Top-seeded Maria Sharapova reaches Mexico Open semifinals

Maria Sharapova hits a return during a training at the resort town of Acapulco, ahead of the annual Mexico Open, February 22, 2015. [Photo/Agencies]

ACAPULCO - Top-seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia beat Magdalena Rybarikova of Slovakia 6-1, 4-6, 6-2 on Thursday night to reach the Mexico Open semifinals.

Sharapova will face third-seeded Caroline Garcia of France in the hard-court event at The Fairmont Acapulco Princess. Garcia led Mirjana Lucic-Baroni 6-2, 2-1 when the Croatian player retired.

In the other quarterfinals, Bulgaria's Sesil Karatantcheva topped Monica Puig of Puerto Rico, 2-6, 7-6 (7), 6-4, and fifth-seeded Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland topped Johanna Larsson of Sweden 6-3, 6-3.

In men's play, top-seeded Kei Nishikori of Japan beat fifth-seeded Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-4, 6-4. Nishikori will face No. 4 Kevin Anderson of South Africa, a 3-6, 6-3, 6-3 winner over Serbia's Viktor Troicki.

In the night quarterfinals, Ryan Harrison of the United States beat No. 6 Ivo Karlovic of Croatia 4-6, 7-6 (0), 7-6 (4), and No. 2 David Ferrer of Spain faced Australia's Bernard Tomic. The 35-year-old Karlovic won the Delray Beach Open on Sunday in Florida for his sixth career ATP Tour title.