Sharapova Armed and Dangerous at Melbourne Park

Sharapova, who pulled out of the Brisbane International earlier this month because of a sore left forearm, has not played in a fair amount of tournaments since losing to Serena Williams in the semifinals of Wimbledon last summer.

Russian tennis phenomenon Maria Sharapova played her very first match of the 2016 tennis season at The Australian Open in Melbourne as the 5th seed and won in straight sets over Japanese player Nao Hibino.

“I haven’t played any matches in many weeks”, Sharapova said. “It’s something that I want to add and I want to move forward, and I think it’s just a few things that you try to improve”, Sharapova said.

The 92nd-ranked Bondarenko is playing only her second Grand Slam tournament since returning to the tour in 2014.

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. “I gave it back, so hopefully they’ll get it”.

In the next round, Sharapova will face either American Lauren Davis or Slovakian Magdalena Rybarikova.

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.

The 28-year-old said it was not yet a major part of her approach, but that could change.

“I’m feeling really good, which is a positive”, Sharapova said courtside, when asked about her arm. Today again, I just wanted to stay focused for the whole time. Something I was hopefully trying to get back into.

Indeed, at world No.105, Sasnovich trails her second-round opponent by a full 100 places in the world rankings and this is her first ever appearance in the main-draw at Melbourne Park.

A victor here in 2008 and a three-time runner-up, she was always heavily favoured, although the departure of second seed Simona Halep to a qualifier on Tuesday showed there are no guarantees.

She was particularly pleased with her scramble for a victor around the net, which she thought was the first of her career, but poured cold water on the idea of pulling off a between-the-legs trick shot in subsequent matches.

“I don’t do (‘tweeners)”.