Maria Sharapova opened her French Open title defense with a routine victory over Hsieh Su-Wei. The first-round match on Court Suzanne Lenglen was over in just 54 minutes with the score 6-2 6-1 and Sharapova was considerably better than her opponent in every department, from aces and double faults, first and second serve percentages, to break points, winners and unforced errors.
Next up for Sharapova will be Canadian teenager Eugenie Bouchard, ranked 77th in the world, who beat Tsvetana Pironkova 6-1 7-6(2). Bouchard is coming off a successful week in Strasbourg, where she reached her first WTA semifinal. Sharapova won their only previous meeting, this year in Miami 6-2 6-0. By the way, Bouchard is one of the youngsters wearing Sharapova’s Nike collection 😉
Additional info: The famous Sharapova scream was negatively referenced today by Anabel Medina Garrigues, during her argument with the chair umpire after a hindrance call in her first-round loss to sixth seed Li Na:
So Sharapova is screaming like crazy it’s alright. I say “ahh” and I lose the point?
Medina Garrigues leads all the WTA active players in claycourt match wins and she lost to Li on clay for the first time in four matches.
Great effort by Maria. Is she really grunting differently?
Sharapova looks well on clay and she can defence her title
Anabel has a point. It’s annoying when Sharapova and Azarenka are screaming so loudly. But apparently WTA isn’t going to do anything about it because this has been discussed a million times.