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By Erik Gudris | Wednesday, January 28, 2015

 
Maria Sharapova Australian Open 2015

Maria Sharapova posted a dominant performance over Ekaterina Makarova to reach her fourth Australian Open final.

Photo Credit: Corleve

In an all-Russian battle, No. 2 seed Maria Sharapova easily handled her semifinal opponent to find herself a win away from a second Australian Open title.

Australian Open: Men's Semifinals Preview

No. 10 seed Ekaterina Makarova stood in the way of Sharapova reaching the final. But the pressure was on Makarova to find a way to snap a five match losing streak against the former world No.1.

Sharapova, bothered by gusty conditions, prevailed in a 10-minute opening service game. From there, Sharapova put her stamp of authority on the match by breaking early with a forehand winner. Soon, Sharapova found herself up quickly 4-1.

Makarova fought hard to get back on level terms. Dragging Sharapova to net, Makarova would break back and get on serve for 4-3.

Sharapova responded by breaking back herself. With a big serve while up set point, Sharapova closed out the set 6-3.

In the second set, Sharapova resumed her dominance. She broke Makarova right away to take an early lead. Though Makarova's lefty serve sometimes troubled the bigger hitting Sharapova, it never did enough damage to stop Sharapova.

Sharapova fired off a big backhand winner to go up 3-0 and then a few minutes later served an ace for 4-0.

Makarova, playing in her second straight Grand Slam semifinal, managed to force Sharapova to serve for the match at 5-2. But it was a mere formality for the former Melbourne champion. With a final big serve, Sharapova soon closed out the convincing 6-3, 6-2 victory.

Sharapova hit 23 winners total to just 11 from Makarova.

Now into her fourth Melbourne final, Sharapova not only has a shot at the title but also the World No. 1 ranking depending how results play out over the weekend.

Having saved a match point against her earlier in the event, Sharapova is glad to be back in the final after an up and down two weeks.

"You just take it a match at a time," Sharapova said afterwards. "It's been kind of a strange road for me to get to the final. But I'm here and I'm really happy."

On Makarova, Sharapova added, "Playing someone that wasn't necessarily the favorite going into the semifinal I knew she would come out and play really and I was really ready for that and stood my ground and competed well."

Sharapova will now wait to see who she will face in that final in either Madison Keys or Serena Williams who face off in the second semifinal later.

 

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