Maria Sharapova reached the last eight of the Stuttgart WTA tournament on Thursday with a convincing 6-4, 6-3 win over fellow Russian Anastasia Pavlychenkova.

It was in stark contrast to her struggles of the previous day when she needed almost three and a half hours to defeat Lucie Safarova of the Czech Republic in a first-round tie.

Seeded sixth this year, Sharapova is aiming for a third straight title on the red clay of Stuttgart.

Her opponent in the quarterfinals will be Polish top seed Agnieszka Radwanska who proved too good for Italian doubles specialist Roberta Vinci, winning 6-3, 6-2.