Serena and Maria on Collision Course

Former number one Maria Sharapova and current number one, Serena Williams, are on a crash course for a Round of Sixteen confrontation on Monday. Sharapova, who is mounting a serious comeback effort, had her big serve and powerful baseline game in high gear against Romania Ioana Raluca Olaru on Thursday. The pretty Russian played to her loyal fans and raised expectations about her Monday meeting with a 6-1, 6-4 sweep of Olaru.

The blonde beauty stroked 29 outright winners as she reached the third round for the first time in three years. The hapless Olaru has only won one set against top twenty opponents in 14 career matches.

Top seeded defending champion Serena Williams showed her ruthless ability to finish off overmatched opponents with a thorough dismantling of former top ten player, Anna Chakvetadze, 6-0, 6-1. The Russian has been attempting a comeback after two difficult personal and professional years.

Williams left no doubt that Sharapova will need her A game plus some competitive fire to upset the 2009 champion. Williams has all cylinders firing and committed just 11 errors in the one-hour match.

Number three seed Dane Caroline Wozniacki made fast work of Taipei’s Chang Kai-Chen 6-4, 6-3. Wozniacki seems to be playing her best tennis of the year. The Dane and Kai-Chen are two of only six teenagers in the tour’s top 100.

Another comeback player is Belarus’s Victoria Azarenka. Azarenka, who has been in a mind-boggling slump for two months, moved on to the third round with a complete 6-1, 6-4 win over Serbian Bojana Jovanovski. Having changed coaches, Azarenka seems to have her hard-hitting game back in one piece. The 14th seed is dangerous opponent and if she continues to and her new serve, anything can happen.

Madrid champion Aravane Rezai, the 18 seed, took the first set but lost key points in each of the following two sets to fall to Czechoslovakia’s Klara Zakopalova. Aravane continued to gamble with her high risk, high return game. Zakopalova showed great foot speed and patience allowing Rezai to commit a high percentage of unforced errors.

Poland’s seventh seed Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Alberta Brianti 6-2, 6-0. Ninth seed Li Na powered he way past Japan’s Kurumi Nara 6-2, 6-4. In a rare day, Rezai was the only seed to fall on Thursday.

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