Sharapova Eliminates Fellow Russian

Second-seeded Maria Sharapova thrilled a capacity crowd of 6,500 at the Acura Classic on Tuesday night as she defeated fellow Russian Vasilisa Bardina, 6-4, 6-1, in a first-round match.

After having her serve broken in the third game of the match and falling behind, Sharapova came back from 2-4 to sweep the next four games to win the set in 45 minutes.

At 1-1 in the second set, Sharapova won 12 of the next 15 points and took a 4-1 lead. Bardina then took a medical time-out for treatment for a right shoulder strain.
Following the break, Sharapova broke Bardina for the fourth time in the match to increase her lead to 5-1.

Serving for a spot in the third round, Sharapova got to 30-30. She smacked a service winner to gain match point and then hit a down the line forehand winner to end the match, which took one-hour and 29 minutes.

“We had pretty long rallies. In that game where she broke me (in the first set), I didn’t serve well,” Sharapova said. “But after that I made her played a little bit. I was able to step in… and put pressure on her.”

• Sharapova advances to the third round where she will play the winner of the Shuai Peng / Vera Zvonareva second-round match.
• Sharapova is making her second career Acura Classic appearance. She reached the quarterfinals in 2004.
• Sharapova is ranked fourth in the world.
• Sharapova improves her 2006 match record to 33-7.
• Sharapova and Bardina are two of 16 Russians ranked in the world’s top 100.
• This was the first head-to-head meeting between the two players.
• Bardina was making her debut appearance in the Acura Classic.
• Bardina is ranked 88 in the world.
• Bardina is now 41-14 in 2006.

Click Here for more Match Summaries.