Sharapova, having won the Australian Open once and being the runner-up a further three times is certainly entering the later stages of her career and will be keen to add another grand slam to her collection.
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The No. 4 seed Radwanska beat out her rival Christina McHale in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 but former No. 1 player Caroline Wozniacki, who was the No. 16 seed at The Australian Open this year, lost her footing to Yulia Putinseva in a three set match that ended at 1-6, 7-6(3), 6-4.
There were concerns ahead of the clash about her lack of match fitness, after Sharapova pulled out of the Brisbane International with a forearm injury. The Russian tennis star has been with brand for more than 10 years, and in 2010, she extended the contract for eight years for a whopping $70 million – making her the highest-paid female athlete. Sharapova will play Belarus’ Aliaksandra Sasnovich next, who defeated Evgeniya Rodina in her opening round match. “I’m just happy to finish off today and be able to get ready for the next one”.
Sharapova’s injury-prone career has taken her out of the No. 1 seed and limited her Grand Slam wins.
“There’s always a little bit of nerves, sometimes more, sometimes less, going into any Grand Slam, but especially when it’s your first tournament of the season”, she said.
She raced to a 4-0 lead with the Belarusian, playing her first Australian Open, struggling to counter her powerful groundstrokes. “That’s impressive”, she said.
Sharapova had some encouraging words for her opponent. However, judging by her early exchanges with Hibino, one would have never guessed that Sharapova had yet to play a match in two months; she was timing the ball extremely well off the ground, and was merciless on serve.
The fifth-seeded Sharapova’s only stumbles came when she her had her service broken twice in the opening set, including when she held two set points while serving at 5-1.
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There were few signs of discomfort from the Russian veteran in Melbourne on Monday, when she nailed 11 aces and took 73 minutes to end Hibino’s maiden grand slam.
