Defending champion Maria Sharapova continued her return to form as she swept past Colombia’s Mariana Duque-Marino at the Madrid Open. Sharapova, 28, had lost early in her last 3 tournaments but beat Duque-Marino 6-1 6-2 to reach the last 16.
Czech fourth seed Petra Kvitova came through a testing encounter against American Coco Vandeweghe 6-4 2-6 6-3.
Victoria Azarenka beat Ajla Tomljanovic 6-3 6-3 to set up a 3rd-round meeting with top seeded Serena Williams from America.
3rd seed Sharapova broke Duque-Marino’s serve 4 times while saving 3 break points on her own serve. The Russian is set to replace Simona Halep as world number 2 if she reaches the final, after the Romanian lost her opening match.
“I face the ranking questions every single week obviously because ranking is a big part of the sport,” said Sharapova.
“It’s not my main purpose and my main goal. If I’m not ready to beat someone towards the later stage of a tournament, then I’m not ready to beat them from the very beginning.
“My goal is to win championships.”
”She is someone who, if you give her time, creates angles, slices and usually drop-shots a lot more than she did in this match because she has the hands and the ability to do so,” Sharapova said.
In the men’s event, Canada’s 5th seed Milos Raonic beat Juan Monaco 6-3 6-4, 13th seed Gael Monfils thrashed Serb Viktor Troicki 6-2 6-0, and Bulgarian 10th seed Grigor Dimitrov led Donald Young 6-4 3-0 after 58 minutes of play before the American retired. Sadly, the 25-year-old Young received treatment for back pain while trailing 6-4, 3-0 and was unable to resume play.
Interestingly, Dimitrov is next scheduled to face Fabio Fognini of Italy.
Fernando Verdasco, who lives in Madrid, beat fellow Spaniard Guillermo Garcia-Lopez 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
What is more, Leonardo Mayer of Argentina beat Gilles Muller of Luxembourg 6-3, 6-3.
Also advancing were Jo-Wilfred Tsonga, Gael Monfils and Alberto Ramos-Vinolas.
Sharapova advances into the third round of Madrid Open
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