Maria Sharapova beat Justine Henin-Hardenne, former world number one, 6-1 6-7 6-2 in the quarter-finals of the Nasdaq-10- Open on Tuesday.

At 5-4 in the second set, she served for the match and held three match-points only to be pegged back.After taking the tiebreak to level the match, Sharapova received treatment on her lower back. "I've had a back problem for a little while already," she said. "I did so much running today that it started to get stiff. I got some treatment and I just tried to forget about it. Hopefully I'll be back fresh."

The treatment did seem to help her and she broke Henin-Hardenne's serve to go 2-0 up in the third. She never allowed her advantage to slip.
Sharapova took the match with a backhand winner after two hours and 17 minutes. "Things can turn around quickly, that's tennis for you," she said. "I knew I had to lift my game in the third set because all of a sudden she was getting a lot more balls back. She's a huge fighter out there."