Venus Williams has been defeated by Maria Sharapova in the third round of the Australian Open 2013 yesterday. Sharapova won the match in the straight sets by 6-1, 6-3. With this victory, Sharapova made her way into the final 32.  She took just 80 minutes to win the match.

A tight contest was expected between these two high quality players, but, that didn’t happen. The match turned out to be a one sided one.

It was a clinical effort by the Russian superstar. She hit a total of 17 winners in the match.

Sharapova got 13 breakpoints in the match and she converted five of them. Her forehand shots were brilliant. It was a treat to watch her play yesterday.

On the other hand, Venus was far from her best. She made mistakes throughout the match. The American superstar committed a total of 26 unforced errors in the match.

Sharapova started the match in a blistering manner. In the first set, she won the first four games consecutively to take a lead of 4-0. Both the players held their service in the next two games and at the end of the sixth game; the scorecard was showing 5-1 in Sharapova’s favour. Sharapova again got a break chance in the 7^th game and she didn’t waste that. She broke Venus’ service for the third time in the set and sealed the first set by 6-1.

Sharapova was equally aggressive in the second set as well. She broke Venus’ service in the second game and won the first three games in a row. The next two games went with the serve.

Venus’ service was broken in the sixth game again and at the end of the sixth game, Sharapova was ahead by 5-1. Venus made a bit of a comeback by breaking Sharapova’s service in the 7^th game and then, serving out the eighth game. But, that was too little, too late. Sharapova wrapped up the match with a serve hold in the ninth game.

In the next round, Sharapova will take on Kirsten Flipkens of Belgium.