two of 11 break points and made 41 unforced errors to Almagro's 28.

The results: At Rome (ATP Masters): Third round: Guillermo Coria bt Davide Sanguinetti 6-0, 6-4; Alberto Martin bt Luis Horna 6-1, 6-3. Second round: Nicolas Almagro bt Marat Safin 6-4, 6-3; Luis Horna bt Andreas Seppi 2-6, 6-3, 6-4; Radek Stepanek bt Juan Ignacio Chela 6-4, 4-6, 6-1; Ivan Ljubicic bt Sebastien Grosjean 6-4, 3-6, 6-3; Gaston Gaudio bt Filippo Volandri 6-4, 6-2; Davide Sanguinetti bt Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 7-5; Alberto Martin bt Potito Starace 6-3, 3-6, 6-3; Guillermo Cana bt Juan Monaco 6-0, 6-0; Rafael Nadal bt Victor Hanescu 6-1, 6-1.

At Berlin (German Open): Third round: Maria Sharapova bt Shuai Peng 6-2, 6-1; Elena Bovina bt Meghann Shaughnessy 6-4, 6-2; Patty Schnyder bt Kim Clijsters 6-7 (4/7) 6-5 retired; Nadia Petrova bt Mary Pierce 6-2, 7-5.

Second round: Amelie Mauresmo bt Anna Smashnova 6-4, 6-1; Patty Schnyder bt Anabel Medina Garrigues 7-6(2), 6-4; Kim Clijsters bt Dinara Safina 7-5, 6-2; Maria Sharapova bt Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-2, 6-2; Justine Henin-Hardenne bt Maria Kirilenko 2-6, 6-1, 6-3; Jelena Jankovic bt Flavia Pennetta 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(1);

At Rabat, Morocco (Grand Prix SAR): Second round: Nuria Llagostera Vives bt Anne Kremer 6-4, 6-2; Lourdes Dominguez Lino bt Michaela Pastikova 6-4, 7-5. — Agencies

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