Maria is off to a great start in 2008. She has won 17 matches in a row!
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<H1>Sharapova, Hantuchova book quarter-final tennis showdown</H1>
20 hours ago
INDIAN WELLS, California (AFP)  Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova extended her 2008 unbeaten run on Tuesday, booking a quarter-final showdown with defending champion Daniela Hantuchova at the Pacific Life Open.
Sharapova, the fourth seed, escaped with a 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 victory over Ukrainian Alona Bondarenko, overcoming some erratic play to stretch her match-winning streak to 17.
That run includes her Aussie Open triumph and a victory at Doha.
But she'll likely face her stiffest test of the tournament against fifth seed Hantuchova, who has claimed two of her three career WTA titles at Indian Wells and hasn't dropped a set in three matches this week.
Against Bondarenko, Sharapova was twice up a break in the second set, but both times she was broken back, and she surrendered her serve in the final game as the match went to a third set.
"I did a solid job of winning that first set and had so many opportunities in the second set to finish it off. I was up a couple of breaks and just couldn't," Sharapova said.
In the final set, the Russian said, "It was just a dogfight."
Sharapova eventually finished it off, after 2hr 45min.
"I felt like I was pretty close to being down and out, because I wasn't able to produce good points for a long period of time. I felt like I was starting from scratch all the time," she said.
Although she managed to capture a second-set tiebreaker, Slovakian Hantuchova had her problems before defeating India's Sania Mirza 6-1, 7-6 (7/4).
After the two traded breaks in the second and third games of the second set, Hantuchova - who won her first WTA title here in 2002 - finally earned her first break of the set in the 11th game, taking a 6-5 lead.
She couldn't serve it out, however, immediately dropping her serve to bring on the tiebreaker, which she dominated. Hantuchova raced to a 4-0 lead, then finished it off confidently with a service winner and a forehand winner.
Top-seeded Serbian Ana Ivanovic, whose runner-up finish to Sharapova at the Australian Open propelled her to number two in the world, rallied for a 2-6, 7-5, 6-2 victory over Italian Francesca Schiavone.
Ivanovic will play Russian Vera Zvonareva, who ended the run of Australian Casey Dellacqua 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 6-4.
Second-seeded Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova advanced with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki, lining up a meeting with Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska, a 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 winner over American Ashley Harkleroad.
Radwanska shocked then world number two Kuznetsova in the third round of the Australian Open.
Third-seeded Serbian booked a meeting with US favorite Lindsay Davenport. Jankovic beat Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-3, 6-3 to advance, while Davenport downed sixth-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli 6-2, 7-5.
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