Maria had a very tough match today at Indian Wells but she fought and she won to set up a quarter-final showdown with defending champion Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.  Maria defeated #15 seed Alona Bondarenko of the Ukraine 6-2 5-7 6-4 in 2 hours and 45 minutes.

17th straight match wins for Maria now and out of all the wins she has dropped only 3 sets.

In the 1st set Maria broke Bondarenko in the 3rd game and again towards the end of the set and took the set 6-2.

She plays you tough for some reason? Why do you think?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
It was a very scratchy match from my side today from the beginning. I was just not seeing the ball, not moving that great. She always -- she always plays tough, because you never really know what to expect from her.
You know, her serving pattern is always different. You know, she can hit really big serves, and then she all of a sudden she goes to like 90 miles per hour and does the same thing on the second serve.
So she doesn't quite give you a lot of rhythm, which, you know, which I should pick up really fast, and I didn't do that well today. You know, I wasn't moving quite well throughout the first set. I was Grandpa Joe out there (laughter.)
But it got better towards the end of the second set. I started seeing the ball better and moving in. I was just not moving in after my shots at all.

Maria is through to the last 16 at Indian Wells after she defeated Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 7-5 6-3 in 1 hour and 56 minutes.  Maria has scored her 16th straight win dating back to the Australian Open in January.

The 1st set was trickier than expected as Maria took it 7-5 in 1 hour and 14 minutes.  Maria broke Daniilidou to lead 3-2 and looked to be taking a straightforward set but Daniilidou broke to level the set 5-5, Maria re-grouped and took the next 2 games to take the set.

Maria will play her 2nd match at Indian Wells on Sunday afternoon.  Maria will face her 1st seeded player of the event: #25 seed Eleni Daniilidou of Greece.  Maria leads Daniilidou 5-0 in the head-to-head and 4 of those matches were played on hardcourts and won in straight sets.

This match is the 3rd match to be played on Stadium and the schedule of play begins at 11.00 Pacific time (14.00ET and 19.00CET).

How nervous were you, Maria?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Nervous?

Yeah.

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Why?