Sharapova strolled into the third round at Melbourne Park with a 6-2 6-1 win over Belarusian Aliaksandra Sasnovich; the convincing scoreline allowing her to throw some dropshots into the mix.
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“It was just nice to get on court and face the opportunity of playing a first match”, Sharapova said afterwards.
But her service game again let her down and Sharapova capitalised to secure the set in 38 minutes.
Sharapova, who won her first grand slam title at Wimbledon in 2004 aged 17, was in the vanguard of a successful run of the country’s women from the mid-2000s that has dried up in recent years.
The 21-year-old Japanese had few answers to the Russian armoury but gamely clawed back two games, saved three match points and even broke Sharapova as she served for the match.
“I had an opponent that I had never played before today; that’s always tricky, but I’m happy that I got through”, the Russian added.
There were question marks surrounding Sharapova’s health after she withdrew from her only lead-up event in Brisbane due to a left forearm injury she suffered in practice, but there were no ill effects as the No.5-seeded Russian powered past Hibino in an hour and 13 minutes, 6-1, 6-3 at the Margaret Court Arena.
Russia’s search for its next generation of grand slam champions will take time and the country should not expect the success it enjoyed in the first decade of the 2000s overnight, according to Maria Sharapova.
The pair will meet in the round of eight if they advance to the second week of the tournament.
The result matches Bondarenko’s previous best performance at Melbourne Park, reaching the third round in 2009. He took more risks than me, and he won.
Meanwhile, former world number one Caroline Wozniacki crashed out of the Australian Open at the first hurdle after tossing away a one-set lead against Kazakhstan’s Yulia Putintseva.
“It’s actually something that I had to add, because I was getting really frustrated losing to my hitting partner all the time”, the fifth seed said.
“To win against Rafa here coming from two sets down is unbelievable”, the No. 45-ranked Verdasco said.
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“I don’t know how, just, you know I was closing the eyes and everything was coming in and I keep doing it and I was doing well”.
