Maria Sharapova, enjoying a sparkling season so far, will test herself against an old foe in Serena Williams in the quarter-finals of the Family Circle Cup. Sharapova, ranked No.4 in the world and seeded second, defeated unseeded Tatiana Perebiynis 7-5, 6-2.

Maria has stormed through the early stages of 2008, going 23-1 with three titles, including the Australian Open. However, the Russian has struggled against Williams, losing each of the last three meetings and four of six overall.

Maria Sharapova shut out American Bethanie Mattek 6-0, 6-0 in less than an hour Wednesday to advance to the third round of the Family Circle Cup.
The second-seeded Russian star, coming off her first clay-court title last week at Amelie Island, is looking for her fourth tournament victory of the year.

"I played a lot tennis in Amelia last week," Sharapova said. "You just try to get the job done out there and do it as fast as you can and hopefully get the 'W' and leave."

Top seed Maria Sharapova won her first claycourt title by defeating Dominika Cibulkova 7-6 6-3 in the final of the WTA Amelia Island tournament on Sunday.

The Australian Open champion defeated Cibulkova in just under two hours for her third title of the year and 19th of her career.

It was the first championship on clay for the 20-year-old Sharapova, who had been 0-3 in previous showings.

Maria is through to her 1st clay final at Amelia Island without hitting a ball after #16 seed Lindsay Davenport of the United States pulled out.

In the final to be played on Sunday, Maria will play either Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia or Alize Cornet of France.  Both players are 18 and unseeded and one of them will be playing their 1st big final.

Maria Sharapova rallied to defeat Ukranian Alona Bondarenko 6-7 (9/11), 6-3, 6-2 in a Friday quarter-final at the WTA Bausch and Lomb Championship.

Top seed Sharapova advanced to a Saturday semi-final at the 600,000-dollar clay court event against US veteran Lindsay Davenport, who eliminated Hungarian eighth seed Agnes Szavay 6-4, 7-6 (7/3).

Russian star Sharapova, who turns 21 on April 19, has never reached a clay court final in her career but would with a victory Saturday that would also give her a chance to play for the 95,500-dollar top prize.