Maria Sharapova, of Russia, acknowledges the crowd after defeating Kurumi Nara, of Japan, 6-3, 6-4 at the Sony Open tennis tournament on March 20 in Key Biscayne, Fla. (AP Photo)
Miami, March 21 (AFP): Six-time winner Serena Williams survived a first-set scare before overcoming Yaroslava Shvedova 7-6 (9/7), 6-2 on Thursday to power into the third round of the ATP and WTA Miami Masters. The top-seeded defending champion will next face France's Caroline Garcia after dispatching her Kazak rival in one hour, 45 minutes. "The first set was really tough. She can make you play. She was hitting the ball well," Williams said.
"I had to relax and try to keep my intensity and just try to get the win." Fourth seed Maria Sharapova, the 2013 runner-up to Williams, outlasted Japan's Kurumi Nara 6-3, 6-4 in another opening test. Williams lost a 3-1 lead and trailed 3-5 as Shvedova shifted her game up a gear.
Williams got back on track in the nick of time with a break for 5-all. A love game then ended with an ace for Williams before the set went to a tie-breaker. In the decider, the 32-year-old Williams saved three set points as a nervous Shvedova missed her big upset chance in front of a screaming house full of her rival's supporters.
In one dramatic moment, a fight broke out in the upper deck of spectators, forcing a pause for security to intervene after Shvedova had double-faulted on her second set point. After she also missed on a third, the Kazak handed over a set point to Williams, who finally finished off the 63-minute set on her second opportunity.
Williams tried to steady the second after a pair of breaks and finally won going away as she aced on her first match point to book a date with Garcia, who beat Czech Klara Zakopalova 7-6 (7/3), 7-6 (7/3).
Sharapova was down 1-3 in the 64-minute second set before rallying to beat Nara, who won her first WTA title in Rio de Janeiro last month. "She made me work extremely hard," said Sharapova. "She's a really quick opponent, got a lot of balls back, and she made me hit a lot. She made me try to do too much in certain situations.
"Sometimes I felt like I was doing the right mistakes and sometimes I felt like I should have been more patient, but I guess those are the situations you want to build that match confidence again."
Four-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova, who next faces Lucie Safarova, was coming off a third-round loss at Indian Wells to qualifier Camila Giorgi.
