Sharapova storms into Australian Open Quarters

Second seed Maria Sharapova delivered a crushing victory over Belgium’s Kirsten Flipkens Sunday to reach the quarterfinals of the Australian Open.

The Russian demolished Flipkens 6-1, 6-0 and has now dropped just five games in her first four matches in Melbourne.

“I was making a few more mistakes than I would have liked in the beginning,” Sharapova said on the tournament website.

“After I held at 2-1, I really started making her play a little bit more. Started really getting under the ball and being aggressive and just had a little bit more energy which really helped me and I carried that throughout the match.”

Sharapova’s quarterfinal opponent is fellow Russian Ekaterina Makarova in a rematch from the same stage of last year’s tournament.

Sharapova won that encounter 6-2, 6-3 and has never lost to the 19th seed in four meetings to date, but said she refused to look beyond her next match.

Li goes on to play either fourth seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland or Serbian 13th seed Ana Ivanovic.