It took 58 minutes Tuesday afternoon for Serena Williams to assure Maria Sharapova — and everyone else on the women’s tour — that her stirring Australian Open victory over the former top-ranked Russian was no fluke.

In fact, Williams beat Sharapova even more thoroughly this time. She made the typically ferocious Russian look ordinary and frustrated during a 6-1, 6-1 victory in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Key Biscayne.

The last time they played, two months ago in the Australian Open final, Williams beat Sharapova 6-1, 6-2. In other words, over the two tournaments, Williams leads 24 games to five.

When the torturous match was finally over for Sharapova, who double-faulted eight times, she practically sprinted off the court. She already was well into the tunnel when the stadium announcer asked the audience to give her a hand.

Williams, meanwhile, was prancing around with a giant smile and her index finger raised to the sky. On paper, she is the world’s 18th-ranked player, but in her mind, she is still No. 1, as she was in 2002-03. She said coming into the match that when she’s playing her best, the only people who can beat her are the men on the ATP tour.

Defending champion Maria Sharapova served 13 double faults against fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva, losing 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 and costing her the No. 1 ranking at the Pacific Life Open on Tuesday.

Sharapova was beaten in the fourth round and needed to reach the semifinals to remain No. 1. She will be supplanted by Justine Henin when the rankings are updated on Monday. Henin, who was not at this tournament, won two recent events in the Middle East.

Sharapova served for the match at 6-4, 5-4 but won only a point.

“After that I just deflated a little bit,” Sharapova said.

Zvonareva won the last four games of the second set, and the first four of the third set. Sharapova broke Zvonareva to end the streak but lost her next service game by delivering two double faults, bouncing her second serve into the net on one of them.

Moments later, Zvonareva clinched a berth in the quarterfinals with her third win against Sharapova in seven matches.

Asked about the problems with her serves, Sharapova said, “Yeah, there were a lot of wrong things going on today. That was just one of them, especially in the third set. But it was more of a snowball effect than anything else.”

Sharapova was under pressure in her third event this year. After reaching the final in Melbourne, she strained a hamstring in the semifinals of the Tokyo Indoors event more than a month ago.

Top seed Maria Sharapova overcame sloppy serving and brutal heat to beat Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy 7-5 6-2 and reach the Pacific Life Open fourth round.

Third seed Martina Hingis also advanced with a 6-2 6-4 victory over Austria’s Yvonne Meusburger.

Sharapova, who has struggled with a hamstring injury and illness, had trouble controlling her groundstrokes in the first set but improved in the second.

The Russian has hardly played since losing to Serena Williams in the Australian Open final in January.

“When you don’t compete for that amount of time, it’s normal,” she said.

“In as much as you know you’ve worked hard and you know you’re ready to play, you can’t really expect amazing things from your game,” Sharapova added. “I definitely feel like these matches are getting the rough stuff out. But it’s just good to be back on court and being in some tight situations.”

Sharapova is having trouble with her big first serve and blamed her sore hamstring.


“Part of it was probably the leg because that’s how I injured it,” the Russian said. “I only started serving five days before the tournament started because I got the injury when I landed on the serve. So I have to take it easy on that.”

Sharapova next faces compatriot and number 15 seed Vera Zvonareva who defeated Victoria Azarenka 6-3 6-3.

Defending champion Maria Sharapova is raring to get down to business at Indian Wells after spending the last four weeks on the sidelines because of a hamstring injury.

The Russian has not played since retiring at the semi-final stage of the Pan Pacific Open last month but says her hamstring problem has completely healed at this stage.

“It’s good,” she replied, when asked by reporters how her injury is. “It was a little worrying after I got back from Tokyo because it wasn’t really going anywhere. It stayed the same for a week or so.

“But then it started getting better and I’ve been training fully for about 10 to 12 days now,” she added.

Sharapova will have to come through a tough draw if she is to retain her title, however.

One player who misses out is fifth seed Elena Dementieva, who withdrew from the tournament after a rib injury failed to heal in time.

The Russian, who was runner-up at Indian Wells last year, expects to be out of action for up to six weeks.

“I really wanted to play here having got to the final last year,” she said.

“I did a lot of work before I came here but it’s hard to breathe when you have a rib injury and you have pain even when you are not playing.

“There’s nothing they can do - pain-killers don’t really help.”