Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska forced to scrap at Indian Wells
Last Updated: March 11, 2013 7:38am
Maria Sharapova: Battles into fourth round
Maria Sharapova and Agnieszka Radwanska both survived tough battles to book their places in the fourth round at Indian Wells.
Second seed Sharapova beat Spain's Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5 6-3 and third seed Radwanska scrapper her way past Romania's Sorana Cirstea 6-7 6-3 6-4.
Sharapova broke the Spaniard twice in a closely contested first set that featured several lengthy baseline rallies and lasted almost an hour.
She broke the world No 21 twice more in the second set to advance in one hour 40 minutes.
"That was a tough match," Sharapova said. "She's a quality player and she's capable of playing really good tennis.
"She's dangerous. She's beaten top players in grand slams before. She has a really solid game, a lot of variety, but she can hit the ball, as well. I certainly had some trouble today.
"There are a few things I definitely want to improve for the next one match, but I was happy I got through on not a great day."
Radwanska lost the first set tie-break 7-3 against Romania's Cirstea, and was pushed all the way in the next two sets before emerging victorious.
Fifth seed Czech Petra Kvitova advanced smoothly with a 6-2 7-6 win against qualifier Lesia Tsurenko of Ukraine.
In-form sixth seed Italian Sara Errani had to work a little harder than the 6-3 6-1 scoreline reflected as she beat Sweden's Johanna Larsson to improve her win-loss record for the year to 20-7.
