'Best in years' Sharapova ousts defending champ

Maria Sharapova turned back the clock with a stunning performance to knock defending champion Caroline Wozniacki out of the Australian Open.

Sharapova ended Wozniacki’s title defence with a hard-fought three-set win in the third round on Friday.

In their first meeting since 2015, Sharapova overpowered Wozniacki in a 6-4 4-6 6-3 victory after two hours and 24 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Wozniacki gave up break leads in each of the opening two sets, before Sharapova delivered when it mattered most in the decider.

Wozniacki and Sharapova traded blows from the back of the court in what was a huge early battle.

Errors from Sharapova gave Wozniacki a break for a 3-1 lead, only for the Danish third seed to double fault when down a break point in the seventh game.

Sharapova’s charge continued as she reeled off five straight games, winning the opening set with a powerful forehand winner down the line.

Wozniacki importantly slowed Sharapova’s momentum and held serve to start the second, the Russian then broken after three double faults to fall 2-0 behind.

Sharapova, the 30th seed, responded once more, breaking back again with a forehand winner in the fifth game.

However, Wozniacki managed to steady and broke at the perfect moment, taking the second set 6-4.

It was Wozniacki who looked the more likely to land the first big blow in the decider before Sharapova did just that in the seventh game, a huge forehand winner giving her a 4-3 lead.

Wozniacki denied Sharapova once in the ninth game, but a cross-court backhand proved unreturnable as the Russian clinched victory on her second opportunity.

Fans were mightily impressed with the quality of the Russian’s tennis on social media.

“I thought the level was quite high, I knew I was going to get a touch match,” Sharapova said after the match.

“She is the defending champion of this event, it’s no secret she loves this arena.

“I haven’t played many matches in the last year against top players and these are the types of matches I train for so it’s really rewarding.

A five-time grand slam champion and the 2008 Australian Open winner, Sharapova will face home hope Ashleigh Barty in the fourth round.

“Her story is phenomenal. She loves playing here and did extremely well in Sydney last week,” the 2008 winner said of Barty, who got past rising Greek Maria Sakkari 7-5 6-1 earlier on Friday.

In an ominous third-round display, Sharapova smacked, 37 winners to Wozniacki’s 10 – 24 coming off her forehand wing.

The 31-year-old is playing her 15th Open and hopes to draw on that experience against the young Aussie, who’ll be backed by raucous home fans.

“I know she took a little break from the game and came back and resurged,” Sharapova said after Barty took an 18th-month hiatus from tennis in 2014-15 after falling out of love with the sport.

“It’s going to be a tough crowd but I go out here to perform.”

Sharapova, who was hit with a two-year doping ban – later reduced to 15 months – for testing positive to banned substance meldonium at the 2016 Australian Open, hasn’t won a major since her 2014 triumph at the French Open.

Seventeen-year-old Amanda Anisimova, meanwhile, became the youngest American to reach the fourth round of a major since Serena Williams at Roland Garros in 1998.

Anisimova, the youngest player left in the women’s draw, blew highly rated Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka off the court 6-3 6-2 in a little over an hour.

Sabalenka is the second seeded scalp in two matches for the 87th-ranked Anisimova, who swatted aside 24th seed Lesia Tsurenko in the second round.

Scrambling from side to side on the baseline, Anisimova produced one of the shots of the first week, with a loopy slice forehand at full stretch getting past Sabalenka and landing in the corner.

Anisimova could meet her idol Sharapova in the final eight, if the Russian topples Barty and she wins her next match against either No.8 seed Petra Kvitova or Switzerland’s Belinda Bencic

“Maria is someone I look up to so much. She’s an amazing athlete,” Anisimova said.

Sabalenka was the second Belarusian to take a third-round tumble on Friday, with Aliaksandra Sasnovich losing 6-0 6-3 to Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in exactly an hour.

Fifth seed Sloane Stephens got past Croatian Petra Martic in two tight sets 7-6 (8-6) 7-6 (7-5).

With AAP