Sharapova cruises to Wimbledon semifinals

WIMBLEDON, England -- Maria Sharapova's coach called it "a statement." For exactly one hour of excellence, Sharapova played -- and sounded -- exactly the way she did when she was a teenager, when it seemed nothing could stop her.

Those powerful-as-ever groundstrokes cut through the grass, landing right where she wanted. Those solid-as-ever service returns flummoxed her overmatched opponent. And those loud-as-ever shrieks bounced around Centre Court, its retractable roof shut to keep out the rain.

Simply put, Sharapova dominated 24th-seeded Dominika Cibulkova, 6-1, 6-1, yesterday to reach the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time since 2006 -- back in the days before she needed surgery to repair her right shoulder and dealt with doubts about the future of her career.

"I would have loved for it not to have taken that long, but I'm not complaining. It's the road that you sometimes have to take. It's not always straight; there are a lot of zigzags. A lot of time, you feel like it's a dead end," said Sharapova, who won her first Grand Slam title at age 17 at Wimbledon in 2004. "I've worked really hard to get in this stage, but I'm not saying this is where I want to end," she added. "I want to keep going."

In the other quarterfinals, fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka beat Tamira Paszek, 6-3, 6-1; No. 9 Marion Bartoli faded down the stretch and was defeated, 6-4, 6-7 (4), 6-1, by Sabine Lisicki, the first German woman to reach Wimbledon's semifinals since Steffi Graf in 1999; and No. 8 Petra Kvitova defeated No. 32 Tsvetana Pironkova, 6-3, 6-7 (5), 6-2.

Nadal OK to face Fish

Rafael Nadal is not seriously injured and will play Wednesday in the quarterfinals against Mardy Fish. Nadal hurt his left foot in the first set of Monday's win over Juan Martin del Potro. He had the foot examined at a hospital later that night. -- AP