Sharapova breezes into quarters

By Simon Austin
BBC Sport at Wimbledon

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Defending champion Maria Sharapova eased into the quarter-finals at Wimbledon with an impressive straight-sets win over Nathalie Dechy.

The Russian second seed won 6-4 6-2 to set up a match against compatriot Nadia Petrova in the last eight.

Sharapova secured a crucial break at 3-3 in the first set and went on to win the set with an ace.

The Russian visibly rose in confidence after that and raced through the second set after breaking twice.

Sharapova's serve patterns Enlarge Image

"I thought I picked it up from the first set," said Sharapova. "I was making a few errors but I was pretty confident on my serve.

"In the second set I didn't make as many errors and was getting better and better. Overall, I'm playing better."

The Russian admitted she has a different feeling reaching the latter stages this year after cementing her position among the world's best in the last 12 months.

"It's hard to compare it to last year," she said.

I'm really excited to be in the quarters Maria Sharapova

"Now I'm expecting to be in the second week of a Grand Slam and really excited to be in the quarters.

"It's a great opportunity to go further. I'm a much more experienced player now and I feel like I manage situations a lot better on court."

Sharapova will meet Nadia Petrova next after the Russian survived two match points before beating Kveta Peschke 6-7 (5-7) 7-6 (9-7) 6-3 to reach her first quarter-final.

Petrova looked down and out in the second set but fought back to earn a tie-break and then twice denied Peschke victory before levelling the match.

Unseeded Peschke, upset by a call in the tie-break, found it hard to get going in the decider.

And Petrova maintained her momentum to seal the win in two hours, 25 minutes.