The pair played back-to-back quarterfinals on center court Thursday, with third-seeded Sharapova needing two hours to beat 2012 Brisbane champion Kaia Kanepi of Estonia, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2. She dropped three service games in the first set and another to open the second before finding her range and staging her comeback against the No. 30-ranked Kanepi.
Top-ranked Williams, the defending champion, was next on court and didn’t lose a point on serve in the first set en route to a 6-3, 6-3 win over ninth-seeded Diminika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
Williams has a 14-2 record and 13-match win streak against Sharapova, beating the Russian most recently in last year’s French Open final.
As far as any grudges go, Williams told a news conference Thursday: ‘It’s very difficult I think for anyone to be best buddies when you’re so competitive.’ ‘But I don’t have a problem with anyone,’ she said. ‘I don’t take jabs or anything. I am who I am and I don’t hide anything.’
Sharapova didn’t back away from her comments at Wimbledon in a New York Times profile last month, giving the impression that her relationship with Williams was still cold. On Thursday, she said she’d used the newspaper interview to ‘clear the air.’
Asked how she’d describe their rivalry now, Sharapova replied: ‘Well, I think I got to win a few times in order to call it rivalry.’ ‘I haven’t had a lot of success against her in the past,’ she added. ‘It’s the first tournament of the year. I came here wanting to play as many matches as I could.’
In men’s matches in Brisbane, Romanian qualifier Marius Copil had a 7-5, 6-3 upset win over third-seeded Gilles Simon and No. 8-seeded Jeremy Chardy beat fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-3.
Top-ranked Williams, the defending champion, was next on court and didn’t lose a point on serve in the first set en route to a 6-3, 6-3 win over ninth-seeded Diminika Cibulkova of Slovakia.
Williams has a 14-2 record and 13-match win streak against Sharapova, beating the Russian most recently in last year’s French Open final.
As far as any grudges go, Williams told a news conference Thursday: ‘It’s very difficult I think for anyone to be best buddies when you’re so competitive.’ ‘But I don’t have a problem with anyone,’ she said. ‘I don’t take jabs or anything. I am who I am and I don’t hide anything.’
Sharapova didn’t back away from her comments at Wimbledon in a New York Times profile last month, giving the impression that her relationship with Williams was still cold. On Thursday, she said she’d used the newspaper interview to ‘clear the air.’
Asked how she’d describe their rivalry now, Sharapova replied: ‘Well, I think I got to win a few times in order to call it rivalry.’ ‘I haven’t had a lot of success against her in the past,’ she added. ‘It’s the first tournament of the year. I came here wanting to play as many matches as I could.’
In men’s matches in Brisbane, Romanian qualifier Marius Copil had a 7-5, 6-3 upset win over third-seeded Gilles Simon and No. 8-seeded Jeremy Chardy beat fellow Frenchman Nicolas Mahut 7-5, 6-7 (4), 6-3.