Maria battles into quarters

Maria had a very tough match today at Indian Wells but she fought and she won to set up a quarter-final showdown with defending champion Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.  Maria defeated #15 seed Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6-2 5-7 6-4 in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

17th straight match wins for Maria now and out of all the wins she has dropped only 3 sets.

In the 1st set Maria broke Bondarenko in the 3rd game and again towards the end of the set and took the set 6-2.

Maria broke in the 3rd game of the 2nd set but Bondarenko broke back to level the set 3-3.  From then on the set was very up and down and Bondarenko took it when she broke Maria's serve for 7-5.

Just like the previous 2 sets, Maria broke in the 3rd game of the 3rd set but Bondarenko was able to break back and all games were held on serve until Maria broke Bondarenko to lead 5-4.  Maria took the next game and match on her 2nd matchpoint.

Maria has played her quarter-final opponent Hantuchova 7 times before and leads the series 6-1.  Hantuchova won the 1st meeting way back at the beginning of 2004 and Maria has dominated the match-up since then.  Maria has won all of the match-ups on hardcourts.

source:mariasharapova.com