Sharapova overcomes Wozniacki

Madrid - Defending champion Maria Sharapova moved into the semi-finals of the Madrid Open for a third consecutive year with a 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 win over Caroline Wozniacki on Thursday.

The Russian showed no ill effects early on from her marathon win over Caroline Garcia on Wednesday as she raced through the first set.

Sharapova broke again in the first game of the second set, but a host of errors handed the momentum back to the world number five and Wozniacki served out to take the match into a deciding set.

The third set followed a similar pattern, except this time it was Wozniacki who failed to build on an early break as Sharapova's power from the baseline proved too much for the Dane.

And after breaking in the penultimate game, Sharapova rounded off victory in just over two hours on court to set up a semi-final meeting with either Lucie Safarova or Svetlana Kuznetsova.