Sharapova starts slow, wins

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Maria Sharapova recovered from an uninspiring start to see off Olga Govortsova and book her place in the quarter-finals of the Bank of the West Classic.

The Russian fifth seed dropped her first service game after double faulting the first point of the match, but that was about her only mis-step as she won 6-3 6-3 in 79 minutes.

"It was a sloppy first game but the rest of it was fine," said Sharapova, who will face compatriot Elena Dementieva in the last eight.

Another Russian, Maria Kirilenko, joined them in the last eight by beating sixth seed seed Shahar Peer 6-4 6-3.

Peer was badly let down by her serve, with her first-serve percentage below 50 for the match, and surrendered in 90 minutes.

There were no such problems for fourth and eighth seeds, Marion Bartoli and Victoria Azarenka, who both secured straight-sets victories.

Bartoli beat out-of-form Serb Ana Ivanovic 6-3 6-4, while Azarenka had an even easier day, seeing off American teenager Melanie Oudin 6-3 6-1.