Warsaw Open: Maria Sharapova wins first singles match in nine months

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Wilson Blade 9

Maria Sharapova at Warsaw Open, first singles match in nine monthsToday at Warsaw Open, Maria Sharapova was playing her first singles match since August 2008 and the much-missed three-time Grand Slam champion won 6-1 6-7(6) 6-3 against Tathiana Garbin of Italy.

The 22-year-old Russian has seen her world ranking slump to No.126 during her absence because of a shoulder injury. It wasn’t too encouraging, but even today she wore a criss-crossed bandage on her right shoulder.

Sharapova secured her place in the second round of the claycourt tournament despite being taken to the deciding set. Wild card Sharapova looked well on her way to win the match, having four match points at 5-3 and 40-0 in the ninth game of the second set, but she allowed the 68th-ranked Garbin to extend the set and take the tiebreak 8-6. However, Sharapova had energy left and even came back from 3-1 down in the decider to eventually seal victory.

Sharapova’s opponent in the second round of the Warsaw Open was expected to be top seed Caroline Wozniacki, but the Dane has withdrawn today with back injury.

“I really wanted to play here in Warsaw. I know I have a lot of polish fans but I have had this back injury for two weeks,” said Wozniacki. “The physiotherapist told me that if I want to be able to accomplish anything at the French Open I have to take a break so that my condition does not get any worse.”

Sharapova’s next opponent will be one of the lucky losers: either Lenka Tvaroskova or Darya Kustova.

By the way, as always with Maria, we have to mention her outfit. I like this one, too. The color reminds me of spring and summer fruits and ice-cream. The design is also cute. (photo: Ralf Reinecke)

11 COMMENTS

  1. It’s great to finally see her back. It was a good test for her today. She has a good opportunity now to win some matches seeing as Wozniacki has pulled out. It will be interesting to see what happens during the rest of the week in Warsaw. I must admit, I’m not a big fan of the outfit though!

  2. It will be much easier for Maria now that Caroline is out, but fans will not have an opportunity to watch such an interesting match-up. Although, there is a great side to it, Maria will probably stay longer at the tournament, and hence practice more.

  3. She’s finally back! I’m so happy for her.I’m sure she’ll win this tournament in Warsaw and she’ll make a great result at French Open. Today’s match was great for her, even she missed a lot of chanses to win, but I think that she learned a lot during the 2h35min she was playing. And my opinion is that Woziacki watched the match and got scared that Masha will demolish her so has choosen the easier way – to pull off the tournament:)now everyone is scared of Maria ’cause all the players know that there’s no way out when she plays so good and she always plays great tennis, so…..

  4. I’m glad she’s back, too, but–unless Alona has one of her “here in body only” moments–I don’t know if she can get past Bondarenko.

  5. love the outfit!
    i’d love a match up between jelena dokic and maria! how good would that be! keeping my fingers crossed!

  6. I agree with Diane. Maria played one of the longest three-set match against Bondarenko last year.

  7. hopefully her shoulder survives the hard hitting she did in the three setter,she seems to have added drop shots,lobs to her repertoire and hope this will serve her well at RG.

  8. Maria Sharapova wins again, this time very comfortably, with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over the qualifier. Sharapova seriously hit a lot of beautiful and great winners today. Also, her double faults are reduced to only three, perfect!

    She’ll probably be having a tough match in the next round though, it’s like what I expected, against Alyona Bondarenko.

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