On Tuesday in Melbourne, an eager Maria Sharapova showed her superiority in beating Gisela Dulko 6-0, 6-1.
“We know each other's games really well," said Sharapova, who nailed 14 winners and forced Dulko into 22 errors. “We grew up together in the juniors. She's one of the few that I played doubles with actually in my so‑called short‑term doubles career. I know how she can play. I know the quality that she can produce. Some of her best tennis is on clay. I think that's when she likes the ball to be kind of a little bit higher. She likes to get you off the court. She has many weapons when you give her that time. I think it was just important not to give her what she likes.”
Due to a servere ankle injury she sustained in Tokyo in October which took a long time to heal, Sharapova was unable to play any Australian Open warm-up tournament, pulling out of Brisbane and deciding not to take a wildcard into Hobart. Instead, she spent a solid 10 days in Melbourne practising and when she strode on court she was confident she was fit, and itching to take a crack at the ball. She served fairly well and absolutely tore apart Dulko’s serve, as the Argentine was only able to win 26 per cent of her service points.
“I could have gone into Brisbane, maybe another event, and said I might not be 100 per cent tennis‑ready, but I want to come into the Grand Slam with a few matches,” she said. “That's not really the way my mentality is. I'd rather come in feeling good physically than feeling like I played a lot of matches. It's more important to me than anything. I've been on the tour for many years, played enough tournaments. I just want to be as ready as I can for the big ones.”
Sharapova said the before the tournament she considered her form during the 2008 Australian Open her best ever overall at a slam, exceeding that of her title runs at 2004 Wimbledon and the 2006 US Open. Recall that in the year prior Serena Williams had belted her in the final and when her draw came out in 2008 her fans cringed, because waiting for her were three women who can now call themselves Grand Slam champions, an eventual No.1 and an Olympic gold medalist. But she came in intensely focused and on the ball during almost every point and did not drop a set against Jelena Kostanic, Lindsay Davenport, Elena Vesnina, Elena Dementieva, Justine Henin, Jelena Jankovic and Ana Ivanovic.
She did not enter this tournament in the same form or with the same expectations, as despite having a very good but not great 2011, which brought her back to the top five, her surgically repaired shoulder would likely never allow her to dominate her service games. But she is still a very ambitious person and a more well-rounded player than she once was. She was very much looking forward to walking out on to Hisense Arena.
“I couldn't wait to start,” said Sharapova, who will face American upstart Jaime Hampton in the second round. “It feels like forever since I've been playing a match where I feel pretty good physically. It's just nice to go into a match you know that you're going to compete again at such a high level in front of so many people, especially a place where I've won before.”
