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Sharapova reaches last 16
Top seed Maria Sharapova reached the last 16 of the Rome Masters but her Russian compatriot Svetlana Kuznetsova failed to join her in round three.
Sharapova, who as one of the top eight seeds was given a first round bye, beat Spaniard Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 6-2, while fifth seed Kuznetsova was defeated 6-2, 6-4 by Argentinian doubles specialist Paola Suarez. Reigning Wimbledon champion Sharapova, who hit 32 winners but made 26 unforced errors, admitted there was plenty of room for improvement after a patchy second round performance riddled with mistakes. "The first match was never going to be easy and I had to be really patient, but it's good to get it over with," said the Siberian-born 18-year-old, who will become world number one for the first time if she wins the title here. "There were a lot of points that I set up really well, but then I made some basic errors. "I didn't feel my strokes at all and I wasn't playing great. That's the way it goes. You can't play well all the time." Asked how important it was for her to win the tournament and dethrone Lindsay Davenport as world number one, Sharapova replied: "I'd love to win it and I'll be working very hard to do so." Suarez, number 28 in the singles rankings and one of the world's best doubles players, was delighted with her second round victory over Kuznetsova after first round exits in her last four tournaments. "Given that this was my first tournament on clay this year I thought I played very well, " she said. Seeded trio Tatiana Golovin, Elena Likhovtseva and Daniela Hantuchova all suffered humiliating first round exits at the Foro Italico. Serbian Ana Ivanovic defeated French 12th seed Golovin 6-3, 6-4, while Israel's Anna Smashnova beat Russian 11th seed Likhovtseva 6-1, 6-3. Slovakian 16th seed Hantuchova lost 6-1, 6-2 to Croatian Sanda Mamic. Spain's Conchita Martinez, a four-time Rome champion, beat Angela Haynes of the United States to claim a second round place, while Japanese 15th seed Ai Sugiyama ousted Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva to make the last 32.
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