Top seed Maria Sharapova booked her spot in the fourth round of Wimbledon with a routine 6-1 6-4 victory over Su-Wei Hsieh.
Former champion books fourth round spot after win over Hsieh
Top seed Maria Sharapova booked her spot in the fourth round of Wimbledon with a routine 6-1 6-4 victory over Su-Wei Hsieh.
The French Open champion broke serve three times in the opening set and then recovered from a break in the first game of the second to complete a comfortable win on Court One.
Sharapova did struggle on serve somewhat, offering up five double-faults in blustery conditions, but her Taiwanese opponent was rarely in a position to cash in.
Hsieh did move 4-2 ahead in the second set but Sharapova quickly broke back and then sped away to set up a clash with Sabine Lisicki.
The 15th-seeded German, who lost to Sharapova at the semi-final stage last year, claimed a 7-6 (7/5) 1-6 6-2 victory over American Sloane Stephens.
"That's a tough one. She did extremely well last year. She is a very good player on grass and I look forward to it," Sharapova said of the upcoming clash.
Tricky
She added of her win over Hsieh: "She was a tricky opponent.
"She changed the pace really well and her serve is really tricky. The conditions were tough, I had to face a lot out there and be patient. The wind was tricky but I knew I had to handle it."
Kim Clijsters ensured that her final Wimbledon campaign will extend into the second week after she went through to the fourth round after Vera Zvonareva retired in the second set of their clash.
The Belgian made a sharp start as she won the first three games and had a chance to win the fourth as well, but Zvonareva held on, and then broke serve to pull back to 3-2.
The windy conditions on Court One were causing problems for both players and contributed to a run of four successive breaks that left Clijsters serving for the first set, and this time she managed to hold.
Zvonareva battled doggedly to hang onto her serve at the start of the second, and after holding for 2-1 she left the court for a lengthy medical time-out.
It was not immediately apparent what the problem was but, after being broken to love in the seventh game, she went to the net to shake hands with Clijsters.
