Serena Smashes Sharapova, Again

MIAMI, FL, USA - Two months ago, Serena Williams capped a fairytale return to form at the Australian Open with a crushing 61 62 championship win over Maria Sharapova; and for the Russian it was déjà vu on Tuesday afternoon in Miami, as the American was again in impeccable form, blitzing her in their much-hyped round of 16 encounter, 61 61.

What appeared to be an even match early on quickly turned into something different; after the two both held serve to begin, Williams reeled off five games in a row to claim the opening set. Sharapova held her serve easily to stop that streak and get on the board in the second set, but again the American just steamrolled, stringing together six straight games to close out the shockingly lopsided win in only 59 minutes.

Williams was happy with the win, which was eerily similar to the aforementioned victory down under earlier this year.

"I know if I'm playing well, anything can happen," said Williams, who didn't grant Sharapova even one look at a break point in seven service games. "I think a lot of people might have thought it was a one-off in Australia. I don't know anyone who's won eight Grand Slams and had so many doubters in their lives."

But despite the easy win in their last meeting and the fact that she went into the match with a 14-1 career record against world No.2 players (she is a slightly less favorable 9-8 against No.1s), Williams never became overconfident of her form.

"I never think about how I'm winning," she added. "Maria is a fighter. She doesn't give up. So you've got to win every point and you can't just say you're winning so easy. I just always think 'Okay I won that game, now let me focus again.'

"Next time, it's going to be tough. It's not going to be easy. I'm not going to go in there thinking I've already won it. Not at all."

Perhaps the most disappointing statistic for Sharapova was the double fault count. What at one point was one of the most feared serves in the game broke down for the second consecutive tournament as she hit eight of them, seven coming in the second set; she went down in a flurry of them to Vera Zvonareva at Indian Wells.

"I guess when you feel you need to hold your serve against someone like her and someone that's serving so well, it puts extra pressure on your serve because you know that you have to hold your serve," Sharapova commented. "Once she gets up in the set or in the match she seems to steamroll. I was trying to go for it, not just the serve but the shots I hit, because she was stepping into the court.

"Against her you need to be the first person that strikes a good ball, and whoever gets the advantage in the first half of the point is going to win the point."

Although she has had solid results this year, Sharapova hasn't won a tournament. She reached the Australian Open final and was also a semifinalist at Tokyo [Pan Pacific] but has now lost prior to the quarterfinals at both Indian Wells and Miami, events she reached the finals of last year. She talked afterwards about her form.

"I'm not going to look at it as a confidence thing or not," Sharapova declared. "I have to look at what I have to do to make it better and how I'm going to improve it, so it gets bigger and better to help me win more tournaments. You've got to go on the practice court and work on it. It'll take time but I'm sure I'll get there."

Sharapova had a shot at becoming the sixth in Sony Ericsson WTA Tour history to beat both Williams sisters at the same event, having won a three-setter against Venus Williams the day before. Players who have previously achieved that feat were now-retired stars Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario (1998 Sydney), Steffi Graf (1999 Sydney) and Lindsay Davenport (2004 Los Angeles), and current players Martina Hingis (2001 Australian Open) and Kim Clijsters (2002 Tour Championships).

Next up for Serena is No.8 seed Nicole Vaidisova; in their only prior encounter, coincidentally also at this year's Australian Open, Vaidisova was up a break and a set point at 5-4 first set before Williams came roaring back to win, 76(5) 64. She had a tough time closing it out, though; she had been up 5-1 in that second set.

"Nicole is good player. Here I go again. I have to play another Top 10 player who is playing great tennis. This was a win; this isn't the finals. I have to be ready for the next round." (WTA)