Russian third seed Maria Sharapova battled into the Australian Open fourth round on Saturday with a hard-fought, straight-sets win over France's Alize Cornet.
The four-time Grand Slam champion came through her match on Rod Laver Arena 6-1, 7-6 (8/6) in one hour 51 minutes, but Sharapova's killer instinct deserted her in the second set when she failed to serve out for the victory, forcing a tiebreak.
"She started playing better when I gave her some chances," said Sharapova, after setting up a clash with 20th-seeded Slovak Dominika Cibulkova for a place in the quarter-finals.
"After my last match I'm just glad to be through and have another day to recover."
"I definitely need to step it up -- every player will need to raise their game," she added, contemplating the tournament's second week.
Sharapova is still on the comeback trail from a shoulder injury and she was pushed hard in draining heat during her second-round match against Karin Knapp, eventually coming through a marathon third set that went 10-8.
Despite those energy-sapping conditions, she showed few ill-effects on Saturday although in temperatures that were some 20 Celsius cooler, she was still using ice vests on the changeovers.
Getting past Sharapova was always going to be a big ask for Cornet. She has only beaten a top-10 player twice in her career and had only been beyond the third round once in 31 Grand Slams, at the 2000 Australian Open.
In contrast, the Russian has reached eight major finals and won four, with her last success coming at the French Open in 2012.
