Sharapova halts Sania's run in San Diego Q/Fs

San Diego, Aug 4 (UNI) Sania Mirza's new-found knack of toppling players ranked above her vanished in just 61 minutes as Russian powerhouse Maria Sharapova demolished the Indian ace 6-2, 6-1 in the Acura Classic quarter-finals here.

Sania's superb run of form was no match for Sharapova, as the world no.2 played with the confidence of a defending champion to dominate the proceedings throughout the match.

Sania, ranked 31st in the world, came into the match loaded with confidence after reaching the final of the Stanford Classic last week and having beaten eighth seed Dinara Safina in the previous round here but her Achille's heel -- her serve -- deserted her again as she won only 40 per cent of her service points.

The Russian beauty looked sharp from the very beginning winning eight of the first nine points to take a 2-0 lead. After Sania held serve in the third game, Sharapova lost only five points in the next three games as she increased her lead to 5-1.

Following Sania's service hold, Sharapova held serve to wrap up the first set in 29 minutes.

The second set turned out to be even more one-sided for the 20-year-old Indian as Sharapova played with confidence of a defending champion to hand out a classic lesson to pocket the set 6-1.

After Sharapova held for a 2-0 lead, the Hyderabadi lass took a 40-0 lead in the third game, but after throwing in two double faults, the Indian failed to hold serve.

The highlight of the second set for Sania came in the fourth game as she broke Sharapova's serve for the only time in the set.

For Sania, who was making her first quarter-final appearance at the Acura Classic, the service break was too little, too late as Sharapova lost only three points in sweeping the final three games to finish the match.

Sharapova indirectly paid a sweet compliment to Sania, when she said after the match ''I wanted to make sure I stepped in and hit it. The two most important things were my serves and returns because she's (Sania) pretty solid from the baseline.'' Sharapova will now run into an in-form Anna Chakvetadze, who defeated Wimbledon champion Venus Williams 6-7, 7-6, 6-2.

Earlier, Sania lost a golden opportunity to complete a hat-trick of doubles title, losing in the second round of the tournament, after the seventh seeded Indo-Isreali pair of Sania and Shahar Peer lost a match tie-breaker against the unseeded pair of Su-Wei Hsieh of Chinese Taipei and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia 6-3, 3-6, 10-12.

UNI