(CNN) -- Russia's Maria Sharapova has admitted she is desperate to win the Miami Masters, a tournament where she has been beaten in the final on four different occasions.
The third seed, who fell at the final hurdle in both 2011 and 2012, made it through to the semifinals for the third year in a row after beating Sara Errani of Italy 7-5, 7-5.
She will now play either Jelena Jankovic or Roberta Vinci in the last four, with the other semi pitting world No. 1 Serena Williams against Agnieszka Radwanska.
Sharapova may have won four grand slams but following defeats in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012, she would love to add a success in Key Biscayne to those triumphs.
Poland's Radwanska is the defending champion, furthering the Russian's Miami misery last year to add to previous final failures against Victoria Azarenka (2011), Svetlana Kuznetsova (2006) and Kim Clijsters (2005).
"I've been so close to winning. I would love to win it," Sharapova told reporters after seeing off the eighth seed.
"I've been coming to this tournament since I was a little kid. It would mean a lot to win it."
The world No. 2 had to work hard for victory against Errani, who she defeated in last year's French Open to achieve her career grand slam, having previously won Wimbledon (2004), the U.S. Open (2006) and the Australian Open (2008).
She may have won their previous three meetings but Sharapova was still forced to save three set points on her own serve in the second set before eventually prevailing.
"I had a really difficult opponent," added the Russian, who has won all four of her previous semifinals at the event.
"She really made me work for this match. A few ups and downs in the match but I'm really happy to get through."
The victory, which took two hours and 29 minutes to complete, was the second in successive tournaments for the Russian over Errani.
Read: Sharapova rises to second after Indian Wells title
The previous success came en route to winning the Indian Wells title earlier this month, a tournament which pushed Sharapova one place up the world rankings.
Later on Wednesday, David Ferrer of Spain became the first semifinalist in the men's draw after defeating unseeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 4-6, 6-3, 6-0.
The third seed, who has already won titles in Auckland and Buenos Aires this year, rallied to earn a clash against either Gilles Simon or Novak Djokovic's conqueror, Tommy Haas, for a place in the final.
After struggling to impose his game, Ferrer took three of five break points in the third set to seal victory in a little under two hours.
Via: Sharapova admits Miami Masters dream
No comments:
Post a Comment