“I didn’t have the match play that I’ve wanted to have”, she said.
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Sharapova gets her Australian Open underway against Japan’s Nao Hibino with a potential quarter-final against her nemesis Williams, who beat her in the final previous year and has won every match they have played since 2004.
Sharapova felt the same way on Saturday.
Agnieszka Radwanska (leg) and Petra Kvitova (illness) withdrew from other warmup tournaments and No. 9 Lucie Safarova announced early she wasn’t competing in Australia because of a bacterial infection.
But after parading the winner’s trophy with men’s champion Djokovic through Melbourne Park yesterday, she declared herself ready for her bid for a seventh title.
In the quarter-finals, Williams avoided drawing her sister Venus and instead could face fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova, whom she played in last year’s final.
“Everything is actually really well”, said the American, who practised at the Margaret Court Arena early yesterday.
“Everything is actually really well”.
“Everything is going really well, I’m feeling really good”.
She’d better be, after the draw created a challenging path to another title.
But the 21-times grand slam champion played down concerns before her tournament opener on Monday against Italian Camila Giorgi. She could also meet former No. 1-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the fourth round and No. 5 Sharapova in the quarterfinals – a rematch of the 2015 final.
“She’s still there. She’s still dominating”, Muguruza said.
Williams added: “I’m at 120, 130 percent right now”.
The absences left the door ajar for Azarenka to win her first title since 2013, and demonstrate a renewed confidence after two injury-interrupted seasons. Two-time champion Victoria Azarenka, seeded 14th, looms as a unsafe floater in the draw and will play 44th-ranked Belgian Alison Van Uytvanck.
While much was made of Serena Williams’ near miss of the Grand Slam, Djokovic was only one defeat from a flawless Grand Slam season, too.
Aside from the knee problem, Williams will begin the year fresh, having fallen just short of winning each of the grand slams last year when she fell in the semi-finals at the US Open.
“I might be rusty, make a few more unforced errors than I would like, but I’m ready to go”, Sharapova said. “I know nobody playing tennis like this ever. I don’t really think about it. I just think about each tournament as it comes, each player as it comes”.
“I had such a great time shooting my very first TV commercial for the brand, it’s such an exciting campaign that I’m very proud to be part of”.
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“You can’t replicate what you do out on the court when you’re playing a match in front of thousands of people, there’s nothing like it, you can never compare it”, she said.
