Sania Mirza continued with her dream form to sweep past eighth seed Russian Dinara Safina 6-1, 6-2 to set up an exciting quarter-final clash with world number two and defending champion Maria Sharapova at the $1.3 million Acura Classic Women’s tennis tournament.

The Indian, who has won 10 of her last 12 matches, would take on top seed Sharapova after the Russian outplayed French Tatiana Golovin 6-0, 6-3 in her third-round match at the WTA Tier I hard court event on Thursday.

Sania and Sharapova have clashed only once earlier when the Russian demolished the Indian 6-2, 6-1 in the pre-quarters of the 2005 US Open Grand Slam.

The unseeded Indian, who was playing Safina for the first time, outpaced her on the baseline and struck powerful strokes to take a 5-0 lead in the first set.

Safina, younger sister of the mercurial Marat Safin, threw her racquet in frustration after sending a forehand wide to drop serve for the third time in the set.

Safina managed to get a break in the sixth game when Sania double faulted on break point but that ended up being the only game the Russian won in the opening set.

In the final game with Safina serving, Sania earned a break point after the world number 14 double faulted but squandered the opportunity by sailing a forehand beyond the baseline.

However, the 20-year-old Hyderabadi got a second chance with an inside out forehand down the line. She closed out the set with a service return winner.

Safina tried to claw back in the match and broke Sania at love to open the second set. However, the Indian broke back and went on to take a 4-1 lead.

Two games later, Safina served to stay in the match trailing 2-5 but Sania broke her at love to seal the match after an hour and four minutes.

However, it turned out be a disappointing day for Sania in doubles as the Indian and her Israeli partner Shahar Peer crashed out in the second round.

The Indo-Israeli pair lost to Su-Wei Hseih (Taipei) and Alla Kudryavtseva (Russia) 6-3, 3-6, 10-12 on Thursday.