Life about to get tougher for Sharapova

It started as a breeze but Maria Sharapova knows her Brisbane International campaign is about to get a lot tougher as the tournament enters the quarter-finals.

The world No.2, who breezed into the last eight with a 6-0 6-1 demolition of Kazakhstan’s Yaroslava Shvedova on Tuesday, will face Spanish seventh seed Carla Suarez Navarro in the pick of Thursday’s quarter-finals.

Navarro, the world No.17, battled her way past Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic-Baroni on Wednesday.

The 32-year-old world No.60 claimed the first set in the second-round clash before Suarez Navarro rallied to claim a hard-fought 5-7 6-3 6-4 win.

Sharapova holds a two-win, one-loss record from her past clashes with Suarez Navarro and concedes the 26-year-old four-time grand slam quarter-finalist will represent a significant step up in opponent.

“Only gets tougher from here,” the Russian said.

“A little bit of a different game … (Suarez Navarro) gets a lot of balls back … maybe a bit more of a physical match.

“Hopefully, I continue to improve and take it a step further this year.”

Only four of the eight tournament seeds remain while former grand slam champions Victoria Azarenka and Sam Stosur were also shock eliminations from the early rounds.

Germany’s Angelique Kerber, the third seed, is on the same side of the draw as Sharapova and Suarez Navarro.

She’ll meet the winner of that match if she can overcome Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina in their quarter-final.

On the other side of the draw, lucky loser Alla Kudryavtseva continued her good run on Wednesday with a second-round victory over Azarenka’s conqueror Karolina Pliskova.

The Russian, only in the tournament following eighth seed Garbine Muguruza’s injury-enforced withdrawal, will face Uzbek-American Varvara Lepchenko in the last eight.

28-year-old left-hander Lepchenko backed up her stunning win over hometown favourite Stosur with a straight-sets win over American teenager Madison Keys on Tuesday to reach the quarters.

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