Maria Sharapova concedes she needs to improve to win the Australian Open despite powering into the second week with a 6-1 7-6 (8-6) win over Alize Cornet.
The Russian third seed's devastating groundstrokes, particularly her inside-out forehand and cross-court backhand, crushed Cornet in the first set as if she was first-round fodder rather than the 25th seed.
While Sharapova dominated regular play and was able to break Cornet at will, she was broken four times herself and knows she needs to address her service shortcomings.
Cornet took advantage of Sharapova's failing serve to break and lead the second set 3-1 with a stunning drop volley but wasn't able to cash in on the lead, losing the tiebreaker despite having a set point.
Sharapova, who played the longest and hottest match of her career in the second round against Karin Knapp, was aware she needed to lift her game for the tournament's second week.
"I definitely need to step it up. It always gets tougher from here," she said.
"I can take a few positives from this match, one being I was able to win it not playing my best tennis."
"After the last match I'm just happy to get through this one and have another day to recover."
Sharapova set up an intriguing fourth-round encounter with 20th seed Dominika Cibulkova, who was ruthless in her 6-1 6-0 demolition of injury-hampered Spanish 16th seed Carla Suarez Navarro.
Sharapova was aware of the challenge the Slovakian, who has not dropped a set in three matches, presents in the round of 16.
"She's a great retriever of the ball," she said.
"She likes to make it physical. That's when she's at her best and I don't want to go there. She's a tough opponent."
Cibulkova has beaten Sharapova twice in their past three outings, and took confidence from her strong win on Saturday.
"I felt pumped up and was feeling great on court," she said.
"I'm going in 100 per cent confident."
In a major upset, former world number one Caroline Wozniacki was beaten by unseeded Spaniard Garbine Muguruza 6-4 5-7 6-3.
Muguruza, who won her maiden WTA tournament in Hobart last week, has already bettered her best grand slam appearance and revealed she fought off nerves to close out the match.
"I was really nervous because it's a third round and she's a great player," Muguruza said.
"But I was only thinking to be aggressive, don't be scared because she is also nervous."
She was joined in the last 16 by Polish fifth seed Agnieszka Radwanska, who recovered from a set down to defeat Russian 29th seed Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 5-7 6-2 6-2.
Outside Open hopes Jelena Jankovic, Simona Halep and Sloane Stephens also progressed to the last 16 in straight sets.
Serbian eighth seed Jankovic beat Japanese 22-year-old Kurumi Nara 6-4 7-5, Romanian 11th seed Halep defeated Kazakh qualifier Zarina Diyas 6-1 6-4 and American 13th seed Stephens overcame Elina Svitolina 7-5 6-4.
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