Makarova and Sharipova both took to the outside courts for their matches on Wednesday. Yes, that’s right, the outside courts.
However, unlike their WTA namesakes who squared off at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday in a women’s quarterfinal – resulting in a straight sets win to fourth seed Maria Sharapova over Ekaterina Makarova – this was third round action in the junior girls’ championship at Melbourne Park.
Sabina Sharipova, the twelfth seed from Tashkent, Uzbekistan, is currently ranked 20th in the ITF Juniors. She is enjoying some good form in recent times and was relatively untroubled against unseeded Samantha Crawford.
“I played very well,” Sharipova said after the match. “My best so far [this week].”
The match began evenly but after taking the first set 7-5, Sharipova was never headed and cruised through the second set to win 7-5, 6-1. In her upcoming quarterfinal, she meets fourteenth seed Taylor Townsend, who upset the third seed earlier today, Estonian Anett Kontaveit.
Sharipova admitted she was expecting a tough match against the talented American, “but I’m ready.”
On the other hand, for Christina Makarova, ranked junior world No. 46, today’s match-up looked a lot more daunting. The unseeded American took on one of the tournament favourites in second-seeded Eugenie Bouchard from Canada. Despite taking it right up to her higher-ranked opponent, Makarova – much like her namesake today – was unable to get the job done, falling in two tight sets 7-5, 7-5.
Elsewhere, top seed and junior world No.1 Irina Khromacheva faced Australian wildcard Storm Sanders in a feature match on show court 2. The local girl held her own early, rushing out to a 3-0 lead in the first set. But Khromacheva’s powerful left-handed game came to the fore, as she took control of the match from that point, running it out in style, 6-4, 6-1, to book her place in the quarterfinals.
In other results, American Krista Hardebeck underscored her standing as a dark horse this week. Although unseeded, the American won the lead-up event to this, and is continued her startling run of form, taking just over an hour to comprehensively outplay eighth seed Anna Schmeidlova, winning 6-1, 6-2.
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