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WIMBLEDON , England - Maria Sharapova's coach called it ''a statement.''
For exactly one hour of excellence Tuesday, the fifth-seeded 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 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 to reach the semifinals at Wimbledon 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,'' said Sharapova, who won Wimbledon as a 17-year-old in 2004, then added a U.S. Open title in 2006 and an Australian Open crown in 2008. ''It's the road that you sometimes have to take. It's not always straight; there are a lot of zigzags.
''I've worked really hard to get to this stage, but I'm not saying this is where I want to end. I want to keep going.''
A day after the Williams sisters and top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki were sent home, the three women responsible for those upsets all lost.
Cibulkova, who ousted Wozniacki, held serve to open her match against Sharapova, then dropped the next eight games in a row; ninth-seeded Marion Bartoli, who eliminated Serena Williams, faded down the stretch and was defeated 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-1 by Sabine Lisicki; and 32nd-seeded Tsvetana Piron-kova, who defeated Venus Williams for the second consecutive year, was eliminated 6-3, 6-7 (5-7), 6-2 by eighth-seeded Petra Kvitova.
In the semifinals Thursday, Sharapova will face Lisicki and Kvitova will take on fourth-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who reached her first Grand Slam semifinal with a 6-3, 6-1 rout of Tamira Paszek.
''Looking at the rankings, everybody says, 'You should have been already in the semifinals,' '' Azarenka said. ''It was a great win for me.''
On the men's side, top-seeded Rafael Nadal learned his left foot - which he feared he had broken during his fourth-round match Monday against Juan Martin del Potro - isn't injured, and he said he will be ready to go against 10th-seeded Mardy Fish in the quarterfinals today.
The other men's quarters feature second-seeded Novak Djokovic against 18-year-old Bernard Tomic, third-seeded Roger Federer against 12th-seeded Jo-Wilfried Tsonga and fourth-seeded Andy Murray against Feliciano Lopez.
AP
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