{"id":4212,"date":"2018-01-20T16:49:34","date_gmt":"2018-01-20T11:19:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.smartworld.asia\/?p=4212"},"modified":"2018-01-20T16:50:30","modified_gmt":"2018-01-20T11:20:30","slug":"maria-sharapova-knocked-australian-open-tennis","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/maria-sharapova-knocked-australian-open-tennis\/","title":{"rendered":"Maria Sharapova knocked out of Australian Open tennis"},"content":{"rendered":"

Maria Sharapova lost to Angelique Kerber in straight sets champions at the Australian Open tennis on Saturday.<\/h2>\n

\"maria-sharapova<\/p>\n

Maria Sharapova\u2019s hopes of a title-winning return at the Australian Open tennis were unceremoniously crushed. By Angelique Kerber as the battle of the former champions ended 6-1, 6-3 in the German\u2019s favour on Saturday.<\/p>\n

The Rod Laver Arena evening clash between the only two grand slam winners left in the women\u2019s draw had the feel of a showpiece final rather than a third-round clash but it was Kerber who rose to the occasion.<\/p>\n

Sharapova, back in Melbourne after testing positive for a banned substance here in 2016 resulting in a 15-month ban, had looked menacing in the opening two rounds.<\/p>\n

\n

Make that 1\ufe0f\u20e32\ufe0f\u20e3 wins in a row in 2018 for @AngeliqueKerber<\/a>!<\/p>\n

The 2016 champion sends a message to the rest of the tournament.#AusOpen<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/QbXdVVW51y<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) January 20, 2018<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She streaked away with the first set and although 2008 champion Sharapova briefly threatened a fightback. After falling behind in the second, it was not to be the Russian\u2019s night.<\/p>\n

A fluffed drop shot attempt at 3-4 followed by an unforced error gave 2016 champion Kerber breathing space and she finished the contest in the next game.
\nHope play good in next.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Maria Sharapova lost to Angelique Kerber in straight sets champions at the Australian Open tennis on Saturday. Maria Sharapova\u2019s hopes of a title-winning return at the Australian Open tennis were unceremoniously crushed. By Angelique Kerber as the battle of the former champions ended 6-1, 6-3 in the German\u2019s favour on Saturday. The Rod Laver Arena …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4215,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"two_page_speed":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[6190],"class_list":["post-4212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-teams","tag-australian-open-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/smartzworld.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}