Maria Sharapova had only conceded seven games in her opening matches coming into the clash with Lauren Davis, who was aiming for her first ever fourth round cameo.
Early on it didn’t seem the contest would take long. Davis surrendered her servea t 1-2 after a mishit forehand flew long. The American had no reply whatsoever for Sharapova’s serve, as the Russian even closed her next service game with a second serve ace.
Davis had no initiative in any point as Sharapova was throwing bomb after bomb at her, and the young American was merely looking to stay in the rally, with no initiative whatsoever and a second serve that was being shred apart.
After just 26 minutes it was 6-1 and people were trying to guess how long before Davis was back in the showers. But it was clear that something was changing; Davis was more confident and taking greater risk. The world number 103 was rewarded by breaking to go 4-2 after a couple of double faults from the Russian.
Sharapova eventually managed to break back but a spirited performance in the tiebreak took the encounter into the third set. Here the Russian turned it back on and presented Davis with a sour tasting bagel after all of her had workd to make a match out of it.
The Russian’s 600th professional victory books her a place in the fourth round where she meets Belinda Bencic for the first time.
“I feel I made it a little bit more difficult than I should have. In a Grand Slam environment against anyone you can’t expect to get away with it and I didn’t in the second set. But overall I’m happy with how I came out in the third set and stepped up. I think I can take a lot of good things from that”, summed up Sharapova after the match.
