Top-seeded Maria Sharapova cruised into the quarter-finals of the Strasbourg International with a 6-3, 6-0 win over Bulgarian qualifier Dia Evtimova on Wednesday.
Sharapova, given a wild-card entry after two months out with a right elbow injury, didn’t face a single break point to claim her second victory on clay this year.
“I served much better today and returned better, too,” Sharapova said. “I’m happy to get the win today against a player I didn’t know and who had already played four matches here in Strasbourg.”
Sharapova lost in the first round at Madrid last week.
She next faces Julia Goerges of Germany, who defeated sixth-seeded Sybille Bammer of Austria 6-1, 7-6 (6).
“I’ll need to be solid in my next match,” Sharapova said. “She’s a player who is improving all the time, but I’ll focus on my own game and hope to have five matches here.”
Vania King of the US, a doubles specialist who won her sole singles title in Bangkok in 2006, broke local hope Alize Cornet five times and won 6-3, 6-2.
King, who upset second-seeded Elena Vesnina of Russia in the first round, will next face Anastasia Rodionova of Australia, who went through after Elena Baltacha of Britain retired with a lower back injury while leading 2-1 in the first set.
“It’s very frustrating. I woke up this morning and straight away I knew there was a problem,” the eighth-seeded Baltacha said. “The good news is that I have five or six days to recover, and when I’ve had this problem in the past that has been enough. I’m pretty optimistic about Roland Garros.”
The French Open starts on Sunday in Paris.
Three-time tournament winner Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain also advanced, taking advantage of Lucie Hradecka’s retirement.
Medina Garrigues was leading 6-4, 3-0 when Hradecka quit with a left wrist injury.
Kristina Barrois of Germany defeated Yvonne Meusburger of Austria 7-5, 6-3.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
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EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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