"Scream 3 ! " - based on Sharapova's Round 3 match

Germany's Angelique Kerber had performed well at the Open this year, continuing her fine Grand Slam singles efforts from New York, where she lost to winner Sam Stosur in the semis. Today, the 30th seed would find it far more difficult facing a red hot Maria Sharapova. Maria assassinated round one opponent Gisela Dulko, and showed similar lack of mercy to American Jamie Hampton in her next match. The cost? One game each time.

All the talk has been surrounding Kvitova, Azarenka, Williams and Wozniacki, but little has been spoken about Maria possibly winning this event and the real chance of her reclaiming the world number one ranking in the doing. Both cannot be discounted on current form and maintained fitness.

Sharapova broke in the very first Kerber service game, and enjoyed no troubles when delivering hers. Her forehand and backhand proved too accurate and powerful for Kerber to reach, and the German player was at Maria's mercy, virtually on a leash as she dragged her from one part of the court to another in one pointless chase after another. Kerber battled on until Maria's next planned savaging and she again mauled the German serve to lead 4-1. Largely based on a stack of errors from Angelique, Maria broke once more and took set one 6-1. In five sets of tennis here this year she had lost a total of three games.

Ravaging in the second set amounted to two games one of which comprised a break of Kerber's serve, and then the longest game of the match descended upon us. Maria attempted to consolidate the break and after a zillion deuces and thousands of game and break points, two basic errors into the net by a frustrated Sharapova resulted in her first dropped serve for the tournament. Angelique took almost as long with the next game but achieved a different result - a service game hold and a 2-2 position in the set. Maria had lost all control of her radar, although she had no such trouble increasing the volume control.

No cause for concern as the brief departure from normality corrected itself and the flowing shots again curbed Kerber, if not with the same domination as earlier. Seizing an opportunity to break serve in the sixth game, Maria stepped on the gas and ignored Melbourne's speed limits rushing to the finish to win 6-1 6-2 and reach the fourth round once again. It may yet be a replay of last year's Wimbledon semi final should Sabine Lisicki win against Kuznetsova.