Wimbledon 2011: Maria Sharapova beats Shuai Peng

Maria Sharapova reached the quarter-finals of the women's singles with a 6-4 6-2 win over China's Shuai Peng. The Russian took time to find her rhythm and faced break points in the first set but Peng could not convert and was broken in the ninth game. The 2004 champion then broke in the first game of the second set and ran out a comfortable winner on Court Two. Fourth seed Victoria Azarenka has given herself a great opportunity to reach her first Grand Slam semi-final after disposing of Russian Nadia Petrova in 64 minutes. The Belarussian eased through 6-2 6-2 to equal her previous best showing at the All-England Club where she made it to the 2009 quarter-finals. Azarenka, 22 in July, will next face Austrian Tamira Paszek or Russian Ksenia Pervak. Meanwhile, German Sabine Lisicki came through a tight opening set to finally see off Petra Cetkovska 7-6 (7-3) 6-1 The German's serve was dominant throughout the 68-minute encounter and she will play French ninth seed Marion Bartoli or American Serena Williams, seeded seven, in the last eight. Sharapova now faces world number one Caroline Wozniaki or 24th seed Dominika Cibulkova in the last eight. It was the first time Sharapova, the fifth seed, had played Peng, seeded 20th, on grass and both struggled with their serves and range early on with error-strewn games. It went with serve until the ninth game when a double-fault by Peng set the tone and she was broken to 30 with Sharapova serving for the set and winning the game to love with some blistering ground strokes. It was much easier for Sharapova in the second set and she wrapped up the match in one hour, 21 minutes, with her fiance, the 6ft 7in New Jersey Nets shooting guard, Sasha Vujacic, a very vocal supporter.