MADRID (AP): Serena Williams cruised past No. 2 Maria Sharapova 6-1, 6-3 on Friday to advance to the Madrid Open semifinals along with top-ranked Victoria Azarenka.
Williams sealed her seventh straight win over Sharapova with an emphatic slam on the new blue-clay court. Azarenka overcame a shaky start to beat French Open winner Li Na 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Meanwhile, Rafael Nadal went down in frustration as the second seed lost his first match of the season on clay, with Spanish compatriot Fernando Verdasco triumphing 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 on Thursday in the third round of the Madrid Masters.
It was entirely another story for top seed Novak Djokovic, who needed two match points to beat Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 and Roger Federer, who rolled over Frenchman Richard Gasquet 6-3, 6-2.
With the exit of Nadal, Federer now has a chance to return to the ATP number two ranking if he can win the title, according to ATP calculations.
Elsewhere, Czech sixth seed Tomas Berdych ended the injury comeback effort of Frenchman Gael Monfils, the number 12, with a comprehensive 6-1, 6-1 victory.
Estoril champion Juan Martin del Potro, the tenth seed, beat Croatian Marin Cilic 6-2, 6-4.
The ninth-ranked Williams opened strong, hitting six aces and earning two early breaks to take the first set.
Sharapova broke at love to even the score at 2-2 in the second set, but she quickly squandered her break with a costly sixth double-fault to fall behind for good.
Williams, who improved to 11-0 on clay this year, will face either U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur or Czech Lucie Hradecka.
After Azarenka struggled on serve early on, last year’s runner-up found her stride and broke her Chinese opponent’s first two service games of the second set en route to pulling even at a set each.
Azarenka, who has won four titles this season, then used her powerful groundstrokes to take a 4-0 lead in the decider before holding off Li’s late charge.
The Belarusian will face the winner of the quarterfinal between Agnieszka Radwanska and Varvara Lepchenko.
On the men’s side, Argentina’s Juan Martin del Potro beat Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4 to move on to a semifinal with either Tomas Berdych or Fernando Verdasco. (Agencies)