Caroline Wozniacki was a high profile casualty in
Melbourne as the 10th seed went down 4-6 7-5 6-3 to Garbine Muguruza of Spain.
Muguruza won her first WTA tour event in Hobart earlier
in the month as a qualifier and continued that form with a strong performance
against Wozniacki after dropping the first set.
It leaves the former world No 1 still in search of a
maiden grand slam win and 20-year-old Muguruza cited her improved fitness as
the key to victory following ankle surgery.
"I worked really hard in the off-season and this
form is the result of that," she said.
"I was really nervous, it was the third round of a
Grand Slam and against a great player. I was only thinking about being
aggressive and not being scared."
Her reward is a fourth round tie with fifth seed
Agnieszka Radwanska, who came through three sets against Russia's Anastasia
Pavlyuchenkova.
Sharapova through
Maria Sharapova continued her erratic progress into the
fourth round with a 6-1 7-6 victory over Alize Cornet of France.
Still rebuilding from a long layoff due to her
troublesome right shoulder, the Russian ran hot then cold against the 25th
seed, her serve going awry in the second set and only a late rally in the
tie-break saving her from another potential marathon.
Sharapova had previously battled through the longest
match of her career, a three-hour, 28-minute slug-fest against Italian Karin
Knapp, played in blistering heat.
"I just didn't have a great rhythm," said the
third seed after hitting 35 unforced errors and landing only half of her first
serves.
"It's sometimes nice just to be able to come off the
court and groove, just to get a good hit on the ball.
"I still feel like in certain situations I am a bit
rusty and I'm not closing it out when I have to or maybe going for a little
much or overthinking it a bit.
"That will come. I'm not worried about that. If I'm
making those types of errors, they are going to go in eventually."
Last year's surprise semi-finalist Sloane Stephens also
progressed, beating Ukraine's Elina Svitolina 7-5 6-4.
Serbian eighth seed Jelena Jankovic had to be at her best
to get past Kurumi Nara 6-4 7-5, her third Japanese opponent in a row.
The win set her up with a fourth-round clash against
Romanian 11th seed Simona Halep, who ousted Kazakh Zarina Diyas in straight
sets.
Culled from Skysports
