MELBOURNE — A dominant Maria Sharapova routed another hapless opponent yesterday as ninth seed Samantha Stosur flopped out of the Australian Open, amid increasing speculation about Serena Williams’ fitness.
Report by Reuters
The world number two Russian handed a tennis lesson to young Japanese Misaki Doi in a one-sided 6-0, 6-0 rout to book a potential third clash with seven-time Grand Slam winner Venus Williams.
Sharapova also thrashed her first round challenger 6-0, 6-0 to become the first woman since Wendy Turnbull at the Australian Open in 1985 to bag two double bagel Grand Slam wins in a row.
Her flawless performance in just 47 minutes was in stark contrast to Australia’s Stosur, who threw away the last five games to hand China’s Zheng Jie passage to the next round.
Stosur, who suffered first-round flops at WTA events in Brisbane and Sydney this year, was leading 5-2 in the third set, but choked in front of her home fans and double faulted to hand Zheng victory 6-4, 1-6, 7-5.
