Serena breezes, Sharapova battles at Miami tennis

MIAMI, Mar 25 (AFP): World number one Serena Williams breezed into the quarter-finals of the WTA and ATP Miami Masters on Monday while Russian fourth seed Maria Sharapova battled through three sets to advance.
Top-seeded defending champion Williams routed US qualifier Coco Vandeweghe 6-3, 6-1 in 78 minutes to book a last-eight matchup with German fifth seed Angelique Kerber.
Sharapova rallied to defeat Belgium's Kirsten Flipkens 3-6, 6-4, 6-1 after two hours and four minutes while Kerber took six minutes longer to eliminate Russia's Ekaterina Makarova 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.
Williams smashed 17 winners to only 11 unforced errors and denied her compatriot on all six of her break-point chances to book her 13th quarter-final in 14 Miami appearances.
"It was a much tougher match than the scoreline showed," Williams said. "Coco has such an amazing serve, so every time I was returning I was like, 'Hopefully I can touch the ball.' But it was really good for me to win this match."
Williams owns a 3-1 career edge over Kerber, whose lone win came two years ago on Cincinnati hardcourts.
"Angelique is really good and moves really, really well," Williams said. "I feel better than I did in my first few matches, though, so I hope I can keep going forward."