Australian Open: Maria Sharapova brushes aside Eugenie Bouchard 6-3, 6-2; advances to semi-finals

Russian tennis ace Maria Sharapova put on a dominant display as she brushed aside Canadian seventh seed Eugenie Bouchard in straight sets to advance to the Australian Open semifinals in Melbourne.

The 2008 champion, seeded second, won 6-3, 6-2 in one hour and 18 minutes, taking her record against Bouchard to 4-0, as the Canadian made 30 errors in the game. The Russian said that she thought she had a 'really good start', adding that she kept her 'focus' throughout the whole match, and didn't feel that she had too many 'letdowns'. 

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Sharapova said that when she did have a few 'slips' she was able to come out with great first serves or really powerful returns, the BBC reported. Meanwhile, Bouchard admitted that she felt under 'pressure' the whole time, a bit on her back foot, adding that that is not how she wanted to play. She said that she feels like she didn't 'start well', and added that it 'kind of all went downhill from there'.

Sharapova would now meet her compatriot Ekaterina Makarova, seeded tenth, who beat third seed Simona Halep 6-4, 6-0 in Tuesday's opening match.