World No 2 Russian Maria Sharapova rallied past Heather Watson of Britain with 6-7(7), 6-3, 6-4 scoreline in the second round encounter at Pan Pacific Open on Tuesday.

In the first set no breaks were exchanged till 6-5 and Sharapova was asked to serve out for the set. But, the Russian failed to hold her serve and took the match into a tie breaker. In the tie breaker also, Sharapova had a set point at 7-6 but she lost three points in row to lose the tie breaker with 9-7 scoreline.

Match Cast: Sharapova vs Watson

Sharapova raced to 2-0 lead in the second set but allowed Watson to level the scores at 2-2 in the set. The Russian upped the level of her play and secured two more breaks of serve to take the match into the third set.

In the third set, both players traded couple of breaks in the start before Sharapova earned another break at 4-3 and kept the distance till the end to register the victory.