Maria Sharapova reached the Madrid Open quarter-finals on Wednesday with an impressive 6-3, 6-4 demolition of France’s Kristina Mladenovic, one of her most vocal critics.
Former world number one Sharapova fired 30 winners and nine aces in her victory which gave her a last-eight clash with Dutch player Kiki Bertens who knocked out world number two Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-2.
Mladenovic, the world number 22, was runner-up in Madrid last year but she had no answer to the firepower of Sharapova who is set to at least return to the top 40 next week.
Victory was especially sweet for Sharapova who had lost to Mladenovic in the semi-finals in Stuttgart in 2017 in what was the Russian star’s first tournament after serving a 15-month doping ban.
