There were some tricky moments early on as she had to get used to the hard, two-fisted blasts of Vitalia Diatchenko, but the No.2-seeded Sharapova eventually found her way and cruised, 6-3, 6-1.
Sharapova had a phenomenal +16 winners to unforced errors differential in the match (24 to 8). The No.26-seeded Stosur was just as impressive, hitting 23 winners to just 13 unforced errors and fighting off all six break points she faced to rout French wildcard Amandine Hesse, 6-0, 6-1. Stosur actually won the first 11 games of the match to lead 6-0, 5-0 before finally letting Hesse on the board. Sharapova leads Stosur in their head-to-head series, 14-2, and that includes 4-0 on clay, but if last year's meeting - which was also their last meeting - is anything to go by, this could be very close. "She has a very heavy ball, and I think on clay specifically it just really penetrates through the court," Sharapova said of Stosur.
"The spin she's able to create from her forehand and her serve, she has one of the best kick serves in the game. She's really able to put that power into it and kick. She also slices a lot. There are a lot of untraditional things she does, but I guess I enjoy the challenge of playing her.
"I have a pretty good record against her. I enjoy our matches. I hope I can continue that."
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