Sharapova reaches Australian Open semis

Maria Sharapova advanced to the Australian Open semifinals with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win Wednesday over Anna Chakvetadze, another 19-year-old Russian.

The top-seeded Sharapova, assured of gaining the No. 1 ranking next month, had trouble on her serve, serving double-faults on break point three times. But she had the only point on serve in the tiebreaker, where the last eight points finished on unforced errors.

The U.S. Open champion was broken when serving for the match at 5-3 and wasted a match point with a backhand error in the next game.

Sharapova got two more match points in the 12th game and finished it off in 2 hours, 14 minutes when Chakvetadze netted a forehand.

"It was very difficult, I didn't feel like we had a lot of easy rallies," Sharapova said. "I felt I had to work on every point."

Sharapova was very inconsistent, smacking clean winners to take one game, then committing glaring mistakes to lose the next. She finished with 32 winners but six double faults and 41 unforced errors and won only three more points than her opponent.


Sharapova, who looks toward her father, Yuri, after almost every point, got a warning for getting coaching from him as she served at 0-30 with the score tied at 2-2 in the second set. She then ran off four straight points to take the game.

"I was a little up and down, a bit scratchy," Sharapova said. "I am glad I got through, but next time will even be tougher."

Sharapova is into the semifinals at Melbourne Park for the third straight year and is among the last four at a major for the eighth time. She is the defending U.S. Open champion and also won Wimbledon in 2004.

Chakvetadze, who had won 20 of her previous 21 matches, had never been beyond the fourth round of a major.