Maria wins battle of the Russians

Fifth seed Maria Sharapova bared her fangs as she downed fellow Russian Elena Vesnina 6-3, 6-0 to reach the fourth round of the Australian Open Friday.

Sharapova was in no mood to tolerate any obstacles in her quest to make amends for a humiliating loss in last year's final, snarling "you're messing with the wrong person" as her opponent refused to buckle early in the match.

A pumped-up Sharapova went on to take the first set in 56 minutes and overpowered Vesnina in the second, muttering darkly to herself between points.

Sharapova's on-court grunting was measured at 71.5 decibels by a Melbourne newspaper this week -- close to the noise made by a power drill -- and she was in full voice as she closed Vesnina out of the match.

But the 20-year-old was all smiles after securing a win, shaking hands with Vesnina and saying she had simply been frustrated early on at her misfiring serve.

"I was giving her too many looks at my second serve," she said. "We just kept breaking each other."

Sharapova, who overwhelmed Lindsay Davenport in the second round to end the American tennis mum's Grand Slam return, said she was looking forward to reaching the business end of the tournament.

"I'm really excited, it gets tougher from here and I'm really looking forward to stepping it up and playing at the next level," she said.

Sharapova will meet another Russian in eleventh seed Elena Dementieva in the next round, with a possible quarter-final against world number one and top seed Justine Henin if she wins.