TENNIS – Maria Sharapova is now the favourite to retain the Rome title she won for two consecutive years in 2011 and 2012 after Serena Williams withdrew from the tournament because of a elbow injury. Diego Sampaolo
Masha beat Bojana Jovanovski 6-3 6-3. The Russian star was broken on her first service game and went down 1-3 but she recovered by reeling off five consecutive games with two consecutive breaks to clinch the first set with 6-3.
Sharapova broke at the start of the second set. After a series of breaks Jovanovski saved a match point but Sharapova sealed the win with another 6-3
In a blockbuster quarter finals Sharapova will face Vika Azarenka fought back from losing the second set to edge past Irina Camelia Begu (one of three players from Romania to reach the third round) with 6-4 5-7 6-1. Azarenka got an early break to take a 3-1 lead. Begu broke back. At 3-3 Azarenka broke serve again en route to winning the first set with 6-4.
Azarenka led 6-4 5-3 but Begu reeled off three consecutive points to win the second set with 7-5 and force the match to the decider. Azarenka bounced back and went up a break opening up a 5-1 lead in the third set. .
“Despite a couple of breaks back and forth in the second set, I was happy to finish as strongly. Today I had to be patient: I had a tricky opponent and the conditions were not easy”, said Sharapova
Carla Suarez Navarro battled past Eugenie Bouchard with 6-7 (2-7) 7-5 7-6 (9-7) in the most exciting match of the day. The Canadian came very close to the win when she served for the match at 5-4 in the second set but Suarez Navarro forced the match by winning three consecutive games for 7-5. Bouchard opened up a 5-3 in the third set and served for the match at 5-4 and 6-5 in the third set. Suarez Navarro wasted four match points in the breaker. Bouchard earned a match point at 7-6 in the tie-break but she made a double fault. After a roller-coaster of emotions the Spanish player took the edge with 9-7 after a dramatic tie-break
Suarrez Navarro, who took his 29th win of the year, will face last week’s Madrid champion Petra Kvitova who beat Jelena Jankovic 6-3 6-2. Jankovic converted on her second break point in the first game. Kvitova broke back in the fourth game before converting her second break point in the sixth game. Kvitova closed out on her third set point in the ninth game. Kvitova got the double break in the first and in the third game. She earned two more break point chances in the fifth hard-fought game but Jankovic saved them. Kvitova converted her third break point chance for 5-0 but she dropped serve as she was serving for the set. The Czech wrapped up the match a few minutes later with 6-2
Kvitova won five of her previous nine head-to-head matches against Suarez Navarro who prevailed in their last three matches at Dubai and Doha.
Simona Halep, semifinalist in Rome in 2013, dropped just three games in her 6-2 6-1 win over Venus Williams They traded breaks in the third and in the fourth games before Halep took control of the match with a double break in the fifth and in the seventh games. Halep converted on her third break point chance in the first game of the second set. Halep converted her third breakpoint chance in the third game and on her first break point on the match point in the seventh game
Serena Williams was forced to withdraw because of an elbow injury before the match against US qualifier Christina McHale
Another qualifier Alexandra Dulgheru from Romania upset this year’s Australian Open semifinalist Ekaterina Makarova with 6-4 6-3
Daria Gavrilova pulled off a big surprise by beating Timea Bacsinskiy with 6-4 7-6 (7-0).
For the first time since 2003 three qualifiers have reached the quarter finals at a Premier level ttournament.
