Sharapova, Venus Win to Set Up Early Round Showdown Today in Miami

The day's biggest story was definitely the locking in of a blockbuster third round duel between two of the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour's biggest stars, Maria Sharapova and Venus Williams. Both enjoyed straight set wins to set up the battle, Sharapova ousting Chinese Taipei's Chan Yung-Jan, 63 62, and Williams beating No.29 seed Maria Kirilenko, 63 63.

Sharapova won the pair's first two encounters, including in this event's semifinals two years ago, but it was Williams who prevailed in their most recent match-up, and in straight sets as well, in the 2005 Wimbledon semifinals. They spoke on the looming clash after their third round wins.

"Maria's a big hitter - she's not going to pull out any huge surprises against me," Williams said. "It's going to be about whether or not she can play better than me, and whether or not I can play better than her. That's what it's really about."

"If you want to win a tournament like this you have to play against good players, and you've got to beat them if you want to win," Sharapova said. "Like I said it's only going to be tougher from here, and you've got to be ready to play the best."

The road to the trophy will be just as tough in the following round for either the Russian or the American. New Australian Open champion Serena Williams is their next potential opponent. The American, seeded No.13 here, got past qualifier Anastassia Rodionova, 63 63, and face No.23 seed Lucie Safarova next.

"I'm so ready," said Williams, who had not competed since her title in Melbourne. "I've been training every day, and I'm tired of it. It gets a little bit redundant and tiring. And it's often very good to come back here and play tournaments. It is the easiest part of tennis for me, playing the tournaments."

"We want the best possible result for each other so if that's both of us making it to the fourth round, then that's the best we can do," Venus commented. "I'm on the up and up. I don't waste any time. I got back on the Tour, I started winning right away, that's my style. So we'll do fine. We'll be back up here."

Safarova held off a late-match surge from recent Acapulco champion Emilie Loit for a 60 75 victory in her third round match. She is by no means non-threatening in that top eighth of the draw; she has beaten four Top 10 stars already in 2007 and in their only prior encounter, she took the younger Williams to three sets and only fell in a third set tie-break. Only one of the four will make the last eight.

Top seeds keep winning, lower seeds out of luck

Although some faced tough resistance, all of the Top 8 seeds in action Saturday were victorious. No.5 seed Martina Hingis had the most comprehensive match, moving past qualifier Iveta Benesova, 63 62. No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova held 5-3 in the second set but was eventually forced to fight back from a 3-1 last set hole in beating qualifier Kateryna Bondarenko, 76(4) 67(5) 63. Finally, Nicole Vaidisova, the No.8 seed, fought for a 46 75 62 win over Michaella Krajicek.

The only other Top 16 seed to move on was Shahar Peer. The No.14 seed was a 62 61 winner over Colombian Catalina Castaño. No.11 seed Patty Schnyder lost to Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, while No.12-seeded Ana Ivanovic lost to new Bangalore champion Yaroslava Shvedova. Half a dozen lower seeds were also sent packing.

All 16 third round matches will take the court Sunday, with the fourth round ready to go beginning Monday. (WTA)