Story highlights
Sharapova beats Sara Errani to reach third straight Miami Masters semifinal
Russian has won all four of her previous Miami semis, but never lifted the title
Spain's David Ferrer becomes first male semifinalist after overcoming Jurgen Melzer
Russia’s Maria Sharapova has admitted she is desperate to win the Miami Masters, a tournament where she has been beaten in the final on four different occasions.
The third seed, who fell at the final hurdle in both 2011 and 2012, made it through to the semifinals for the third year in a row after beating Sara Errani of Italy 7-5, 7-5.
Sharapova’s semifinal opponent will be Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic after the former world No. 1 beat Errani’s compatriot Roberta Vinci 6-4 6-7(6-8) 6-3.
Sharapova may have won four grand slams but following defeats in 2005, 2006, 2011 and 2012, she would love to add a success in Key Biscayne to those triumphs.
Poland’s Radwanska is the defending champion, furthering the Russian’s Miami misery last year to add to previous final failures against Victoria Azarenka (2011), Svetlana Kuznetsova (2006) and Kim Clijsters (2005).
“I’ve been so close to winning. I would love to win it,” Sharapova told reporters after seeing off the eighth seed.
“I’ve been coming to this tournament since I was a little kid. It would mean a lot to win it.”
The world No. 2 had to work hard for victory against Errani, who she defeated in last year’s French Open to achieve her career grand slam, having previously won Wimbledon (2004), the U.S. Open (2006) and the Australian Open (2008).
She may have won their previous three meetings but Sharapova was still forced to save three set points on her own serve in the second set before eventually prevailing.
“I had a really difficult opponent,” added the Russian, who has won all four of her previous semifinals at the event.
“She really made me work for this match. A few ups and downs in the match but I’m really happy to get through.”
The victory, which took two hours and 29 minutes to complete, was the second in successive tournaments for the Russian over Errani.
Read: Sharapova rises to second after Indian Wells title
The previous success came en route to winning the Indian Wells title earlier this month, a tournament which pushed Sharapova one place up the world rankings.
In the men’s draw, Novak Djokovic’s conqueror Tommy Haas moved into the last four with a convincing win against 11th seed Gilles Simon.
Germany’s Haas did not concede a break point to the Frenchman en route to a 6-3 6-1 victory.
“I played some good points when it came down to it, which I am proud of, and then served out the first set. I felt pretty comfortable after that,” the 34-year-old former world No. 2 told the tournament’s official website.
“I used my chances right away in the second set and took that momentum. Again, I played the way I wanted to, using my all-around game and variety. I think I did that pretty well tonight.”
Next up for Haas is third seed David Ferrer, who came from one set down to defeat Austria’s Jurgen Melzer 4-6 6-3 6-0.
Spain’s Ferrer will be hoping to reach the final of this event for the first time in his career, having been a semifinalist in 2005 and 2006.
He also has more match wins than any other player on the ATP Tour this year, with Wednesday’s win over Melzer his 24th of 2013.
“I was a little bit nervous in the first set and part of the second,” said the 30-year-old Ferrer. “But I tried to fight every point, to be focused and I had a good feeling in the final of the second set and of course in the third one.”