Intro:

Number three seed Maria Sharapova booked her place in the quarter-finals of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome on Thursday (14th May), following a straight sets win over Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski.
Number two seed Simona Halep beat Venus Williams 6-2, 6-1 at the WTA Internazionali d'Italia in Rome on Thursday (14th May), while defending champion Serena Williams pulled out of her third round match with American compatriot Christina McHale, citing an elbow injury.

Script:

Maria Sharapova is a former champion at the Internazionali d'Italia. She was up against Bojana Jovanovski for a place in the quarter finals.

The Russian number three seed got off to a shaky start - her serve was broken in the first game of the match - but once ahead at 4-3, Sharapova closed out the set and although there were six breaks of serve in the second set, it turned out to be a comfortable enough win in the end.

Sharapova saw off Jovanovski, 6-3, 6-3, to move a step closer to reclaiming the title she won in 2011 and 2012.

Elsewhere Simona Halep followed up her impressive 6-3, 6-0 second round victory over Alison Riske of the United States with another straight sets win.

This time Venus Williams was on the receiving end and in just an hour the Romanian number two seed completed a 6-2, 6-1 victory over the former champion.

Halep prgressed to an all-Romanian quarter-final with Alexandra Dulgheru after the 25 year-old dumped Russian number eight seed Ekaterina Makarova out of the tournament.

Meanwhile top seed Serena Williams has been forced to withdraw from the tournament with an elbow injury.

SOUNDBITE (English) Serena Williams:

"It wasn't an easy decision. I talked with my coach and I was like, you know, we're going to see how practice went today and he was like, you know, it wouldn't be really smart for you to play... just not a smart ting and he just kept reiterating (that) we have to make the right decisions for the future, not for now. and I was like, ok, I said 'You know I hate, hate quitting', and he said 'This isn't quitting, this is just, you know, making a better decision."