Australian Open: Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova advance

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. Maria Sharapova had missed a fair amount of tournaments over recent months as well, though.

“I feel really good”.

Despite announcing their relationship in 2013, Sharapova was rarely vocal about her time with Dimitrov and the pair were only infrequently spotted by paparazzi photographers throughout the years.

She retired from her comeback match at the Wuhan Open in China in September with a left forearm injury, only returning for the WTA Tour finals in Singapore at the end of October.

“There’s always a little bit of nerves, sometimes more, sometimes less, going into any grand slam”, Sharapova added.

“No it (her knee) hasn’t been bothering me in a long time”. “That’s always something that especially when it’s like in the hand, wrist area, it’s in the back of your mind even though you’re feeling it. I felt really good and confident today about it”. Whether she can solve the problem of Williams, she won’t know until Melbourne’s second week, but if she gets that far, she will also have passed a milestone 600 match-wins.

Sharapova finished in 71 minutes Wednesday on Rod Laver Arena, the first match completed on Day 3 after light rain caused delays on outside courts. “I have to keep my expectations quite low and just work my way, work my game, work my mindset through this draw”. “I’m just happy to finish off today and be able to get ready for the next one”. Playing her second round after Top 20 seeds Simona Halep, Venus Williams, Sara Errani and Caroline Wozniacki were all ousted, Sharapova said she believes she has several more years of elite tennis ahead.

Sharapova secured her place in the third round of the tournament by defeating Sasnovich 6-2, 6-1.

Nadal won his only Australian title in 2009 after overcoming Verdasco in a 5-hour, 14-minute semifinal, a match that still ranks among the classics at Melbourne Park.

Should the seeds hold true to form in round three, Sharapova would face a teenager many players tout as a future Grand Slam champion, 12th-seeded Belinda Bencic, in the fourth round.

Gavrilova, who was born in Moscow but switched nationality a year ago, beat the Czech 6-4 6-4 to book a third round match-up with world number 28 Kristina Mladenovic.