Russian star Maria Sharapova dispatched No. 5 seed Daniela Hantuchova 7-6 (7-2), 6-1 Wednesday to reach the semifinals of the $2.1 million Pacific Life Open.

Maria, the fourth-seeded Australian Open champion, will meet No. 2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the semifinals. Kuznetsova eliminated No. 10 seed Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland 6-2, 6-4 in her quarterfinal contest.

Sharapova, who won this tourney two years ago, is 18-0 this year. Kuznetsova was the 2007 U.S. Open runner-up and had lost to Hantuchova, a two-time champion here, in last year's Indian Wells final.

QUESTION
That was quite an escape there?

MARIA SHARAPOVA:
Uh-huh. Yeah, it was. You know, I felt like I was up throughout the match, and I just did a solid job of winning that first set and had so many opportunities in the second set to finish it off.
I was up a couple of breaks and just couldn't. She started playing really good tennis towards the end of that second set, and I just couldn't get my opportunities back, couldn't get those chances that I had in the beginning of the second set.
And in the fourth game, it was just a dog fight. I felt like I was pretty close to being down and out, because I wasn't able to produce, you know, good points for a long period of time. I was like a little kid that would make -- I was doing like a beaded bracelet. I would put four beads together and they would all fall down and then I'd start all over again.

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.

QUESTION
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.