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Former world No. 1s Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova have set up an intriguing quarter-final glamour showdown at the WTA Stuttgart event after both players recorded contrasting second round victories.
Serbian Ivanovic reached her first quarter-final of 2013 by seeing off the challenge of former World No. 3 Nadia Petrova, winning in straight sets, while Russian Sharapova required more than three hours to shake off Lucie Safarova in three sets.
Ivanovic entered the Stuttgart event having not reached a quarter-final yet this year, but she is currently using the clay court event in Germany to play her way into form.
And her past week has been very impressive – even though Serbia lost their Fed Cup play-off against Germany over the weekend, she lifted the team on her own, with victories over Mona Barthel and Angelique Kerber making for a respectable scoreline (Germany eventually won through 3-2).
And it didn’t end there. In her first round match, she disposed of Andrea Petkovic, who is struggling to return to the form that saw her reach the top ten only two years ago, with brilliant serving and ground strokes.
And she backed up that performance with another impressive victory over World No. 11 Petrova, who hasn’t really made an impression so far this season despite her high ranking.
This is Ivanovic’s fourth victory in a row, something she achieved twice last year. The challenge will be whether she can keep up her momentum entering the quarter-final showdown against Maria Sharapova.
Ivanovic has not won more than four matches in a row since October 2010.
The defending champion, who received a first round bye, continues to impress on clay and has only suffered one defeat on the surface since 2011 (against Serena Williams in Madrid last year).
She has carried her impressive early-season form into the European clay-court swing, where last year she picked up three titles, including Stuttgart, Rome and Roland Garros, the latter capping off a Career Grand Slam.
Her victory over Lucie Safarova justifies her World No. 2 ranking but the match against Ana Ivanovic will present her first true challenge of the 2013 clay court season.
The two glamour girls of tennis have only met seven times, with Sharapova leading 5-2.
They are tied 1-1 on clay courts with the Russian winning their most recent meeting in Rome last year, on her way to capturing the title there.
Undoubtedly, their most notable meeting was in the final of the 2008 Australian Open, which Maria Sharapova won in straight sets.
It’s hard to think that they would not meet again for more than four years after that, but that’s exactly what happened.
Their semi-final at Indian Wells last year (which Sharapova won after Ana Ivanovic retired in the second set due to injury) was their first meeting since that bright, sunny day in Melbourne five years ago.
They met again in the aforementioned match in Rome with Sharapova winning a tight two-setter there.
Now, the glamour girls of tennis are set for an eighth showdown against each other.
This, though, will be only the second Top Four opponent Ivanovic has faced this year, after a pair of losses to Agnieszka Radwanska in Australia and Doha.
For Sharapova, this is undoubtedly the big challenge, facing the resurgent Serbian, who is now 14-7 for the season, on her favourite surface.
In other results, clay-court specialists Sara Errani and Jelena Jankovic crashed out; losing to Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Sabine Lisicki respectively, while second seed and former French Open champion Li Na set up a final-eight showdown against former Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova.
Victoria Azarenka and Serena Williams are not playing in Stuttgart, but they will play in Madrid and Rome, two important events that will lead up to the second Major of the year in Paris.
Williams will be defending the title in Madrid, so it’s very important she protects her top ranking ahead of the French Open.
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