Tennis Update: Nervy Russian Maria Sharapova takes control over the Resolute Thai in the Australian Open
The glamorous Maria Sharapova struggled to gain consistency in her form that brought her three Grand Slam titles after her long term recovery. Moreover, it couldn’t have been better with the open-arm welcome to the second round of the Australian Open as
she beat the veteran Tamarine Tanasugarn in straight sets.
The Russian sits in a favourable corner of the Australian Open women’s draw, after the late withdrawal of former world number one and five-time champion Serena Williams due to injury. Despite this, Sharapova, the seven Grand Slam winner, was courageous enough
to admit that the climb back to the top dozen of the rankings involves some bit of uncertainty even with the tournament wide open for other super stars.
"I wish I could be number one in the world today," she said. "But I think everything is a process, it really is.”
The Rod Laver Arena was the same venue for the opening match last year where Sharapova tumbled out at hand of the Russian compatriot c. The first-round exit last year weighed heavily on the 14th seed.
“I was definitely a little bit nervous in the beginning. You know, last year I played first match on centre and, you know, I lost. So kind of it was like, `I don't want this to happen again this year’,” Sharapova said.
Things didn’t start well for Sharapova this year as well when she dropped her opening serve leading into a shaky start of the game against Tanasugarn. But after this loss, she hit back to win the next six games, wrapping the first set in just a matter of
26 minutes.
Sharapova’s former doubles partner was determinant in the second set with a lead of 3-1 and even had game points to make it 4-1 but Sharapova fought back to get the set back on serve and dominated the rest of the match.
"The first game definitely wasn't great, and I didn't serve good at all during the match.” Sharapova admitted, "I started playing better as the match went on, and I can only improve in the second one."
Sharapova is now the first seeded player into the second round after wrapping the opening game 6-1 and 6-3, where she will face the fellow country-woman Elena Vesnina or the French Virginie Razzano.
This was a sigh of relief for the Russian who kept relatively inconsistent for large parts of last year not being able to progress past the fourth round of any major.
After a long lay-off, the Australian Open will indeed provide an interesting estimate over Sharapova’s current form.
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