ANA IVANOVIC, SHARAPOVA AND RADWANSKA IN QF. MUTUA MADRID OPEN

The three seeds convincingly got through their third round encounters against Samantha Stosur, Roberta Vinci and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, while last year’s semi-finalist Sara Errani bowed out against the biggest surprise package at the tournament, France’s Carloine Garcia. 

The Mutua Madrid Open heads into its final stages and does so with all of the favourites to lift the women’s title still in the competition. With Li Na and Serena Williams securing their quarter-final places earlier in the day, Maria Sharapova, Agniezka Radwanska and Ana Ivanovic all joined them later in the afternoon. Meanwhile, Sara Errani was sent out by the tournament’s surprise package, France’s Caroline Garcia. Having really struggled to get past America’s Christina McHale in the second round, Maria Sharapova made easy work of sending Samantha Stosur out today. Last year’s runner-up beat the Australian 6-4, 6-3 to progress to the quarter-final stage, where she will face China’s Li Na, who she has beaten in nine of their previous 14 encounters. That round will also include Radwanska, who cruised to victory over clay-court specialist Roberta Vinci. Radwanska, who lost in the second round last year in Madrid, is playing some great tennis this time around, and did not give her opponent a look-in, especially in a second set in which she played practically flawless tennis. 
The world number 3 will now meet French player Caroline Garcia, who came through the qualifiers and beat last year’s semi-finalist Sara Errani 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 to reach the first Premier Mandatory quarter-final of her career. 
 Ana Ivanovic will also be in the quarters again this year after three matches without losing a single set, the Serbian is playing some delightful tennis on the clay of Madrid. The 2013 semi-finalist dominated Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, beating her 6-1, 6-2 to seal her ticket to the next round, where she will meet the winner of the clash between Simona Halep and Sabine Lisicki.