Maria Sharapova joined Petra Kvitova in the semi-finals of the Australian Open after easing past Ekaterina Makarova in a last-eight stage match.
Sharapova, who had gone into the match with two wins over her Russian compatriot previously, started off poorly when she double-faulted early in the opening game but came back to win the game. Then in the fourth game, Sharapova broke Makarova’s serve to go 3-1 up and won the set off her opponent’s serve at 5-2.
In the second set, Sharapova lost a bit of a momentum quite early after Makarova broke her in the third game of the set. But the fourth-seeded player came back strongly in the very next game to level the score at 2-2, before breaking Makarova in the sixth to go 4-2 up.
The players held serve off the next two games to allow Sharapova to serve for the match, which she did with aplomb to win her quarter-final.
Sharapova will take on second-seeded Kvitova in the semi-finals after the Czech second seeded player defeated Sara Errani in the first quarter-final of the day.
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