Maria Sharapova survived a huge scare on Wednesday to advance to the third round of the 2014 U.S. Open tennis tournament with a hard-earned win against Alexandra Dulgheru on Wednesday at the Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Sharapova lost in the first set, 4-6, but the fifth-seeded tennis star bounced back in the next two sets, 6-3 and 6-2, to escape with a come-from-behind win against Dulgheru.

"It's really good to get through," Sharapova said on Wednesday night via ESPN. "Put yourself in a really tough position, but then you're able to find a way to get back and finish really strong."

The Russian tennis star made several big shots in the last two sets, but Sharapova felt that she felt she was in better playing shape than her 95th-ranked opponent.

"Overall, I felt like in the end I was in much better shape than she was and I could have played another few sets," Sharapova said. "Mentally that helped me a lot."

With the win, Sharapova, who is looking to win her sixth Grand Slam title, arranged a third-round showdown against Sabine Lisicki of Germany, who scored a 6-4, 6-1 win against Madison Brengle.

Second-seeded Simona Halep also cruised to the next round with a 6-2, 6-1 win against Jana Cepelova, while Venus Williams also booked a spot in the third round after scoring a 6-1, 6-4 win against Timea Bacsinszky.

Meanwhile, on the men's side, Stanislas Wawrinka scored a 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 (1) victory against Thomaz Belluci in a match where he had a heated argument with a fan. The third-seeded Swiss was seen telling a fan to "shut up," but Wawrinka played down the incident afterwards.

"At the end of the day, they start to get a little bit drunk," Wawrinka said on Thursday morning. "It was OK. I had to talk to a few of them. At the end, it's normal. Everybody was into the match. That's OK. It can happen."

Grigor Dimitrov had an easier route to the third round as he scored a 6-2, 7-6 (4), 6-2 straight-set win against Ryan Harrison, while Tomas Berdych defeated Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-4, 6-3.

Results and Video Highlights

Complete Day 3 results are available here, while video highlights of all matches can be seen through this link.