• Wimbledon, Day Eight

Sharapova crushes Cibulkova, Lisicki edges through

Maria Sharapova won the first set in 27 minutes © Getty Images

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Maria Sharapova justified her status as the favourite for Wimbledon by thrashing Dominika Cibulkova at the quarter-final stage.

The No. 5 seed stormed past her opponent in exactly an hour, recording a one-sided 6-1 6-1 triumph on Centre Court that served as an unequivocal statement of intent.

After Cibulkova won the first game of the match, Sharapova went on to take complete control, rattling off six games in a row to win the first set in 27 minutes.

Both players were trying to outgun each other from the baseline, and it was Sharapova who possessed all the firepower. Despite struggling to make any impression on the match, Cibulkova was inexplicably reluctant to vary her pace or resort to a plan B.

Sharapova reeled off the first two games of the second frame, before Cibulkova finally gained a foothold in the match by reducing the deficit to 2-1 with a break that came entirely against the run of play, with the Sharapova serve close to flawless before that point.

But Cibulkova could not build on the platform, coughing up yet another break that proved fatal to her chances of a fightback. Nearly a foot shorter than her opponent, Cibulkova showed time and time again that she did not possess the force to compete with Sharapova, who moves on to play Sabine Lisicki.

German wildcard Lisicki was the first woman to book her place in the semi-finals, overcoming a valiant effort from Marion Bartoli to win in three sets.

Bartoli came into the contest with a lot of momentum after victory over Serena Williams in the previous round, but only occasionally hit the same heights as she was flummoxed by Lisicki's clever use of lob, slice and drop shots - eventually being defeated 6-4 6-7(5) 6-1.

The first set saw both players struggling to adapt to the conditions, with the heavy rain falling on the closed roof causing a deafening sound to ring around Centre Court.

A huge clap of thunder visibly startled Lisicki, but she nevertheless wasted little time breaking Bartoli's serve to open the scoring. Two more breaks were forthcoming as neither player could get their serve to behave, before Lisicki finally held to give her a promising 3-1 advantage.

Sabine Lisicki, a wildcard entrant, has defied the odds © Getty Images

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In contrast to the opening stages, from that point on the games stayed with serve - with Lisicki failing to convert one set point on Bartoli's serve before making no mistake in finishing out the first stanza in the very next game.

Towards the end of the first set Bartoli looked to be suffering with fatigue - perhaps feeling the effects after a bout of sickness, not to mention that gruelling victory over Williams in the second round. But she managed to pick herself up early in the next set, emulating her opponent to break in the second service game of the stanza to move 3-1 ahead.

Lisicki, however, would not be pushed over that easily - as she created three break point opportunities for herself in the very next game, taking the second of them with another precision drop shot to grab a demoralising break straight back.

That seemed to break much of Bartoli's resolve, as the German held serve before turning the screw on her opponent at every opportunity. That pressure told with Bartoli serving at 4-4, the German taking the second of two break point opportunities to give herself the chance to serve for the match.

Bartoli, to her credit, did not give up - even after a powerful ace at 30-30 gave Lisicki a first match point opportunity. The German hit the net with a forehand, before suffering the same result with a second opportunity after a slightly under-cooked drop shot.

A third chance also came and went, before Bartoli turned the tables emphatically to take the break back and continue the contest.

A successful hold of serve then put the pressure firmly on the German, as she was suddenly in the position of serving to stay in the set. But she showed her mettle to take the game to 15, setting up an all-important second set tie-break.

That would prove similarly unpredictable - as Bartoli moved into a commanding 5-2 lead before Lisicki pegged her back. The French Open semi-finalist would not be thwarted however, and took the two successive points she needed to send the contest into a decider.

The effort of that would prove too much, however, as Lisicki quickly found a break and Bartoli, perhaps tired further by her energetic pre-and-post-shot routines, failed to respond in kind.

A second break at 4-1 gave the wildcard some breathing space in search of victory, and this time she made no mistake as she served out at the first time of asking, after Bartoli buried a forehand into the bottom of the net.

Petra Kvitova reached a second successive semi-final at SW19 by beating Tsvetana Pironkova 6-3 6-7(5) 6-2. After cruising through the opening set, Kvitova wobbled in the second - throwing away a 4-1 lead in the tie-break - before regaining her composure in the third.

Kvitova will face Victoria Azarenka in her semi after the Belarus star cruised past Tamira Paszek 6-3 6-1 on a match that lasted one game on Court One before being moved to Centre Court.

World No. 4 Azarenka justified the 76-place ranking gap between the players by overpowering Paszek with 30 winners. Paszek, the youngest and lowest-ranked player in the last eight, seemed to wilt under the pressure of the occasion, winning just 35% of the points on her second serve.

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