A little more than a week ago, at the Mutua Madrilena Madrid Open, Maria Sharapova lost the first match of her return from elbow injury. The Russian’s her next appearance, which was today at the Strasbourg International, brought the Russian a much needed victory, and her first one since March and Indian Wells.
The top-seeded Sharapova fought for two hours and 14 minutes to defeat world No.67 Regina Kulikova 6-3 3-6 6-1 and advance to the second round of the $220,000 event in France.
“Regina has a similar game to mine – big first serve, hits pretty big and attacks. I played well enough to win. It was a high-quality match, especially for a first round,” said three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova, who is hoping to use the Strasbourg tournament to tune up for the French Open. (source: BBC, photo: Stephane Martinache)
Yeah… Maria always struggles to win her clay matches.
But, what matters the most is that she was able to win… And now, we just have to wait to see if this tournament will give her some extra confidence so she can defend the points of the quarter-final at Roland Garros (or, maybe, win it… why not? :)).
Her serving stats were really impressive, 70 something percent first serve and 75 percent won on first serves. 3 aces, 4 double faults for a three set match. The only problem was her break point conversion, 4/22 (?) is beyond ridiculous. Anyway, a win is a win and I’m glad she’s through. Her hair was so hot during the match ahahaha, first time I’ve seen her with a braid!