Maria Sharapova eases into Shenzhen Open semi-finals
"I feel like I'm having a nice little tour of China; it's my fourth Chinese city in a few months"
Thursday 4 January 2018 11:17, UK
Maria Sharapova booked her spot in the Shenzhen Open semi-finals with a convincing victory over Zarina Diyas.
The five-time Grand Slam champion, unseeded for the tournament which acts as a warm-up to the Australian Open, proved to be too strong for the world No 66 in a 6-3 6-3 success.
Sharapova, up to world No 59, dictated the baseline exchanges against her Kazakh opponent and clinched victory inside 90 minutes to book a last-four encounter with either No 6 seed Katerina Siniakova or Kristyna Pliskova.
"I'm glad that I ended up being the winner of the match," Sharapova, who hit 24 winners and five aces on her way to victory, said.
"I didn't play my best tennis and there's certainly a lot of things to improve on in the next.
"The great thing is that I'm through and have another chance to play tomorrow.
"I feel like I'm having a nice little tour of China; it's my fourth Chinese city in a few months.
"It's obviously been a great welcome here. It took many years for me to play this event but I'm really glad that I did."
Elsewhere, persistent rain washed out the entire day's play at the ASB Classic in Auckland with top seed Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska among a raft of players unable to take to the court for their quarter-final encounters.
Friday's packed order of play, which includes semi-final matches, is also expected to be affected by predicted inclement weather but tournament organisers have revealed they could schedule both the semi-finals and final on Saturday.
"We've done it before," tournament director Karl Budge was quoted as saying by the New Zealand Herald.
"There's been times where three matches have been played on a day as well. We've just got to hope the tennis gods start being kind to us."
We will be covering the Australian Open from all angles on www.skysports.com/tennis with news, previews, live blogs, reports and expert analysis.
On the move? Head to our app for mobile devices and iPad, or follow our Twitter account @SkySportsTennis to join in the conversation. Who will win the Australian Open? Have your say...
