Australian Open:Sharapova joins Serena as fourth-round Casualty

*Dominika:Getty

SLOVAK seed slayer Dominika Cibulkova gave Maria Sharapova another whack after sending her packing from the Australian Open.
Cibulkova accused Sharapova of stalling tactics when the Russian several times stopped on her ball toss on serve in their fourth round duel on Rod Laver Arena.
"During the serve she was playing with the toss and all these things to make me wait for the serve a lot,'' Cibulkova said after the breakthrough 3-6 6-4 6-1 win.
"I think she was trying to do a lot with the rhythm and to not let me go in my rhythm.
"When the match was coming to the end, I was getting a little bit angry about that. I was talking to myself, like 'why she doing that?' I thought it was on the purpose.
"But, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe, she was just really feeling nervous on the serve and not doing the toss thing on the purpose. But, yeah, I think it was something about tactic.''
Sharapova took a three minutes injury timeout at the end of the second set, leaving the stadium for treatment for a hip problem.
While the third seed was in the locker room, Cibulkova stayed on court, shadow-hitting ground strokes and bouncing around to stay loose.
Signicantly, she broke serve in the opening game of the third set and swept into her first Australian Open quarter-final in her seventh attempt.
She will play Romanian Simona Halep, the 11th seed, who ousted eighth seed Jelena Janokovic of Serbia 6-4 2-6 6-0.
Cibulkova said she didn't notice any movement restrictions for Sharapova during the second set when the Slovak let slip at 5-0 lead before closing it out at the third try.
"I didn't see during the rallies. She was running. Of course, I knew that she took the medical timeout, but she was trying to change my rhythm a lot of times during the games,'' the 24th seed said.
"But it was just maybe few seconds I let my thinking go away. But that's what I was also working on during my pre-season, to let me stay focused and not to let my thoughts go away.
"There are many ways that you can beat a player, you know. She knew that I am playing well. I was playing well through the whole tournament. She knew it for sure.''
Sharapova, forced out of the US Open and the rest of last year by a shoulder injury, said the minor hip ailment was a symptom of toll on the body in just her second tournament back.
"Those aches and pains are expected when you spend a long time on the court. Just have to play through it,'' she said.
"So I certainly would have loved to play a little bit more before playing a grand slam, but this is the chance that I was given. I'm smart enough to be able to take it and acknowledge that I'm still pretty lucky to be in the draw and giving myself a chance to try to win it.''
The 2008 Australian Open champion said defeat, particularly on the big stages, is always a test on how a player bounces back.
"It's easy just to be successful, but it's how many times you're able to come back from the tough moments and losses and injuries that really define who you are as an athlete. And that's why I'm here, because I believe I still can be up there and certainly can play better, that's for sure,'' she said.