Maria Sharapova

MELBOURNE, Jan 22 (Reuters) - Top seed Maria Sharapova edged out Vera Zvonareva 7-5 6-4 to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals for the third time in her career on Monday.

The 19-year-old Russian clinched a tight opening set to take the initiative and despite recovering from 5-2 down in the second, the 22nd seed could not fend off Sharapova, who won in an hour and 46 minutes on Rod Laver Arena.

Sharapova was grateful to come through in relatively quick time after a draining week of action at Melbourne Park and against an opponent who had beaten her twice in their five career meetings.

“It was very good to win in two sets today because I’ve had some tough matches against her. I came up with three really good shots to win it at the end there,” she said in a courtside interview.

Sharapova, who will regain the world number one ranking at the end of the tournament, served solidly in the first and did not concede a break point throughout.

She sealed her own break with a crunching forehand drive and Zvonareva swiped her racket at the floor in frustration.

Sharapova took the momentum into the second set, breaking in Zvonareva’s first service game and making it a double break when a double fault gave her a 5-2 advantage.

Zvonareva briefly threatened a revival when she broke the Sharapova serve and then held her own to pull back to 5-4 but the U.S. Open champion clung on, sealing victory with another forehand winner.

Sharapova, a semi-finalist the last two years here, plays her third fellow Russian of the tournament in the last eight when she faces 12th seed Anna Chakvetadze.