Maria Sharapova advances in 3 sets; Stosur beats Ivanovic in LA Women’s Tennis Championships

Sharapova advances in 3 sets; Stosur tops Ivanovic

CARSON, Calif. — Maria Sharapova rallied for a 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 win over Alona Bondarenko at the LA Women’s Tennis Championships on Thursday night.

Bondarenko had beaten Sharapova 6-2, 6-2 in May when she rejoined the tour after her seven-month layoff because of a right shoulder injury.

“It was good to get the win and get my revenge,” Sharapova said. “The second set I started serving a lot better and harder and I returned great and put a lot of pressure on her serve. Then I was able to get the break in the third set and keep the momentum going from the second.”

Samantha Stosur defeated Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-2, in the third round. Stosur, seeded 13th, needed 62 minutes to overcome the 2007 tournament champion and No. 6 seed.

Stosur broke Ivanovic’s serve in the eighth game of the opening set and three times in the second set and controlled the match.

Ivanovic defeated Stosur 7-5, 6-2, in the round of 32 at Wimbledon. But Thursday she struggled with her ball toss on serve throughout the match and said Stosur was “putting a lot of pressure on my serve. I think that was the big difference today because once we got into rallies it was pretty close.”

Stosur, a 25-year-old Australian has won 22 titles and is No. 5 in the world in doubles. Stosur and Rennae Stubbs were the top seeds this week, but she’s still looking for her first singles championship.

She’s been a runner-up four times and last week was a semifinalist at Stanford, where she beat Serena Williams. Stosur called the match with Ivanovic “a benchmark to see how quickly you can turn things around” after the loss at Wimbledon.

“I think it’s an accumulation of all the years I’ve been training for singles,” Stosur said of her recent success. “I’m playing a lot better, and more consistently as well, and matches like today’s certainly give me a little more confidence. I came out and started pretty well and played better and better as it went on.”

The win moved Stosur into Friday’s quarterfinals against the winner of Thursday night’s match between top seed and No. 1 Dinara Safina and No. 14 Zheng Jie.

Second seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia was a 7-6 (5), 4-6, 6-4 winner over Yanina Wickmayer of Belgium and will face No. 10 seed Flavia Pennetta, who beat fifth-seeded Nadia Petrova 6-3, 6-3. Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland, the No. 8 seed, ousted Anna Chakvetadze of Russia 6-3, 6-2, and was joined in the quarterfinals by younger sister Urszula Radwanska, who advanced when No. 12 seed Li Na of China withdrew due to a right ankle injury.

Agnieszka Radwanska will take on Sorona Cirstea of Romania, who was leading Sabine Lisicki of Germany, 6-3, 1-0, when Lisicki retired with a right shoulder injury.