Nigeria Content Online

Top
seed Maria Sharapova’s flirtation with the New Zealand public came to a
premature end Thursday with a surprising 6-2 7-5 loss to unseeded
Hungarian Greta Arn in the quarter-finals of the Auckland Classic.

The three-times
grand slam winner, who had chosen to warm up for the Australian Open by
entering the Auckland tournament rather than her normal schedule of
playing exhibition matches, struggled with her rhythm in the swirling
wind Thursday.

She was broken
twice in the first set by the 31-year-old Arn and made numerous
unforced errors in the second to crash out in a match lasting 91
minutes.

“I started off
really slow, got down two breaks and I think she gained a tremendous
amount of confidence from that,” Sharapova told reporters. “I had my
chances in the second (set), but I didn’t play the same way I had
played to get there.

“Obviously I would
have loved to play a few more here and be the winner. But that’s the
way it goes. You look forward to the next one.

“That’s the good
thing about tennis.” Semi final fixtures Arn will now meet
fourth-seeded German Julia Goerges who beat Ukraine’s Kateryna
Bondarenko 5-7 6-2 6-2 in the last quarter-final that was played in the
final evening session of the tournament.

Sharapova’s
presence had helped effectively sell-out the tournament by the first
day and her defeat disappointed those hoping for a final against
champion and second seed Yanina Wickmayer.

Wickmayer had
earlier made sure of her place in the semi-finals when she beat
Romania’s Simona Halep 6-0 6-2 in a little over an hour in the first
match on center court and set up a showdown with China’s Peng Shuai,
who beat British qualifier Heather Watson 6-4 7-5.

“I feel very happy, this is the first week of the year and I’m
really happy to be playing well,” said Wickmayer, who extended her
unbeaten run in Auckland to eight matches. “I’m in the semis so I guess
this tournament is lucky for me.”